Professional appearance

[fergus51]

On the lighter side of nursing issues: what do you all think is an appropriate and polite way to bring up a nurse's appearance (lots of jewellery, loooooong nails, unclean shoes, etc). Or do you all not mind that? Am I just horrible and obssesive?

I once made a nurse wash her hands before I would let her check my surgical incision because I could see she still had her foundation on from that morning. ICK!

[RNforLongTime]

The hospital where I am employed allows us to wear whatever type of scrub outfits that we want, any print any color as long as they're professional looking. The facility that I used to work at allowed us to wear only all white, all ceil-blue, all purple or all burgundy, we weren't allowed to mix or match and prints were off limits. I've only had a few patients ever complain that they can't distinguish an RN from a housekeeper. Our credentials are proudly displayed on our name badges. About the acrylic nail issue, I recently ran into a nursing school classmate who is an OR nurse and has been for 30 years and asked her about it. Incidentally, I ran into her at a nail salon. Anyway, she told me that the Association of Operating Room Nurses does not ban acrylic nails as long as they aren't too long. I was surprised by her response. I would think that there wouldn't be much difference between a persons natural nails and acrylic nails if they were the same length. Besides we are all supposed to be practicing standard precautions and washing our hands religiously.

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[DebsNRN]

I am a relatively new nurse and this is one of my favorite subjects. I wear all white all the time. Why? B/C I feel that after surviving nursing school, I've earned the right to wear white! Here's one of the more ridiculous things I've noticed about co-workers: Scrub tops with Looney Tunes characters on them. I don't even work in peds! How the hell is a pt supposed to take you seriously with Bugs Bunny on your clothes? Please, pts don't want to be entertained by our outfits, they want to be taken care of by professionals. Nurses, we need to look the part. Another pet peve? Nurses who wear too much perfume. One of the gals I work with always looks like she just rolled out of bed. Scraggly hair everywhere, dirty shoes, stains on her shirts and she must put an entire bottle of perfume on before she comes to work! Disgusting. Pts DO notice when nurses look professional. I get compliments all the time

[sWolfie]

I work in a nursing home as a N.A. and we had a meeting today about uniforms. Most of the homes in this area let the nurses wear casual clothes, as long as it looks neat. We are probably the only one who doesn't yet. They let us wear color tops and all. Wouldn't you think it would make the residents feel more at home if they saw us in casual clothes. Every once in awhile we have "dress down days". Seems like those days the residents are more happier. I can understand being in a hospital, uniforms should be worn. As for the long finger nails, now come on there....aren't they afraid of poking the resident or giving them a skin tear, which I have seen done and the nurse had to cut her nails. Also we have some who come in with a face full of makeup...if I saw that coming towards me, I would run the other way. Maybe it's just my way of thinking....but the elderly aren't use to the "new wave". Of course I don't have much room to talk because I am a female nurse who shaves her head, not totally bald tho. The residents just love it, they like rubbing my head....which I don't mind...keeps them active, plus puts a smile on their face.

[mustangsheba]

My two cents. I think nurses should be at the very least as hygienic as waitresses. That means hair tied back. Call me a Nazi, but if I were in charge there would be NO acrylic nails in the hospital. We have so many nosocomials sources that we subject patients to, why add another?

[Sunshine55]

Always makes me cringe, whenever I see a nurse with "dagger nails" going to administer a suppository. Seems this would make an uncomfortable procedure worse. And, I've always wondered about the possibility of a long nail poking through the end of a glove.

[newtress, LPN]

I'm real curious about this one. Do you know of any nurses who wear a wig while on shift?

[SICU Queen]

I'm real curious about this one. Do you know of any nurses who wear a wig while on shift?

I've known only one... well, that I could tell anyway...oh my, lol... she was something else! She looked like a country/western singer from the 70's with that big teased up hair... but she was also a damned good nurse.

I would think that if someone needed to wear a wig due to hair loss from alopecia, chemo, etc... that it wouldn't make a difference from an infection control or general patient care standpoint any more than natural hair does... I'd just make sure it was securely attached to my head so that a patient couldn't easily pull it off!

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Just my 2 cents here, the day after I graduated nursing school, I burned my white scrubs, and never again will I wear all white to work. It may be traditional, but it is classically impractical. I know the point is to look clean, but, really, how clean can you look covered in Betadine, poo, and who knows what else? With jewelry, I agree, keep it simple. My hair is waist-length, and if I am at work, it is in a bun, a braid, or a ponytail. I do not want my hair in some stuff I have to put my hands in!

