Threatened dismissal because of wrinkly clothes :0(

MuddaMia · Sep 23, 2006

Downy Wrinkle Releaser is my best friend. I try to hang my clothes right away out of the dryer, but it doesn't always happen. That spray is a godsend!

LOL--we must have both been typing about this at the same time!

puggymae · Sep 23, 2006

Our school has a really strict dress code - and people get sent home for dirty shoes and/or wrinkled clothes. Actually only a couple of people a semester get sent home - everybody else decides that the clinical instructors mean business after they send the first one or two packing. But the instructors are always in pressed uniforms with clean shoes & laces. One of them told a student "you are a direct reflection of me and you will not come to clinical looking like an unmade bed and wearing shoes that look like a bums."

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2006

I can't seem to find any male shoes that don't have logos in my size, so I have plain white laces, plain white trim, reeboks. They have a small indentation that says reebok, plastic coated, but I hope the plain white concept is enough to suffice.

It took 3 weeks to find them!!

I plan on taking them in next week to ask approval. here's hoping!

MySimplePlan · Sep 23, 2006

Quote:"I don't know why schools are so harsh about this stuff. It seems ridiculous to me. I got "talked to" once by a CI because I had an "odor" (I bath daily in the morning but don't usually wear deodorant -- personally I think deodorant smells worse than light body odor but I'm a hippie). I just sucked it up (from a woman who came to teach clinical with her hair dripping wet every day) and bought some unscented deodorant (it still smells like chemicals to me). God knows I wouldn't want to offend anyone while I'm wiping the feces off their buttocks.

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Nice. The patient didn't ask for you to be in their personal space with your B.O. It's bad enough they're lying in a bed in a hospital, but now here comes a student nurse smelling with personal odor. :barf01:

Patients don't want you to wipe their buttocks any more than you do. They don't have a choice. You do, and you choose to smell. Big problem there. Huge. :smackingf

Invest in an iron, deodorant, new shoelaces, whatever it takes to give the patient a favorable impression of the kind of care you're able to give. :banghead:

LydiaNN · Sep 23, 2006

I have to agree about wearing deodorant. I think it should be mandatory. You're wiping that patient's bottom because they're not able to do it for themselves. The same can't be said about the lapse in personal hygiene by choosing not to wear deodorant.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2006

some of the old-timers i rubbed shoulders with as a new nurse (i'm talking about the nurses from the wwii era) passed along some ideas that i never forgot. back in those days the hospitals were very strict about dress codes. uniforms had to be white, ironed and starched! milk of magnesia was a nurse's best friend. it was a great shoe polish. if you ever get a drop of mom on a surface and it dries, good luck getting it off. the stuff dries like cement. therefore, it makes a great, and cheap, shoe polish. and, it dries white. you can also use it to whiten up shoe laces. however, i've found that taking my shoelaces and saturating them with zout while they're balled up in the palm of my hand, giving them a couple of squeezes, and then waiting about 15 minutes before throwing them into the wash will usually whiten them up pretty well. for the new permanent press uniforms and scrubs, if you get them on hangers coming out of the drier while they are still warm, they shouldn't wrinkle. set a timer so you remember to get them out of the drier. i've lived in apartments all my life. in some of them, if you left dried clothes sitting in the driers, they sometimes disappeared off the face of the earth. laundry would sometimes disappear if you left the clothes unattended while they were drying!

you all shouldn't be washing your nursing uniforms and scrubs with your regular clothes or laundry anyway because of the possibility of contaminating them with bugs you brought home from clinicals, particularly if you're not washing in hot water. your nursing uniforms and shoes should be kept separate from all your other clothing when not being worn.

MuddaMia · Sep 23, 2006

If you are sure you weren't rinkled before then carry your nicely pressed clothes to clincal and change there so you don't have to worry.

LMAO:rotfl:

weetziebat · Sep 23, 2006

This isn't really in response to the OP's question and I don't mean to sound like an old fuddy-duddy. Definately not saying anyone here is guilty - just this thread reminded me of some of the nurses I see going to work, or on their lunch break, walking to and from fast food places.

The scrubs some of them wear are so disgusting I'm sometimes tempted to say something to them. The pants look like they're waiting for the flood, shoes filthy - I mean obviously not cleaned ever, and scrubs so wrinkled it looks like they've been slept in for weeks. Stethscope hanging around their necks, strolling down the street.

Certainly not someone who looks like a professional you'd want taking care of you or a loved one. Its the folks like this that I believe should be spoken to about cleanliness. We've gone from starched stiff white uniforms and dumb caps to sloppy, oversized, wrinkled scrubs in some cases.

Just had to edit to add that I wished I wore white shoes. Would love to try that Milk of Magnesia idea. Thanks, Daytonite - I love to hear about the way things used to be in nursing. When I was in my LPN program they decided we could wear white pants suits - and that actually made the front page of our local newspaper. Of course, with caps and 'real' nurses shoes.

Altra, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2006

I'm not an ironer, much to my grandmother's chagrin. :rolleyes:

However, if I had been talked to about wrinkled clothing, I wouldn't be seeking opinions, I'd be digging out the iron. Life is too short, ya know?

ldh, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2006

Hey everyone, I was just trying to get some opinions of an incident that happened to me recently.
I was pulled aside by the director of my nursing program, and was told that if I wore wrinkly clothes to clinical again I would be kicked out of the program. I was wearing a polo and khakis to clinical which I did't think were wrinkly, but apparently the clinical instructor did, she didn't say anything to me about it,but she said something to the director. What are your thoughts on this?

Who do these people think they are??

a) The instructors/directors should make it very clear at the beginning of the clinical what their expectations are regarding uniforms. To be blindsided like this is not fair. Like, they should clearly state that if your uniform is wrinkled you may be spoken to about it.

b) Kicked out of the program?? That is beyond ridiculous to me. Just when I think that I've heard it all in terms of the audacity of some instructors, I read something like this. If, for example, this clinical situation could be a microcosm of the larger world of professional nursing, our hospitals and communities would be devoid of nurses because their clothes weren't perfectly starched and pressed, and their shoelaces weren't perfectly white!!! How would an RN like it if her nurse manager came up to her and told her that she could be fired and never again be a nurse because her scrubs weren't perfectly ironed?

I mean, sure, now you just suck it up and iron your stuff but.....

Students should be treated with dignity and respect. It always saddens me when I hear stories like this. Students should be encouraged and mentored, not bullied, harrassed, and intimidated.

JaxiaKiley · Sep 23, 2006

I'd be kicked out for sure! I hate ironing!

If it's needed, I just toss my clothes in the dryer with a damp wash rag for a few minutes. It's how we used to do it before they came out with those fancy clothes just for that purpose

jojotoo, RN · Sep 23, 2006

Who do these people think they are??
a) The instructors/directors should make it very clear at the beginning of the clinical what their expectations are regarding uniforms. To be blindsided like this is not fair. Like, they should clearly state that if your uniform is wrinkled you may be spoken to about it.
An adult needs to be warned ahead of time that "he will be spoken to if his uniform is wrinkled"? Should he also be warned not to burp, fart, pick his nose, or scratch his butt while he's doing clinicals?
If I had an instructor/manager EVER speak to me about my personal appearance or hygiene, I would be mortified!
I think we need to encourage some personal responsibility here.