What is the purpose of requiring white shoes?

[NurseBanana]

I am just REALLY curious. So far I haven't come up with an answer from the internet, only discussion posts about what shoes are best. Is there a history to this, or a purpose to make nurses wear white shoes? I saw some on sale last week and was thinking maybe I should start stocking up, ha ha!

[NurseStephRN]

The RNs at our hospital have to wear all white all the time including shoes. I was wondering if that's becoming the norm nationwide?

i hope not! i never liked wearing all white while in nursing school! lol

[livinthedreamRN]

REALLY??? The only time we had to wear all white was in nursing school...and that was within the last 5 years.

Most hospitals in my area are color coded by job (i.e. nurses = royal blue scrubs, techs = another color, etc.)

I would hate to be made to wear all white again! Don't these people know that there are some times of the mont that a woman just shouldn't wear white pants?

I work in a hospital that is part of a large system. The nursing administrator at our campus insists that white is professional and patients prefer to see nurses in white. She claims studies have been done to prove it. However, that must only apply to med-surg because nurses in every other department can wear ceil blue. CNAs wear hunter green, RTs wear navy, etc. Why do med-surg nurses have to be singled out?

[foreverLaur]

SO frustrating. I had to wear white shoes for a few months at an old job. I spent so much on constantly replacing shoes because they would always get so dirty. If employers force you to wear shoes that constantly look visibly dirty, they should add in some extra $$ to pay for those (we had to replace if very visibly dirty). I'd go home and clean them but you could still see stains. Yuck. Would much prefer to be allowed to wear darker colored shoes.

[sharpeimom]

a bottle of the same white-out that we used to cover up typing errors, works well to help cover black marks on your white shoes, that won't surub off. let the white-out dry, and polish.

[Jon.beck]

I've a pretty strong hypothesis on why hospital staff traditionally wore white. In Judo the uniforms(which get really gross) are also traditionally white. Underwear and socks also traditionally white. This was due to the processes of washing prior to modern machines, soaps and textiles. In order to get these garments clean they used to have to use exceptionally strong soaps and often hung dried them in the sun. As we know this quickly fades and diminishes normal colored fabrics. So they went with white to facilitate sterilization. I'm sure white shoes was just a matter of color coordination.

[broughden]

Resurrects eight year old dead post.

Seriously bro? This was an eight year old dead post you just resurrected.

[Davey Do]

Seriously bro? This was an eight year old dead post you just resurrected.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27088[/ATTACH]

[Fiona59]

Seriously bro? This was an eight year old dead post you just resurrected.

I really wanted to post that! The last time I did, I got seriously told off for being a newbie eater.

[broughden]

I really wanted to post that! The last time I did, I got seriously told off for being a newbie eater.

Well they shouldnt have yelled at you.

Its internet forum rules for behavior. Not unique to AN or Nursing.

You dont resurrect random years old posts.

Generally it means the person posting is actually a sock puppet for a corporate or business spam account, trying to look legitimate.

[elkpark]

I really wanted to post that!

Me, too -- but I was afraid of being accused of being mean. :)

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

Uniformity.that is all.

[caliotter3]

Uniformity.that is all.

That's what I wanted to say, it completes the look. And I think this is a great topic, resurrected or not. I like resurrected topics. I get a chance to go back and read what people had to say on a subject without having to do a search function to find interesting threads.