Shocked by facial piercings at work

Nurses Professionalism

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So occassionally I'll see a nurse or doc with a nose ring, or tongue ring. If it is not for cultural purposes, I personally find that it truly takes away from the professional look we are supposed to have while at work.

I'm a fan of nose rings, I think they are cute and I thought about getting one however I thought it wouldn't be a good look for work. I also would not was to bother taking it in and out.

Anyway, during my share time at a hospital yesterday I was shocked to see that a nurse midwife was allowed to wear a facial piercing at work. She had a piercing above her upper lip.

Is this becoming more common in your work places? How do you all feel about facial piercings in the health care setting?

I do not have any piercings other than my ears. Or any tattoos. I am old :geek: but I don't see anything wrong with either. It is what our culture is now.

I just changed jobs from a small community setting with very a strict dress code and now i am in a large teaching hospital and just about anything goes. I have not seen anyone abuse it. It is nice to have the diversity and have others respect one another.

Meee toooo, I am too much of a crusty old bat to have either peircings or tattoos (but I rocked a pretty rad triple ear peircing in 1983!!!!) LOLOLOLOLOL

I don't think people are judging anyone. Just making observations. BTW-the OP was to discuss facial piercing not tatoos, I'm sure there is another thread on that.

If everyone would just stop judging everyone else this world would be so much better. I have tattoos and have never had a negative reaction from a patient. Not once.

As far as facial piercings go, I don't see how it's unprofessional. You could point out how a million things are unprofessional. Eating a cheeseburger as a health care professional. Going 56 in a 55 as a police officer. Misspelling a word as an educator. Whatever. A person is a professional if they are good at what they do.

~ No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent -Eleanor Roosevelt ~

I'm the OP and I'm 24, my opinion is some facial piercings have an unprofessional look. No one is getting upset over it, just an observation I wanted to discuss.

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

OP, you wanted discussion. You chose the thread title "Shocked by facial piercings ..." And you got discussion. Is there something else that you were hoping to get out of this thread?

since some posters have alluded to the "elderly" being offended by a nose ring or tattoo... i have had many ederly pts with highly "offensive" tattoos ! and some pts who one would "least expect " have had all kinds of piercings.

Tattoos, piercings etc are okay with me so long as the tattoos are not offensive or the jewelry too big.

We had one parent of a new nurse complain. The parent told the CNO that she is limiting her daughter's self expression. The CNO told the mom that the nurse is welcome to self-express on her free time away from work, or at another hospital. So the next day, the new nurse came with her hair totally shaved off. Piercings were gone, but so was the hair.

Ok, weird on several levels.

One would assume that a licensed RN is old enough (if not mature enough) to be responsible for her own decisions, including the bad ones. But you say her MOTHER felt it was HER responsibility to make such a complaint? Perhaps this mother had confused the CNO of a hospital with the coordinator of a Mommy & Me group. Shameful.

As for the fool who then shaved her head to "prove" something, all she did was drastically shorten the length of her career with that facility....as you can bet that if ANYONE needs to go on the chopping block, it's Ms. PITA Baldy.

Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.

The *parent* complained?!? And the nurse retaliated by shaving her head?!? That sounds like someone with more problems than just following a dress code!

If you're adult enough to be a nurse you're adult enough to fight your own battles. This nurse sounds like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum. I would fire her so fast her head would spin!

Specializes in Education, Administration, Magnet.

If you're adult enough to be a nurse you're adult enough to fight your own battles. This nurse sounds like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum. I would fire her so fast her head would spin!

She is still working with us...so is her mom.

She is still working with us...so is her mom.

That's a slightly different spin on it....it isn't that the employee's mother called up, out of the blue, to complain. The mother is already an employee and therefore was spouting off her displeasure. Still stupid, but at least it makes a bit more sense.

If Mumsie thinks her darling is being forced to stifle her self-expression now, wait until she gets smacked in the face that Real World Employment doesn't care about your self-expression.

OP, you wanted discussion. You chose the thread title "Shocked by facial piercings ..." And you got discussion. Is there something else that you were hoping to get out of this thread?

Nope, nothing else at all. Thanks Altra for reading and participating in this discussion.

I actually love facial piercings. Back in my wild and responsibility free days, I had them. But if I ever wanted a job, I would have to lose them. Sigh, being an adult, gotta make sacrifices.

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