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Just my 2 cents here, the day after I graduated nursing school, I burned my white scrubs, and never again will I wear all white to work. It may be traditional, but it is classically impractical. I know the point is to look clean, but, really, how clean can you look covered in Betadine, poo, and who knows what else? With jewelry, I agree, keep it simple. My hair is waist-length, and if I am at work, it is in a bun, a braid, or a ponytail. I do not want my hair in some stuff I have to put my hands in!

Just a thought to add to what you're saying.....when I graduated school, I too thought "no more whites!". But, I re-thought that.

You ask how clean you can look (wearing whites) covered in Betadine, poo and who knows what else, but the bigger question is, how clean can ANYONE look covered in those things, REGARDLESS of what the heck you're wearing? I guarantee if I had any of those items on my colored scrubs, you'd surely notice them. And, I'd hardly be "clean" at that time, regardless of what I was wearing, right?

For what it's worth, I wear whites from time to time, colored solids and prints also. Whatever I feel like. But on the days I wear white, I am no more likely to have anything icky on myself than any other day, and quite honestly it's just NOT an issue. I just don't GET icky stuff on myself, LOL: that's what gowns, gloves are for, and careful technique Accidents can happen, but I'm not about to refuse to wear white because one day, I might get something on myself!

On the days I wear whites, I can honestly state that people (meaning visitors and patients) have a better reaction to my entering the room, doing an assessment, asking questions, doing teaching, whatever. Stereotypical? Sure. But so what. They like it, and I don't force myself to wear it, only do it when I want to.

I just wanted to refute the idea that wearing white will somehow have you looking "dirtier" than if you wore colors. Regardless of what you're weraing, if you've gotten great rivers of Betadine, poo, etc on yourself, well....you ought to CHANGE!

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Of course, if I'm covered in goop, I'll change. I think th ewhole white scrub dislike for me is because I hated nursing school so badly, and white scrubs remind me of it. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but this school had some real winners teaching. On a lighter note, until she died, my grandmother never got over the fact that RNs did not wear hats anymore. Does anyone still wear a hat? One lone nurse manager still wears the white dress, hose, NurseMates, and hat every day at my hospital.

[NursingAgainstdaOdds]

This thread is O-L-D, old , but I'll bite.

Personally, I would love to see uniforms at work for nurses and nurses aides. I really think that would go a long way toward patients being able to recognize their nursing staff, which are the really the only staff they NEED to know who's who, IMO. I've heard of a lot of hospitals establishing a different color for every dept - that seems confusing to me. When on earth does a pt or pt family urgently need to know who's a ward clerk? Yes it is helpful to know, but if all the aides wore navy blue and all the nurses wore ciel blue, the family would already know "OK, all the nursing people are in these colors". All of our housekeepers have a uniform, as do the dietary staff - polos in black and polos in marooon. This is helpful as it eliminates confusion when those individuals are in pt rooms that they are obviously not nursing staff. I've seen a lot of hospital/SNF housekeepers wearing scrubs and it always makes me cringe.

I too have a pet peeve with the cartoon scrub tops. I always want to grab that nurse and inform her she works med-surg/tele, not PEDS! I think it is perfectly acceptable in Peds, for obvious reasons. I was actually poking fun at a co-worker last night for wearing an Eeyore scrub top - "Look out! She's dangerous! I can tell from her Eeyore scrub top!".

I do have two printed scrub tops, but they are both pretty professional. I'll occasionally wear these flowered tops, but some of the prints out there are outrageous. I also don't like cutesy hearts. I had shirts like that in 2nd grade, people.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Of course, if I'm covered in goop, I'll change. I think th ewhole white scrub dislike for me is because I hated nursing school so badly, and white scrubs remind me of it. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but this school had some real winners teaching. On a lighter note, until she died, my grandmother never got over the fact that RNs did not wear hats anymore. Does anyone still wear a hat? One lone nurse manager still wears the white dress, hose, NurseMates, and hat every day at my hospital.

I hear you on the nursing school garb. I kinda thought I'd wear the uniform jacket again, had lots of pockets, but I just can't bring myself to do it! Still in a bag in the bottom of my closet, LOL.

There's a few nurses in my facility that still wear the cap. One of those still wear complete white, whether it's pants of skirt. They do look like odd ducks, though; one patient thought the all-white-with-hat one was in COSTUME for something.

Sometimes, just putting on the Nurse White Pants makes me feel more "nursey", LOL....and I really DO see the patients' and families' reactions differ on the positive side.

Here's a weird twist to the Nurse in White thinking....we have an aide who wears all white, ala nursing style, sometimes even the full skirt with hose option. Of COURSE the patients all think she's a nurse; *I* thought she was a nurse when she floated from a different unit to ours. Talk about confusing the situation!