Dressing up on Halloween... unprofessional?

Nurses Professionalism

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What are your thoughts? I wonder about this every year..

Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I think a lot of it would depend on where you worked as a nurse. If I was working in a school, or admin at the hospital, I'd dress up to a degree. However, in ICU, the most I'd do would be a fake "tail" hanging out from my scrubs or some cat ears that I could rip off in a crisis. NO face paint....if I woke up in ICU and saw Batman looking at me, I'd scream down the house, thinking I'd lost my mind.

I'm kinda conflicted about the Christmas thing. I had a friend who's son died the 21st of December. Well, of course, the funeral home had Christmas trees up. I thought, "oh, that's creepy and insensitve, let's remind her that her son's dead for Christmas..." but then I though, Nan already knows her son's dead and it's Christmas. Later, she said she liked that there were trees and wreaths, because her son loved Christmas. At my old hospital, we always had local churches and schools that would come thru, caroling and handing out candy canes. The patients loved it. Had someone coded, we'd have got them off the unit, quick.

If you decorate, you're going to offend some. If you don't decorate, you're going to offend others. Just do what's safe and your facility lets you do.

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I kept it simple - holiday earings, or a pin.

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Like most people i think its ok to wear holiday earrings, pins or if its allowed a reasonable holiday scrub top. The other night I wore a Halloween scrub top and got a lot of festive comments on it, but a full costume wouldn't really be appropriate for a hospital setting (besides peds).

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

Using common sense; it all depends of where you work.

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I don on my nursing costume daily (the scrubs)-----whether it’s Halloween or not! J

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Specializes in PACU, OR.

Firstly, a very happy Halloween to all American members.

I think the USA is the only country that recognizes All Hallows Eve as a holiday, so the question of "costume or not?" is uniquely yours. As several posts have mentioned, there are certain areas where dressing up is definitely not appropriate, so a simple Happy Halloween sign at the door or nurses station is quite sufficient.

There are certain units where it might be a good idea to dress up. We have a "Casual Day" once a year for charity fundraising, and we've had a lot of fun with that-one year it was school uniforms, another year it was rugby teams-and both patients and doctors thought it was great fun.

Have a great day, and post pictures of your outfits if you decide to wear them!

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

A pair of cat ears or something is fine, I think. (I also work with babies so no biggie.)

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Specializes in NeuroICU/SICU/MICU.

I've seriously considered wearing my old-fashioned nurses' dress and cap to work tomorrow night, but it will be my first night on my own off orientation, so I think I'd rather be comfortable :) Who knows how crazy it'll get. I still might wear my cap with regular scrubs, though..we'll see :nurse:

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

I have a nice scrub top to wear tonight. :)

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I'm in psych so costumes wouldn't really go over well. I'll usually dress in scrubs the color(s) of the holiday (black or orange for today, red and green for Christmas, etc.).

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I worked at a certain LTC many many years ago. Management encouraged all staff to wear costumes. So I didn't think anything about it. I just put on my "favorite evil witch" costume and off to work I went. Talk about the med pass from hell!!!!! Some of my patients refused to take their pills stating "Get away from me you witch. I'm not taking anything from you". I had to get help from staff not wearing costumes to get them to take their pills.:lol2:

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Some hospital staff come to the hospital like everyday is Halloween... so much make-up, obnoxious/grotesque scrubs with all those yucky and tacky designs, red eyes (from who knows what sometimes!), disheveled hair... list goes on and on.

Definitely do not show up in the psych ward in a costume or in hospice or ICU dressed like the Death Bringer. That is cruel, lol.

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