Poll: Uniform Policy

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My facility has a uniform policy which is all nurses wear either ALL white, or navy pants and white top. The nurses feel a lack of individuality, and the patients when asked voice that they would like to see colors. What do you feel about this limited uniform policy?? I'd like to use your opinions when I proceed to facilitate a change in this policy. Thanks for your input!!!

[Aaron C.]

I hate WHITE SCRUBS! I don't like the nursing hats either. I'm a guy, so it's not a worry for me, but some women still wear them.

To me, if I'm a patient, and a nurse comes in in a while dress (old school type) and a white hat, I wouldn't feel comfortable. It's just COLD. You can be the nicest person in the world and take great care of someone but if you're wearing white scrubs, to me I think it is prohibiting comfort in your patients to some extent...ESPECIALLY pediatric patients. Children have a hard enough time already. They're already sick, or injured, or whatever, and they are scared.

That's just my opinion on that.

As to what type of scrubs I think NURSES SHOULD wear...well, I think they should match. BUT, this is only because I'm a man and the uniform is in my opinion unfairly biased!

Actually, I could not care any less about that but it is true. As women, you can wear a solid OR print pant, or solid pant with print top scrubs.

Honestly, when I see a guy wearing print top scrubs...sigh...well, I wouldn't do it. There just aren't really any manly print scrubs out there. When you see a man wearing a Valentine print top scrub on the 14th of February it's going to create an instant stereotype, and I think it probably should as it's likely accurate.

I don't know, I think there has to be SOME line. If it was up to me I'd say matching scrub top and bottom, shoes need to be MOSTLY white, but don't have to be ALL WHITE. Personally though, if I had my way I'd allow for professional dress with maybe a lab type jacket or something. I feel much more comfortable in khaki slacks and a nice polo or button up shirt than I do in a pair of scrubs. Well, that's not true, physically scrubs are more comfortable, but I'm talking about non physical comfort. However, nursing is a "dirty" JOB. You get blood on you, you get sputum on you, you get...gagging...feces or urine on you. Well, I guess it depends what type of nurse you are, what your specialty is, and what kind of unit you work on.

Working as a nurse is not about fashion, it's about taking care of patients, but there is no harm about being at least a little loose in the dress code policy. I always wear solid scrubs and usually dark in color. My scrubs are all blue, but I have one pair of grey scrubs and one pair of those O.R. green type color scrubs and that's it.

I have an orange pair but they were made by Ralph Lauren and I only wear them at home! I'd love to have some Oklahoma State Orange Scrubs and wear those but orange I think would be kinda scary, like you are the biohazard team or something .

In nursing school we all had matching scrubs and the girls got to pick them out. I was the only guy in the class (when I switched to the night class). Our uniforms were white pants and a blue top. Man they were WEAK! My top was quite a bit different but the pants, man, I called them storm trooper pants. They had pockets on the sides and tapered down at the leg. That whole taper thing is fine on a woman cause hardly any of them wore cross trainers like I did. They wore those cute little nursing shoes or clogs or whatever else.

And ladies, some fashion lady explained this on Oprah one day...NEVER wear anything that is tapered. It makes you look fat in the hips. Just a tip I heard.

Anyway, I HATED IT!

White scrubs = BAD BAD BAD!

So anyway, that's my opinion but it probably isn't worth much!

-----Stay classy San Diego!

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Shortbus...thanks for your speedy response!! I'll add your insightful comments to my study. Ink

[cassioo]

my hospital went back to white pants and jackets for nurses (except in Ob where I'm at with hospital supplied scrubs and ERand peds/nsy can wear peds colored tops) nurses can wear a colored polo type top. Patients still think whoever comes in their room is the nurse be it nurse, aide, housekeeping or dietary even when told who the nurse is and names written on a wipe off board. The white cover jacket I have to wear when going off the unit gets real dingy looking really fast. I do think you should look neat but the all white doesn't look good real fast if you do anything more then pass pills.

