Should nurses return to wearing uniforms?

I have been in nursing for 28 years and work in the OR.
I think we MUST go back to a system where patients and visitors know who is their nurse and who works in houskeeping. I obviously have to where a "uniform" because of the area I work in, but it really "irks" me to walk around the hospital and not know what area or what level someone is. I want to know who is an RN and who is a CNA and who is whatever. I think there was an article in a magazine recently, not sure which one, that proposed putting staff into certain color schemes where the public knows who they are talking with.You cant't have everyone in the hospital wearing everything from solid colors to Hawaiian prints. I know this sounds tough but we need to get back to traditional values. When I started years ago you knew who was a nurse and who wasn't. In today's hospitals, you go in and you just don't know who is who. I wish I could remember the magazine, I think it might have been either my AORN or Outpatient Surgery magazines. I just know that the article made alot of sense because there are many hospitals around the country that are making it mandatory to either go back to white or a color coded system. I bet if you went into a major hospital like UCLA or cedar-sinai, without looking at name badges, you wouldn't know an RN from a cafeteria worker. Something to think about.Mike

Where I work the nurses, CNA's and housekeeping all wear very different uniforms. Nurses= blue, CNA's = lavender, and housekeeping=green. And the patients still cannot figure out who is who.

Noahm, but at least if there is a problem you can ask the patient what color outfit the individual was wearing. Makes it very easy to identify the person. Maybe the right questions aren't being asked, ei- " the person who was just in here said they would be right back with my pain med.They were in greens and they said they would take care of it". So you can see if there is a complaint from patients because they feel they are not being taken care of, names are of no use, badges don't matter, but colors would be of tremendous help. This is why a number of hospitals are going back to traditional uniforms, especially white for nurses. I know it sounds like we are stepping back in time, but it is ridiculous when you can't tell who the players are without a score card. Mike

LPN, 3 years, Canada, just relocated, so in between jobs.


Yes, we need uniforms. Take scrubs off unit clerks, NA's, visitors?

I wear dresses, scrubs, pantsuits. Mainly white or blue.

As some others have said, the white seems to reassure alot of people. The elderly, non-north Americans, and former east block residents seem to feel safer with nurses in whites. Having said that two UK trained doctors that I've worked with have told me that nurses in UK wear blue. And whenever I'm in a blue dress guess who they automatically come to.

I was told caps were no longer worn due to infection control issues. Anybody fill me in on this one. Or would it be because nobody would buy a new cap for every shift...

1. How long have you been a nurse? 7 years
2. In what field of nursing are you working (i.e. long term care, acute care, rehab, etc.)? ICU
3. Where geographically are you located? New York
4. What is your level of training? (i.e., ADN, LPN, CNA, BSN, masters or higher education level, CNP, CRNA, etc.)ADN
5. Do you think nurses should return to wearing a uniform? Why or why not?
***to clarify-- By "uniform", I mean a move away from scrubs, to a uniform style that would be recognized across regions as belonging to "nursing". This could include the "all-white" uniform, or nursing caps. Whatever it would be, the standard would be set by the nursing profession, for all professionals to follow***Anything but all white! Anything that resembles a maid's uniform would tick me off!
6. If you think nurses should return to a uniform, what type of uniform do you think nurses should wear? Scrubs are perfect for what our jobs entail.

Maybe fatigues and black berets would be cool?

1. 11 years as a CNA, 4 months as an LPN

2. Perioperative/Ambulatory Surgery

3. Virginia

4. Cna and LPN

5. No. I've seen the prices of some of these "uniforms" and some are significantly more expensive than scrubs. Unless the employer wants to foot the bill

6. See above answer.

1. I've been a nurse since May of 2004!
2. I work on a Med/Surg floor
3. Lexington, KY
4. ADN
5. I think it would be neat if nurses went back to wearing the caps. It would help distinguish between nurses and the other personal. At the hospital that I work in, the patients are always saying "are you my nurse or my aid." If I were wearing a cap, it might clue them in. Plus, I just think the caps are so cute

How long? 5 years
Field? Depends, I am best in high stress acute situations (I loved ED!!!)...but work in an assisted living home due to rural location, great pay, and 5 minute drive!
Location? Oregon
Degree? ASN with strong desires to get my BSN when I have the finances, time and well...motivation.

