Shocked by facial piercings at work

Nurses Professionalism

Published

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 think its fine as long as you don't go overboard.

I have a visible tattoo on the back of my neck, not innapropriate or anything bad.

Where I now work its okay to have up to one third of your body tatted and nothing offensive.

I think thats fair.

0 Votes

Oh, in enough time all this talk about piercing and tattoos being "unprofessional" will be seen for the stupidness it is. It wasn't that long ago that a man going outside without a hat or a woman going outside in pants was seen as scandalous.

Times change. Values change. And thank God they do.

0 Votes

One of the instructors for my CNA certification had recently gotten her nose pierced as a birthday gift to herself. For her 50th birthday. I thought it was really cool, and it looked great on her. It's not something I would do right now, because I am a nursing student, but this lady had been a nurse for however many years, and had the respect of her peers. If I was already a nurse, and was already working somewhere that it wasn't against policy, I would consider a nose piercing.

Just my 2 cents.

0 Votes
Specializes in ED.

I don't see what the big deal is. I'm not allowed to wear my nose ring at work, and was called out one night for forgetting it was in. Yet several of our nurses wear acrylic nails and hoop ear rings the size of my head, also not allowed per the dress code. Fair much? I was told my nose stud was prohibited because of "infection control issues". Pretty sure those acrylic nails pose more of an infection control issue than my nose stud, but that's just what happens in an uptight world.

Before I was told it had to go, I had a whole lot of patients comment on my nose stud. It was all little old ladies, commenting on how they liked it and wished they were young enough to get their's pierced too. It was a good segue into building rapport with patients I didn't have much else in common with. My nose piercing led to some fun conversations I never would have imagined. No big deal, I'll take it out for work, but I don't see how it makes me more unprofessional than the nurse with 6 inch hoop ear rings.

0 Votes
Specializes in Med Surg.

I don't think it appears particularly professional. JMO.

0 Votes

My facility doesn't allow facial piercings and you must keep visible tattoos covered at all times. Also, you can't have more than one set of earrings, no acrylic nails or overly long nails. We can wear any type of scrubs though.

0 Votes

I guess it's just what you're culturally used to. When I first came to the US, I noticed how few people have eyebrow rings compared to back home. I don't notice it anymore. I've often thought that aliens might find us a bit primitive with our ear piercings (a bit of metal stuck through a flap of skin)...y'know, like we look on tribal people in jungles around the world with a bone stuck through their septum. Personally, I find makeup a bit gross: waxy creams like lipstick and powdered minerals like eyeshadows smeared over sections of our faces, but that's probably just my personal reaction to the way I find makeup suffocating and sticky...almost unhygienic. Of course, I see people with makeup every day (even though some people wear so much makeup that I think they mustn't be able to see it in the mirror when they prepare to go to work), so I'm accustomed to it. Back to the piercing thing: I have always wondered if the neck of a sweater catches on the eyebrow and nose piercings when they pull one over their heads, like I used to frequently catch my engagement ring in the sleeve of my sweater when I pulled it on. Really, I think it's all OK if you keep it clean and take care of it. It's just what you're used to. Society changes and soon we'll be used to something else.

0 Votes
Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

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 ~

0 Votes
...

Though I don't have any facial piercings or tattoos myself, I absolutely support the rights of people to wear them visibly as nurses. If hospitals allow that, good for them! I think it's mainly a lot of the older generation that still thinks that you're somehow unprofessional if you have a facial piercing or tattoo showing, and it's just not true. I'm hoping to eventually move to Northern California and be a nurse out there, and I'd hope that people there would be a bit less likely to get their panties twisted over such trivial things.

Somehow unprofessional! How could it ever be considered professional! As one of "the older generation" who is still very cognizant, sensible, and practical, I find your comment offensive. Allow me to explain why I feel that look is unprofessional: Tattoos and piercings are a fad that doesn't belong in the workplace, the same way many forms of casual dress don't. And like any other fad, they will fall out of favor. "The younger generation" makes fun of '80s hair and clothing, correct? But that's exactly how your tatts and piercings will be viewed one day. As a woman, I wish to always be able to update and modernize my professional look in a very short period of time, say the 20-30 minutes that it takes to color hair or get a haircut or pick out a new blouse from the rack or remove or apply makeup. But, a tatt or piercing is like being permanently stuck wearing '80s hair or last years' blouse, only it can't be instantly remedied by trip to the mall and a couple hundred dollars, and least not yet. It currently costs thousands of $USD and much time to remove those tatts and halfway restore your body to a neutral canvas. Anything that difficult to alter, I do not favor.

