NP attire

Specialties NP

Published

Hi all,

I would like some feedback as to what type of attire you wear to work...as a NP. I suppose it depends on the area you work?

Replies greatly appreciated! :)

I also wear business casual when I'm in the office. When I'm in clinic seeing patients, I wear business casual, with a lab coat.

Specializes in ER, Critical Care, Paramedicine.

Business casual, shirt no tie and slacks. Lab coat with first last msn, aprn

Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.

I work for a pediatric urology clinic M-F, I wear business attire with my white lab coat that has my name, credentials and specialty on it. I wear comfy shoes (mostly aerosoles or easy spirit) with some form of chino or dress slacks and a top (button down, light sweater, sweater set etc based on weather). I don't have to wear a labcoat but I do because of the pockets. I have the MD length labcoat.

Thanks for the responses on the lab coats. The main reason I ask is that I will be needing to wear one this fall as an NP student. I wore my old nursing school long lab coat one day last semester, and I never did that again!!! The physicians didn't say anything, but the PAs were a bit miffed that I was wearing a long coat... I really didn't even know I was doing such a "faux pas". (After all, it was what I wore in the Labs during my undergrad science classes from many years ago).

So my question now is.. what length should a student be wearing? does it need to be to the hip, or can it be slightly longer-- 26"/28"?

Thanks

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I'm also a peds CNS student and I wear the short (at the hip) length white labcoat for clinicals with my nursing school-approved nametag.

Scrubs in the hospital.

It's a faux pas to wear a long lab coat? I had no idea!

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Its a faux pas when you are a student to wear a long lab coat. Its just goes back to the dark ages when students wore short lab coats and only MDs wore long lab coats.

I'm an APN and when I'm at work, I wear the long (knee length) blue pin striped lab coat with the names/logo of my practice and my own name - all embroidered by my employer.

However, as a student, I wear a short white lab coat.

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
Thanks for the responses on the lab coats. The main reason I ask is that I will be needing to wear one this fall as an NP student. I wore my old nursing school long lab coat one day last semester, and I never did that again!!! The physicians didn't say anything, but the PAs were a bit miffed that I was wearing a long coat... I really didn't even know I was doing such a "faux pas". (After all, it was what I wore in the Labs during my undergrad science classes from many years ago).

So my question now is.. what length should a student be wearing? does it need to be to the hip, or can it be slightly longer-- 26"/28"?

Thanks

It's very much institution dependent. When I was doing my ACNP program in Michigan, we wore long white lab coats with the college of nursing patch on the right arm. The medical students and PA students from the same university wore short white lab coats with the school of medicine patch or the PA program patch, somewhere on the coat.

I'm in California now working for a medical center affiliated with a school of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. All students I see, regardless of program affiliation, wear short white coats.

Specializes in General.

I work in peds i wear casual dress no lab coat it scares them:p

Specializes in FNP.

That lab coat thing is strange, isn't it? I had no idea lab coat length was an issue until I read it at SDN. I was so surprised by it that I asked a few docs I work with, and none of them had ever heard of anything like that. They had varying ages, 30s to 60s, but most of them went to med school at Duke or UNC, or somewhere else in the southeastern US; perhaps it is regional. My Dad went to New England prep schools and an Ivy league Uni, and school ties (meaning neck ties) are hugely important to him but no one down south recognizes them. He was peeved once when he went to a country club event and no one recognized his tie, lol. Such silliness. In any event, perhaps lab coat traditions are unique to some communities in a similar way, or perhaps they are just passe.

Then again, only nurses and students even wear lab coats around here. I haven't even seen a physician wear a white coat in years. I wear a short white coat (I'm a NP student) b/c I am a 5'2" person and would look like Bilbo Baggins in a long coat. As far as lab coats go, if I worked in a place that had a tradition about length I'd respect it, otherwise I'd wear what was comfortable for me.

In the clinical sites I have visited, everyone is wearing business casual, students are in lab coats.

Specializes in Emergency, MCCU, Surgical/ENT, Hep Trans.

Short = cooler, cleaner, lighter, neater...it just works!

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