[vivacious1healer]

Im always surprised when i hear hospitals decided to go back to wearing white uniforms. White uniforms are completely impracticle in a hospital setting where you are more likely to come in contact with colorful human substances!
And no matter how much you bleach these uniforms, the white is never the same and looks dingy! to me, that looks unkempt!
And for those co-workers who wear the funky style/color underwear...well its more apparent in white uniforms, and i just dont wanna see that at all! EWWW! I did work with one woman (in WI) who wore the whole '60's' style nursing uniform: the button down/fitted dress, the white hose, clunky thick soled shoes and topped it off with the nursing cap! I couldnt believe my eyes the first time i saw her! I thought it was a joke or something! And by the way, very few patients commented positively on this, and i worked on a neuro unit full of patients in their 60's-90's years of age!
Leave the white uniforms for the nursing,and medical students....thats how our group in nursing school stood out among the hospital staff on our clinicals. And it made sense!
I couldnt wait to throw out all my white uniforms from school! Some of my fellow nursing student friends had a 'burn party' with these white uniforms...it was pretty funny!
Its hard to come to a decision re: color of uniforms for everyone, but to choose two colors should give enough choice, i think!
Good luck!!!

[Me_1]

Ok...I'm one of those strange ones that still wear white...all white. Imagine that...a male nurse that wears all white. I've been nursing for seven years, and have had LOTS of nurses, all over the country (I'm a travel nurse) trying to convert me to colors. I now live on Kwajalein, Marshall Islands (Military Installation) and they have convinced me to wear a few tropical tops--but not often. I do have my name and RN embroidered on my white tops so folks don't confuse me too often as a student.

Do I think all nurses should wear white, yea, I guess I do. How often has a patient said, "Well, I told the other nurse about that" and found out they told the janitor, nurse aide, lab tech, etc. So many colors and styles being worn by EVERYONE in the hospital can cause confusion for patients.

Practicality--sure, I get sh*t on me (figuratively and literally) once in a while, don't we all. For the most part, washing gets everythng out.

Old fashioned?--I guess it is, but let's think of some other professions and the colors they wear: Cop- Blue, State Trooper-Tan, Forest Ranger-Green, Painter- White, Maitr'd (sp?)- Black Tux, Airline Pilot-White shirt with matching tie/pants, Preist- black and white collar, Judge- black gown, etc, etc, etc...and finally Doctor- White lab coat. Sure there are some areas with variation, but overall that color code fits.

As far as asking patients what they thought, I've heard more positives towards wearing white in my informal studies.

As far as wearing lab coats and professional dress, I'd LOVE it!! I would switch to that in a heartbeat EXCEPT then there's the possible confusion between who is Doctor and who is nurse?

The best solution I've seen was at the Heart Hospital of Austin. All nurses wore navy blue (white not allowed which pissed me off); aides, anxillary staff, and custodial all wore tan. It was preferred to buy from the hospital supply with the hospital logo on the top. It was clear to the patient who was whom (is that grammar right?).

I've come to accept that most hospitals are not going to have a dress code with exact colors, and I can live with that. I'll continue to wear mostly my whites, and let everyone else wear what they would like within reason. The things I think are unprofessional are the women that wear 3/4 or tight tops--it looks great (on most of them) but we're not at Hooters. Or, the guys that wear pants without support (and obviously should) or snug enough to leave nothing to the imagination. It's all about the professional look.

[imported_ICU_RN]

I am so glad we did not end up with white uniforms!!

Sept 1 our hospital went to a new uniform color for nurses. The reason given was because patients and Doctors complained they could not tell who were nurses and who are nursing assistants etc. Forget that everyone had to wear a name tag that states your job, and on the weekends when MD's wore jeans how were we supposed to know who they are? Over the past few years uniforms became variable in all departments. So everyone was wearing different scrubs etc,. This took a while to implement - about 3 months.. We were able to place our recommendations then 3 combinations were chosen, most we did not like, and then we all voted. We ended up with black pants and wine/burgandy tops. There was a lot of complaining, but now 2 months later it is over and everyone seems to have adjusted. It caused a lot of dissension and unhappiness but now that is in the past and everyone is talking about poor staffing and we are close to becoming union. Each department is one by one choosing a color for their uniforms. I always worked in ICU so we wore a certain color scrub that was provided by the hospital , but then we had such a difficult time keeping them in stock that they stopped supplying scrubs and we went to any colors provided by nurse.

[Care Assistant]

My uniform is a white tunic top and black trousers/ pants. I think our uniforms are very nice.

[Rentalnurse]

I hate white uniforms!!! I wk agency so have to keep a few on hand because some hospitals still require them. One administrator actually said 'he wants his nurses to look like nurses'. I think he needs to spend a day in the er with us. by the end of the day you can see all the crap that gets on us, esp from dirty patients and blood, at least colors hide some of the crap..

[Care Assistant]

I do agree with what you say about the white Nursing uniforms. A colour would be good, like you say to hide the mess.