Red/Green Color Deficient Nurses

[m2736185]

I know that color deficent nurses wont be able to perform some task such as certain test, but is there anything else they are limited to? Do hospitals test your color vision before they hire you and do they use that as a factor in hiring you?

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Do you mean color blindness?

I've never been tested for nor asked about color blindness.

[MedSurgeMess]

never heard of it being an issue either

[floatRN]

I was tested for color blindness in nursing school prior to starting clinical and also was tested by employee health prior to starting a new job. I am not color blind so I don't know what happens if the test shows you are color blind. I can't think of any circumstance right now where being color blind would prevent you from doing the job. Except maybe testing for occult blood. But if you knew you were color blind you would just confirm with a 2nd nurse I would think.

[m2736185]

Well there are different types of color blindness and different degrees. I can tell the difference between red and green, but I am deficent with both colors. For example I have a problem telling the difference between some Browns and green or purple/violet and blue.

[catshowlady]

I was tested as part of my pre-employment physical.

The issue I can see with color-blindness would be a reduced awareness of safety systems that are based on color, e.g. our epidural lines & pumps are all yellow, TF connectors are purple. Many medication vials also have colored labeling to enhance awareness of differences between similar vials or different concentrations of the same drug.

:paw:

[ayla2004, ASN, RN]

hmmi know in the uk we try to aviod associating colour with drugs/lines as we had a case whereby e doctor grabbed a preloaded syringe based on colour and injected iv the wrong drug/ bad results. it was a crash trolley syringe now all these are in yellow boxes and u have to read the label. we do use blue striped tubing for pca

oh are crash trolleys are red as are are crash buttons.

[catshowlady]

@ ayla2004: Yikes!

@ OP: Also, I think the Braslow (sp? right name?) system on pedi crash carts are based on color.

Not saying you can't be a nurse if you are color-blind, just that you may have to be more aware/pay more attention in situations where systems are based on colors.

[diane227, LPN, RN]

Color blindness used to be a problem when we used to do our own hemocult testing on the floor, used to use our own urine dip sticks and used clinatest tabs to check urines for glucose levels. Most places require that we send these things to the lab now.

If you work in an area where you are responsible for reading any color charts or for reading/judging the color of any lab test you will be responsible for making sure that your employer know that you are color blind.