Not practical, not attractive, not desirable: That is aesthetically how I see tatts and most piercings.

From a medical standpoint, and as a professional who also worked years in the chemical manufacturing industry (I know my way around MSDSs and hazmat cleanups and toxic nerve agents and hazards that RNs will never see in their entire lifetimes), I see tatts as bombarding the body's largest organ with chemicals of unknown composition. In Pennsylvania, there are few-to-no regulation and licenses and professional training required to set up a tattoo shop. Any nimrod can do it. Sorry, but tattoos don't seem very smart or prudent to me from a safety and health perspective, either.

You can do what you like. And if I am a patient, I will most likely request an "older generation" nursing professional who is not all marked up with tattoos and piercings. If the hospital can't provide a nurse who looks "normal" to me, I will bestow that hospital with a low customer satisfaction rating and I will CLEARLY explain that their employees make me feel uncomfortable, because they don't look like sensible people who use good judgement.

0 Votes

Somehow unprofessional! How could it ever be considered professional! As one of "the older generation" who is still very cognizant, sensible, and practical, I find your comment offensive. Allow me to explain why I feel that look is unprofessional: Tattoos and piercings are a fad that doesn't belong in the workplace, the same way many forms of casual dress don't. And like any other fad, they will fall out of favor. "The younger generation" makes fun of '80s hair and clothing, correct? But that's exactly how your tatts and piercings will be viewed one day. As a woman, I wish to always be able to update and modernize my professional look in a very short period of time, say the 20-30 minutes that it takes to color hair or get a haircut or pick out a new blouse from the rack or remove or apply makeup. But, a tatt or piercing is like being permanently stuck wearing '80s hair or last years' blouse, only it can't be instantly remedied by trip to the mall and a couple hundred dollars, and least not yet. It currently costs thousands of $USD and much time to remove those tatts and halfway restore your body to a neutral canvas. Anything that difficult to alter, I do not favor.

Not practical, not attractive, not desirable: That is aesthetically how I see tatts and most piercings.

From a medical standpoint, and as a professional who also worked years in the chemical manufacturing industry (I know my way around MSDSs and hazmat cleanups and toxic nerve agents and hazards that RNs will never see in their entire lifetimes), I see tatts as bombarding the body's largest organ with chemicals of unknown composition. In Pennsylvania, there are few-to-no regulation and licenses and professional training required to set up a tattoo shop. Any nimrod can do it. Sorry, but tattoos don't seem very smart or prudent to me from a safety and health perspective, either.

You can do what you like. And if I am a patient, I will most likely request an "older generation" nursing professional who is not all marked up with tattoos and piercings. If the hospital can't provide a nurse who looks "normal" to me, I will bestow that hospital with a low customer satisfaction rating and I will CLEARLY explain that their employees make me feel uncomfortable, because they don't look like sensible people who use good judgement.

This is the dumbest thing I have ever read! With respect. Tattoos and piercings are not a fad, they have been in existance since before hospitals were created. You just gave the "older generation" a bad name with all these negative "opinions". You might as well say you discriminate against nurses who look "not normal", which many people find very offensive. Look normal? Haha I'm sorry, but I wonder how the nurse who survived a fire, and has her eyebrows tattoed on would feel about that "normal" comment. As an older person one would think you have gone through enough life lessons to learn to respect others whether or not they look "normal".

0 Votes

I my self have no problems when it comes to piercings. I dont have any because I am chicken except for the 4 holes in each ear. I can appreciate them as a for an expression or art, but in a work place not everyone shares my opinion so its best to keep them as minimal as possible. Not to mention the health and safety risks they pose, to me is not worth it.

0 Votes
Oh, in enough time all this talk about piercing and tattoos being "unprofessional" will be seen for the stupidness it is. It wasn't that long ago that a man going outside without a hat or a woman going outside in pants was seen as scandalous.

Times change. Values change. And thank God they do.[/quote

You know what shocks me? a nurse going to a bar (with or without scrubs) what or a pt were to see? and a male nurse or married nurse !!! what will some pts think!!!!!!!!!!who cares?

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment