Community nurses - how do you dress?

This varies a lot from one community to the next, so your best bet is to ask your future employer this question.

It also depends on whether you'll be doing home visits or working in a clinic or office. For home visits, at least where I live (Oakland CA), a suit would be overkill, but jeans might be a little too casual. I would go for khakis or dress pants and a nice shirt. If possible I would cover the tattoos (where I live most clients would not mind the tattoos, but some might). Office attire would be similar.

If you're going to work in a clinic, I would probably wear scrubs, but again, check with your future co-workers on this.

Good luck!

Consult your employee manual. It should tell you what dress code you have.

Starting as a community nurse August 5th after completing my praxis within the field. Where I'm from there's no standard dress code - some wear scrubs, others where a more casual attire. During my praxis I wore a pair of well-fitted levi jeans / khakis, along with a tucked in oxford-button down and brown leather boat shoes. I'm 21, a male, and have lots of tattoos - being a new nurse I want to look as professional as possible.

I'm thinking of upping my attire to a well-fitted navy suit. I'm from a bit of a hick-town so this may be overkill, however I want to look as professional as possible. Thoughts?

I'd go with scrubs. I work for the same company (saw it in one of your other posts) and most days I wear scrubs. Some days I'll do capris, a tank top and a cardigan or something else similarly casual, but most days it's just scrubs. I've spilled enough betadine on myself to know better haha, I've also been peed on during urostomy bag changes, and had tube feed squirt all over me.

We have the option of wearing scrubs where I work, but most nurses choose to wear business casual. There are lab coats provided to us if we want to wear them.