Question About Stretched Ears - Page 5

excuse me. I have tattoos, and I worked hard to get my diploma like everyone else! I am completley offended that you have decided that because I have tattoos I am someone you need to 'figure out', and am a 'freak.' I am a nurse just like YOU. My tattoos don't get in the way of me giving the BEST care to my patients. Maybe you need to reevaluate how you judge other people that you don't know--and the fact that you are JUSTIFYING this opinion still, tells me that despite working in the profession you'd likely still do the same thing all over again today. How close minded. I am an 'ordinary' person.

Hi,

I was writing of my experience as a patient, prior to nursing school. I am a nurse now, and have friends with tats. Some visible, some not. I work with staff that have tats. A couple gals have tiny nose piercings. I personally don't have trouble with tats as long as my patients wouldn't find them offensive.

Jane

quite a change from the last post where you said people will think we are freaks.

I don't have one tattoo on my body and all this thread is doing is making me want to go get a full sleeve...
And then go work at a church camp. Or a nursing home.
I think I have some unresolved rebellion issues.

The reality is that some people will think that certain body alterations are freakish. Older patients especially may have no frame of reference for multiple piercings, ear gauges, extensive tats or other unusual features besides folks who travel on the edges of society and engage in marginal kinds of behavior. They may also wince as they think of the pain involved in getting the piercings and the tats and the rest. This is not their world, and they really don't want to go there.

While standards have loosened a little over the years, none of the things I mentioned above have become truly mainstream. So, facilities set a standard that keeps the focus off the caregiver's appearance and on the patient and the medical matters at hand.

That's why anyone who wants to go into a medical field should probably limit themselves to modifications that can be covered or removed or disguised while on the job.

Heya! I am a first year nursing student here in Texas, and I get your fears. Let me share a few thoughts and bits from my own gauged experience.

I joined the military in 2002 and did physical therapy for them for two years; my ears were gauged at a 4, and I had several sergeants tell me that the military making me leave them out at work was silly and actually made things weirder for the patients. I worked in one of the busiest military hospitals in the CONUS, and I was routinely in the ortho, hospice, and ICUs, where you can bet that I got plenty of questions about my "holes." Most of my patients were impressed with my competence and my ability, quickly forgetting about my lobes.

I have since worked in an outpatient PT for seven years in a VERY affluent and conservative part of north Texas. Rarely, if ever, have my gauged lobes been brought up, or even looked at twice. We have a hugely busy clinic that takes in a great deal of athletes, soccer moms, kids, and even the elderly. My boss has zero issue with my earrings because I do a great job, and I have even gauged up several times while being at this particular job. My boss' opinion is that if I do a great job, then I am a worthy employee, and if any job market is cutthroat, it's PT. He hired me on my resume, and my attitude. I demonstrated my professionalism to him during the interview process, and that far outsold my earrings.

Here's my finishing thought; I will be wearing band-aids over my holes during clinicals and classes without being asked. I will do this because hospitals tend to be sinkholes of conservatism and stereotyping during the hiring process. If you don't think you can hide them, or if your appearance as a whole swallows up your resume and your demeanor; ditch the gauges. You'll never get hired in a terrible job market. If your resume, your attitude, and your aptitude can outweigh your appearance, and you can present yourself as a professional and one who understands professionalism, then I wouldn't worry much. Unless your gauges fall out when you tip your chin.

Cheers!

So...related question....I have many friends with tats and piercings (common in my social scenes), but always wondered
with stretched earlobes...if you take the gauges out, will the ears shrink?

I wonder because I used to have pierced ears as an adolescent, and my holes closed up with time. So is it possible the
body will heal itself with the stretched lobes?

It depends on how far they are stretched as well as how they were stretched. When I was a teenager I had my earlobes stretched to 4g with a tapered instrument. I took the them out a while later and I still have the piercing although I can only fit typical jewelry-type earrings in the holes. I have a friend that had her ear lobes stretched to nearly 1" with a scalpel and she has since removed the jewelry and she has large slits in her lobes and they will likely never close. She cannot wear typical earrings with a post because they will slip out. She can only wear completely round hoop type earrings that spin around her ear lobe.

First of all, I'm impressed with the question.
The LTC and attached hospital I work for policy is no vis able tattoos they must be covered, small stud earrings only, hair a color that can be found in nature( mine is very red never been questioned) must be worn off the color, no fake nails or nail polish

The above was pretty much the same as the LPN school I attended, and what the RN school I'm starting in January stated.

Good luck!!!

Speaking as a patient, I personally don't care whether you have tattoos or not. I don't really care what you look like, so long as you are clean, well-spoken, and seem to know what you're doing.

However, you should know... Not everyone shares this opinion. Not every patient you run across will be as "open-minded." I'm not justifying their perspective. Yes, it's politically incorrect... But such perspectives do exist.

Some patients do not care how good at your job you are. They know that they hate/or are uncomfortable with piercings/tattoos/blue hair, etc. and there's nothing you can do about it, since it is likely that they have held this opinion for a long time.

This is the contrast of the "halo effect," where people assume that just because someone is good-looking/professional-looking that they are great in all other aspects. Psychology 101.