[Boston64]

Hi!

Will be starting to work on a long term psych unit, soon. I was wondering if patient response is better if the RN wears scrubs or street clothes and the reasoning behind it. I am allowed to wear either.

[icie rn]

Know the policy of the unit. Some units demand street clothes only, others allow for a combination, others scrubs. This should have been explained in the interview. One thing, wear good shoes with good traction and support, no matter the unit, feet need to be taken care of because you do more walking than you ever expected to do.

[allantiques4me]

I work on a large campus .with playgrounds ,gardens,gym,swimmimng pool.It is just more comfortable to wear street clothes.And i work with kids,the uniform might scare them a little.Im not required to wear uniforms.I suppose I could if I wanted to.

[MickyB-RN]

Street clothes are what we wear. Sometimes it would be easier to be able to throw scrubs on, lol. I don't know the exact reason for "no scrubs" on our psychiatric unit now that I think of it. hmmm

[kristen38]

I work on an acute unit, and we were street clothes. During the week it is business wear, but fortunatly on weekends and nights we can wear jeans and sweatshirts. It's so nice to just wake up and throw on a pair of jeans.

I have seen a couple of patient who do not like uniforms of any kind and tend to question why some people (like RT's) are wearing uniforms on the unit and what they are doing there (these patients were paranoid of everyone, but especially a uniform). I have also had a patient that escalated anytime she saw a uniform, including nurses (or other staff) in scrubs

Kristen