Oooohhhh, Now I feel cosmopoliten, do you ALL wear scrubs?

rncountry · Jan 12, 2003

Am I getting this right? British female nurses are still required to wear dresses? Just changing that now? OH MY.

Scrubs are ok, though not terribly warm when the Canadian winds are a blowing to Michigan. I also dislike that housekeeping, dietary etc... wear them. Older patients often don't know who the nurse is. I suppose that if a nurse has to wear a dress at least the patient knows who the nurse is. Though I believe that would be even colder than the thin scrubs that cover my legs as I run into the building in a 90 knot wind.

Dresses with a tunic make me think too much of the original nursing uniforms based on the uniforms servants wore in Victorian times. UGH.

fergus51 · Jan 12, 2003

Love wearing my own scrubs when I work in postpartum. Problem comes when I work L&D and have to wear the ugly hospital scrubs. It's also very confusing because all the other health care workers wear the same ones (med students, residents, doctors, midwives, nurses, etc.).

BritishStudent · Jan 12, 2003

In britian now, or at least soon enough, trained nurses will be able to prescribe!, only from a limited range of about 40 drugs that in truth couldnt kill a dog if you fed them all to him at the same time. but still, nurse prescribing!, wooo!, yey (yes its assignment writing time again hence I'm avoing it)

Is there anything like this in the colonies?

EmeraldNYL, BSN, RN · Jan 12, 2003

In the states, nurse practioners can prescribe drugs, but they have a master's degree. I agree with rncountry that when everyone wears scrubs, patients have a difficult time knowing who their nurse is. Maybe this is a ploy by administration to make patients think that all assistive personnell are nurses so they don't realize how bad nurse staffing really is??

BritishStudent · Jan 12, 2003

When you say "their nurse" do you mean that all wards use a primary "named nurse" nursing model?

EmeraldNYL, BSN, RN · Jan 12, 2003

Hmm, well it depends on the hospital/unit. LTC still uses team nursing-- you have a CNA to do the baths, an LPN to mass meds, a treatment nurse, etc. The ICU's are primary nursing, but I really don't know what the hospitals in everyone else's areas are doing.

karenG · Jan 12, 2003

well- I am a nurse practitioner in london ( and hope your spelling is better in your homework than on here, British nurse!!) and I can prescribe! and remember that paracetomol can kill if you take enough of it!!! think 12 is the lethal dose!

I sometimes wear uniform- its a blue dress and sometimes wear a suit! depends what sort of patients I expect to see. hanged if I am doing dressings in my suit!!

Karen

ayemmeff · Jan 12, 2003

Thank-you,Karen! Well said!

(and alot of us have been allowed to wear trousers for quite a while now!)

Mimi2RN, ASN, RN · Jan 12, 2003

I work in a level II nursery, always wear scrubs. We have to buy our own (as of last year) but if we have a problem...baby barf, blood etc etc. we can change into the hospital scrubs.

Karen, I'm still trying to figure out what paracetomol is over here! Any ideas?

I'm from England originally, trained as RN in the US.

RNonsense · Jan 12, 2003

Great White North here, eh... :)

At my hospital we all wear scrubs on my unit. Each ward is different I have noticed, depends on the PCM I suppose. Anyway, Hospital Issue ID is mandatory, it has our pic ( aka mug shot ) which clearly shows RN/LPN etc.

Stargazer · Jan 12, 2003

Originally posted by Mimi2RN
Karen, I'm still trying to figure out what paracetomol is over here! Any ideas?

Tylenol.

BadBird, BSN, RN · Jan 12, 2003

Interesting, can you tell me what theatre means? and why you can wear scrubs there, is that the operating room? Just curious. I love my scrubs, mostly ceil blue but I also have dusty pink and maroon, then of course jackets for every holiday and season, brightens up the dull units. When I work the burn unit I have to wear their scrubs which are also blue but not nearly as soft as mine. I can't imagine working in a dress, OMG this isn't the 60's, do your nurses wear caps too? Wow, wouldn't that be awful.