white uniforms vs. colored/printed

sassynurse78 · Apr 22, 2004

I don't know of any research, but I do remember from nursing school, that we were to wear "street clothes" in our mental health clinical rotations, because studies showed that the color of white uniforms agitates the pts. and makes them feel intimidated. I hope you can find some research and if so I hope you post it, I would like to see it.

Katnip, RN · Apr 22, 2004

There are some cultures, particularly Asian cultures that see white as a color of mourning. But as far as research about the effcts, I don't know.

nursebedlam · Apr 22, 2004

mmmm well here in Australia many health care organisations have these very tacky uniform shirts, with very prissy designs. I have been often asked by patients how do you tell who is who in these shirts.

Renee' Y-Y · Apr 22, 2004

There are at least 2 hospitals that I know of in Dallas/Ft. Worth that nurses must wear white. The "research" they did to support this decision had to do with patients not knowing who was who. I'm not necessarily for white for nursing, but I am definitely for "color-coding": nurses are allowed to wear 1 or 2 colors, techs a certain color, lab a certain color, etc. Patients then begin to learn who from who based on that + the fact that employees know immediately where you're from based on the color of your scrubs...that system I like much better.

trent · Apr 22, 2004

I'm currently in nursing school, and my school is the only one in the area that allows us to wear colors/patterns. The dean of the school said this is because she could find no evidence that wearing white makes you a better student or gives a better impression or outcome. We had the choice of ordering scrubs with the program logo embroidered on and our names, or just going out and buying our own.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Apr 22, 2004

White shows the dirt so badly that almost any other color would be preferable. (except orange, bleah)

hock1 · May 19, 2004

In some cultures white is considered purity, in others it's a sign of death. I personally feel that white is to stereotyped and needs to be retired.

rn3504 · May 22, 2004

I work at a hospital with a color-coded policy. The reason that they went to this is for two reasons--1. the staff was taking the patterns/colors to an extreme. 2. there was a couple of patients that were extremely upset because they could not tell their nurse from the housekeeper( it was the same nurse involved in the different complaints)--so much for professionalism

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · May 22, 2004

What I don't understand is, why must the NURSES always be the ones who have to change? :angryfire Whose idea was it to allow housekeepers to wear scrubs, anyway---they're the people who need to wear different clothes. Nurses and aides should be the only staff wearing scrubs.......lab techs, unit secretaries, housekeeping staff and other ancillary personnel ought to wear something else.

At our hospital, housekeeping, maintenance, and dietary staff wear different colored polo shirts and khaki pants; only clinical staff wear scrubs. So how does the patient know who his nurse is? DUH---we tell him who his nurse is! All staff are supposed to introduce themselves when entering a patient room, as well as explain what they're going to do. It's not rocket science, just simple courtesy........why do so many people seem to think we need to legislate that by forcing nurses to conform to some particular color scheme or uniform style??

steve0123 · May 24, 2004

Personally I preferred the white uniforms. I think that people associate nurses with starchy whites, and rather than runing away saying "its so cliched", why not start wearing them again? Most of those patterned shirts female staff wear look horrible (ie: migraine inducing), and where I work you can't tell the male RN's from the maintenance team and orderlies. As far as colour coding of staff goes, we ship patients out as quick as we can and most aren't in long enough to distinguish between the uniforms anyway - but they would know straight away who was who if we brought back the starchies...

PS: Do you think we'd be going too far bringing back the little hats and habits? Maybe just a bit lol... :)

catcolalex · May 24, 2004

I would rather change careers than wear that crap.