are mandatory scrub color-coding in hospitals the wave of the future?

[kelligracie]

The hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho has recently gone to a color-coding system. Every position is color-coded and everyone MUST wear the color assigned to their position. This cannot even vary in shade. Is this how it is in the rest of the country? How about the rest of Idaho? Do you see this as a trend or something here to stay? Pros and cons?

Thank you for your input.

[MissChloe]

The hospital I have clinicals at (in Maine) is color-coded. Nurses are navy, CNAs are ciel, RT is black, endo techs are purple, and so on. This is recent within the last couple of years. They put little magnets on the patient's info boards indicating who wears what colors. They still can be a little confused, especially when you add in that students from my school wear royal blue and that's a lot of blue together with the nurses and CNAs! The other hospital here hasn't gone that way yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do soon.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Seriously? Maybe she works at Mayo clinic? Or one of the Cedars hospitals? My facility is small and I know all of my coworkers, but clearly not all of us have the same working situation...

If you work there and make an effort to get to know the staff you work with, you'll KNOW what department that staff member down the hall works in and in what capacity.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Seriously? Maybe she works at Mayo clinic? Or one of the Cedars hospitals? My facility is small and I know all of my coworkers, but clearly not all of us have the same working situation...

I've worked at Mayo. And The Brigham. I knew the people who worked on my floor regularly. When new faces came through, I introduced myself. Or sometimes they beat me to the punch and introduced themselves first. We did just fun keeping track of our colleagues until the color coding craze!

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

I was sooooo PROUD when I got my thick, black velvet RN stripe! I had little gold RN pins on each side of it.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Really?- I work ar a 450 bed facillity with close to 100 nurses working any given shift, Add in 10 or 15 resp therapists, 20 people in the lab, half a dozen supervisors from various departments- residents, interrns, med students, university students, housekeeping staff, maintenance staff, dietary.......... You have time to memorize all those peoples names and positions each shift and keep up with those changes as staff change in departments you see maybe once a mos? I wish I had your memory skills- you shouldn't be working in nursing, you should be counting cards in Vegas.

I was a supervisor for a 350 bed facility and a 35 bed sister facility "down the road". ON the night shift and most of the day shift I knew everyone by name. Maybe not the entire kitchen staff or maintenance....but I knew them on sight.

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

We had that for awhile at our hospital (in MKE) until they realized that navy for nurses, dark purple for CNA's and dark teal for other departments looked quite alike to many people. It was short-lived. That was 15 or so years ago.

Certain departments color-coded voluntarily (respiratory wore a medium turquoise).

[HeyNurse2014, ASN, RN]

Both the major hospitals in my area have varying rules for each facility and floor. Confusing, huh?

Meaning some have strict color coding per staff job/position and the rest just say solid (matching) colors.

None offer any $$ to buy uniforms/scrubs.

[DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN]

I live in Southern Utah, for a company that has hospitals all over Utah, and we have the color coded system. The RN color is Navy and I too may be in the minority because I like the separate colors. Even if the people do not know what all the colors mean, they know their nurses. I feel proud that I am in the Navy and that it distinguishes me from everyone else. I EARNED my navy scrubs!

[toomuchbaloney]

Most of the acute care facilities that I have dealt with have gone to a color system to identify different professionals.

It seems that navy is the most common color for RNs.

I don't mind it, I also am old and started out with the all white differentiation for nurses. Nursing caps had to go away as they look silly on the men in the profession.

[fitzfan82]

We have color coding and I really like it, for the reasons that others have stated- patients and staff can tell each other apart easily. Our nurses wear light (ceil) blue; techs wear teal; pt wears 'carribbean blue'; resp therapists wear royal blue; peds can wear any kind of "happy" color or print and then surgery has their own special color which I like to call "surgical green".

[NewGrad2014]

I would love to have colour coded scrubs- as long as they are comfortable and practical and NOT white I am all in. Plus since they would likely be institution ordered they would probably be discounted. While I agree that it may not help all patients identify staff and *might* be confusing as I've seen as an argument, it's far less confusing than all the disciplines wearing whatever scrubs/tops/patterns/ect they please. I think a really big positive is staff being able to quickly identify who belongs to which discipline, which could be very useful in an emergency or something.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Plus since they would likely be institution ordered they would probably be discounted.

I wouldn't bet on that. My facility, as well as the other three local facilities, mandate scrub colors. Staff are required to buy them on their own dime from the place of their choosing. They are not purchased through the facility nor is a uniform allowance provided.