UNIFORMS? The whites...no way! It was a bearcat keeping those clean, and I have well water that yellows the unform anyway, so my dry cleaning costs in RN school were substantial (because I couldn't use my machine). And a cap...no way in hadies, very impractical and I view it is somewhat sexist (I mean, what kind of cap shall our fine gentlemen wear, stands to reason they must wear one too at this point!).
I also have done some classes for my employer on 'white coat syndrome', which turned out to be very enlighening! There are so many older people at my facility that simply do whatever someone in a white coat says because they assume white means doctor! And the dresses got almost the opposite...'oh that is a nurse, I only listen to the doctor!'. Interesting! And yes, in a poll at my facility women residents said NO to the white dress uniforms because of the 'sexy' stereotype they fear the male residents may feel, and the men were a overwelming 'YES!' due to the exact thing the female residents were afraid of! LOL!!!!!

Why I did this was because of my employer! It is a fraturnally owned home (I won't say what organizaion), and choices in styles of uniforms is...oh how do I put this PC...ummmmm, chosen and voted upon by gents in their latter years! They definately have views of what 'women' should act like, look like, and well...I don't think the idea of nurses being actual professionals has sunk in like it should..LOL! IN other words, nurses don't' fetch coffee or light docs cigarettes anymore people...LOL!!!!!

Now, my employer did a comprimise (since we nurses had a cow over the idea or even slight mention of the old whites which they were thinking of having us wear!!! YES with cap!!!!). We wear kaki colored pants, pastel colored button down top, and a white vest. Still white, but okay...I think they may be changing that soon to a colored vest. Socks our our choice and we always go out and get the silliest fun socks! LOL! Shoes, our choice again, but no clogs or open toe. We all have quite a shoe rack...a colored pair to match our shirts .

Our residents actually were very displeased suprisingly! They really enjoyed it when nurses and cna's wore scrubs of their choosing. They enjoyed the colors and fun patterns! But oh well...cna's now wear kaki pants and blue tops, nurses as I described.

It also back fires some times, all nurses...including management (where I am normally) were being called away from our duties because a client couldn't tell the difference from a floor nurse and managment. Paperwork was having to be put off because of clients just seeing a white coat, remembering that their toe hurt, and there we were doing the enormous amount of charting, faxing, treating instead of our managerial tasks! Heck, doing monthy double checks on MAR's was suffering greatly because of it...and the one other nurse and I barely get them done in time! So I am fighting for a different unform or even professional style street clothes for managerial staff so they can get their work done. (yeah, you just don't want to say "I am sorry, let your floor nurse know...clients don't bode well with that!).

Frankly I think the reasons we get so much confusion about who we are in the clinical setting is two-fold:

1. Many nurses still do not wear their name badges, identifying their name and licensure.
2. Most nurses are (still) not assertive enough to identify themselves to their patients, visitors and other clinicians.

Granted there are those patients/visitors who will forget who "that person in the scrubs" is; but, a uniform is not the root of the problem; rather, it is one of orientation for the patient and others. My belief is that historically uniformed professions establish a "weak" image for themselves as a group. And, while there are still patients who remember nurses in white uniforms/caps they are dying out. I still run into patients who can't believe that I'm a nurse (being a middle aged, gray haried male). But how I address this is by making it crystal clear who I am, what my licensure is and telling my patients, visitors and coworkers what I do in the workplace.

If we wear our name badges and introduce ourselves to our patients, that ought to clarify who the nurse is. The person with the mop is housekeeping and the one behind the desk filing her nails is the unit clerk. (Sorry, I'm cranky today because the one I'm working with today is doing just that -- when she's not chatting on the phone with her BF or playing "Text Twist.) If visitors need to know who the nurse is and the patient can't tell them, they can ask. I'd really hate to go back to uniforms, especially white ones. And caps are a horrible idea. I'd have to staple it to my HEAD since my hair is so fine anything just slides off! (And if I have to wear a cap, my husband should have to as well!)

Color coded name badges are a great idea -- one hospital I worked in had green badges for RT, blue for nursing, darker blue for MDs, maroon for housekeeping, etc. You can spot a blue badge at 50 paces, and certainly by the time you're close enough to someone to address them. Families already get a brochure listing visiting hours and phone numbers when the patient is admitted, we could just add a key for color coding badges to that. You could even standardize that across the country if you wanted. But standardizing uniforms is a HORRIBLE idea!

I've been a nurse for 27 years, in various locations across the country. I've been in ICU most of that time. I have a BSN and an MBA.