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?

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Great Medscape article:

Body Piercing: Issues and Challenges for Nurses

Doctors are having same concerns: Should physicians have facial piercings?[h=1]Free to Be You and Me? Balancing Professionalism, Culture, and Self-expression[/h]

Facial piercings, still largely seen as emblems of youth counter-culture, seem inconsistent with professional standards of appearance. The study by Newman et al., in this issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine, confirms this contention.6 In their survey, approximately half of all patients and an even greater proportion of physicians felt that nose and lip piercings were inappropriate for physicians, and more importantly, these piercings appeared to affect patients' trust, comfort, and judgments of physician competence. The study was conducted in a single center in Nashville, TN, where facial piercings may be more or less common than in other cities. However, it is noteworthy that a third of patients who had themselves engaged in body modification (either tattoos or piercings) considered nose rings and lip labrets inappropriate for physicians, suggesting that even patients who probably had no personal aversion to body piercing felt that physicians should adhere to a different (i.e., professional) standard.
Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.
This is the dumbest thing I have ever read! With respect.

Be honest, you didn't mean that "with respect", did you?

Be honest, you didn't mean that "with respect", did you?

I wrote that with FULL respect.

Be honest, you didn't mean that "with respect", did you?

It is "dumb" because low customer service has nothing to do with a nurse looking "normal", it is about the service given to you. With respect, I am against discrimination of any form :)

Specializes in Education, Administration, Magnet.

Our hospital is against all piercings (except earlobes) and all visible tatoos. Piercings have to be taken out, and tatoos have to be covered because of our elderly patients. Since we are very customer service oriented, we cater to them.

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.

I will keep my opinion to myself, I am just saying, that's our rule for all staff (not just nurses) at our facility.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Wow - a really hot issue.

But, it may all be a moot point because with the onset of 'value based purchasing' and heavy impact of patient satisfaction it doesn't really matter what 'we' think. It's all about what the patient thinks. If they equate competency and positive attributes to white uniforms and caps . . . that's probably what we're all going to be wearing in the future. (snark - OK?)

Trust is essential for an effective therapeutic relationship. If the patient is wary of you (due to whatever, including your appearance) it DOES erode your clinical practice.

Why don't we get this steamed up about important issues? Patient Safety? Staffing ratios? The emergence of CRE (very scary super-bug, resistant to every known antibiotic)

Me? No tats - I've seen what they look like on 70-yr-olds & don't wanna go there -- eeewwww.

The piercing is called a Monroe in reference to the beauty mark appearance.

Ah, ok, thank you. I've seen them....can't say I like them, but now I know they have a name ;)

I agree with you racer15. Facilities should not pick and choose who they let get away with breaking the dress code. I want a nose ring but I know that I'l constantly forget to take it out at work.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
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.

^Agreed!!!

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
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.

Wow. Just wow. Nice to know you judge the competency of people on their looks. Hope I never have to work with you or be your patient.

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

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. .

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

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.

Wow. I don't even know what to say to this.

+ Add a Comment