Any guys color blind? (Girls are welcome too!)

FutureMaleOhioNurse, BSN, RN · Jun 29, 2010

About 8% of the male population and about 0.5% of the female population have color vision problems. One of these is color blindness. There are three types of color blindness: 1) Red-green (most common), 2) Blue-yellow, and 3) complete absence of color. To check which type you are, go to http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.asp to test for it. It's a sex-linked condition, meaning it's carried in the X chromosome. The reason why it's more prominent in males is because we only have one copy of the X chromosome, and females have two. In essence, the females have a "back up" chromosome that can make up for the affected one. We don't; if we have it, we have it. Also, color blindness should not affect your studies, and it's definitely NOT a "disability." In Mircrobiology, you should be able to see the cellular structures like everyone else, except that instead of red-green or blue-yellow (depends on the type), it's more like a maroon color (for us that can see all color). It's NOT black and white, like most people think. You should be fine, as anyone else who has this condition. Don't use it as an excuse, because you'll have lower standards for yourself and not reach your potential.

cHaNkStA · Jun 30, 2010

Also, color blindness should not affect your studies, and it's definitely NOT a "disability." In Mircrobiology, you should be able to see the cellular structures like everyone else, except that instead of red-green or blue-yellow (depends on the type), it's more like a maroon color (for us that can see all color). It's NOT black and white, like most people think. You should be fine, as anyone else who has this condition. Don't use it as an excuse, because you'll have lower standards for yourself and not reach your potential.

I totally understand what you are saying. I never saw it as a disadvantage/advantage, but when I have had trouble in my microbiology lab where distinction between yellow and green was very difficult, for me at least. I don't think I'll be understanding, just curious to know if any other nurses had dealt with this before

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Jun 30, 2010

Color Blindness is not considered a 'disability' in nursing. However, you need to be aware that this may affect your ability to perform some nursing tasks. If your job involves 'point of care testing' -ex: using dipsticks to screen for ketones or guiac for occult blood - if you cant distinguish the colors, your interpretation will not be accurate. Screening for color blindness should be part of the process for POC quality control. As a practical consideration, you will usually be able to find another nurse who will interpret your POC screens - particularly if you are willing to do something for him/her in return.

FYI - as an educator who develops eLearning, I also have to consider color blindness. For instance, never creating an interaction that depends only on color interpretation - ex: "click on the red dot". Hey, look at the bright side, you always have a legitimate excuse if anyone criticizes your wardrobe choices - LOL.

Texas247365 · Jul 6, 2010

Umm I disagree that it is not a disablilty. In micro I could not tell the faint red from faint gree in a spore stain. Luckily I was able to tell based on structure, but even then it was a guess. I am not completely colorblind but have some impairment on certain colors that I see as the wrong shade.

If you talk to your professors they can assist you (mine set up my research project in such a way that the test series did not include spore stains, although I am not sure this was intentional it happened none the less).

Texas247365 · Jul 6, 2010

Just took that test and I am red green color blind, which is funny as the military never id'ed me as such. I can see red and green (stoplights and the like are no issue, but light pink and light green from gray...), but like I said before the light shades are very hard to distinguish.

DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2010

This is quite an interesting topic.

It is a problem of differentiation right? So people who are colour blind can still read monitors?

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2010

I'm not a guy, but I can't distinguish blues very well at all. Blue vs. black, or blue vs. purple, or blue vs. green are disasters for me.

The only problem I've faced is interpreting a hemoccult test. I just perform the test and have someone else read the result.

Otherwise, I've been fine. Bodily fluids are okay because I can distinguish greens from yellows and from browns. Thank goodness blue is rarely seen coming out of the human body! (Also, I have no problem noticing cyanosis, because I can distinguish blue from normal skin tones.)

cHaNkStA · Jul 6, 2010

Just took that test and I am red green color blind, which is funny as the military never id'ed me as such. I can see red and green (stoplights and the like are no issue, but light pink and light green from gray...), but like I said before the light shades are very hard to distinguish.

I'm not completely color blind, but mine can be pretty bad sometimes.

In a far distance, blinking yellows and blinking reds are a bad situations for me (especially at night) the only real way for me to find out is to see whether the blinking is coming from the middle or the top of the light. That or I ask who ever is in shot gun.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2010

Yep, I'm diagnosed red-green color blind. As you know, you can see red and green particularly if you look close or know it's red and green, lol.

I took microbiology in the summer of 2002 and recall asking people (girls) sitting around me what color certain things were upon staining. It wasn't a big deal though.

There are two things I wanted to do in life that I was precluded from due to color vision: 1) fly Apaches as an army officer and 2) be in federal law enforcement so despite growing up wanting to do both I can't do either, lol. You, my friend, are disqualified from both, sadly .

I will say this. I used to work here and there as a paramedic (was a hobby job only), and I had trouble seeing the "blue" of veins in black people. No offense. It was just a matter of color.