All White Uniform Dress Code?!!

[keludtke]

Help! I need your feedback, thoughts, and advice. The community hospital I am working at is deciding in June that all nurses must wear all white uniforms. Right now, we all have to wear light blue pants, but we can wear whatever color top we prefer. I am angry by this. I personally feel this is an institutionalized, cold, sterile color. Plus, I feel this is "old school". I am 29 yo female and graduated with my bachelor's degree. I am a professional RN regardless of what I wear. My name tag I wear says I am an RN and I have a license to prove it. I know in college I read articles that it is good to wear solid colors because it is more professional than a scrub top with flowers on it. And most of the time, I wear solid blue, which I like. But for some reason, all white reminds me of the nurses in the early 40s-50s in white skirts, white tights, and a cap on their head. I can't explain it in words, but I feel this is a step back for nurses.

Many of the nurses I have talked to are angry with this, besides the cost of all new uniforms (oh yeah, they are just providing us with one uniform) and trying to keep white clean. In the email, the hospital states it wants a professional look. Yet, this email was only for the nurses. Of course, it is ok for the doctors to come in with jeans. All the doctors I see (and I work 7p-7a) wear many different types of clothing. Should this not pertain to them and the rest of the hospital staff?

What do you feel about this? Has your hospital done this? What should I do? I am thinking of writing a letter of complaint. Do you as nurses feel all white is a cold color? Do you think hospitals should go back to an all white uniform? I think I need evidence based research if I want to write a letter to the hospital administrator of why I feel this should not happen.

I like my job and i am not going to quit if we go to all white. Yet, I feel compelled to state my opinion because of how I feel about this matter, but I want to get other opinions on this matter before I precede. Maybe I am the one behind the times?

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

that seems like an awful lot of work for one load of laundry. and my front loader is not going to let me do a cold wash "with a little bleach and 1/2 cup of casade" then do a hot wash before the rinse, then rinse twice, the second time with bluing. it just isn't going to happen!

i personally would hand in my resignation effective the date the all white policy goes into effect! nursing jobs are easy enough to find!

i do everything with two rinses. i run all of my whites that way, not just nursing whites.

hey, i like to look squeaky clean and starched. some people actually believe that permanent press doesn't need to be ironed. i don't happen to be one of them.

whatever floats your boat. but even when i was corporate i pressed off tomorrow's outfit, made sure i had stockings s runs, and shined my shoes every night.

[PedsRN1991]

I work peds, and the all white policy would be disasterous. I could see the kids freaking out and running in the opposite direction.

[anonymurse]

The RN patch kills the mistaken ID argument:

http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/action/RN_patch.html

[Bill E. Rubin]

i think it's just one more attempt to subjugate nurses. i frequently hear the complaint that "we can't tell the nurse from the housekeeper because everyone is wearing scrubs!" so put the housekeeper, secretary, supply associate and everyone else who isn't doing bedside patient care in some other uniform and let the nurses wear whatever color of scrubs they want. we're the professionals, yet we're the ones they're forcing to wear all white. it stinks!

amen to that. i still add that such policy is also dismissive to male nurses. it tries to recreate an image of nursing that is some hollywood female image. personally, i find the image demeaning to women as well as men.

furthermore, on our unit, the doctors are all either nicely dressed in street clothes or wearing white lab coats over whatever else they had on underneath. the people wearing scrubs are the nurses and pca's (and yes, the support staff too)... but we all introduce ourselves when entering the room and state who we are and why we're there.

i wear navy scrubs because, like white, the print scrubs just don't work for male nurses (well, and also because my school uniform is also navy scrubs, so it allows me to reuse the pants for school as well as work).

if there are uniform policies, make them go across the board of staff. why just target the nurses? and please don't make any of us wear white.

this makes me really appreciate my hospital and my nurse director. we are treated like professionals.

[janettalinda]

I would tell management "you can mandate any uniform you want and I can work anywhere I want, so bye-bye." I have worn all the white I"m ever gonna wear in this lifetime. What's next? Those stupid hats? Nursing seems to be going back back back to the bad old days.

"Assimilate THIS!"-Lt Worf

[CHATSDALE]

I work peds, and the all white policy would be disasterous. I could see the kids freaking out and running in the opposite direction.

i can't believe that kids are scared of white clothing,

i personally don't like white because i have a tendacy toward kluxiness and everything jumps out and attaches itself to uniform, business wear, nighties etc

black look good when it is new but it fades fast and becomes drab long before it is anywhere nears worn out

sudies have indicated that print tops are confusing to already confused patients and children

i don't think that white is necessarily 'cold/impersonal' i think that a cheerful demeanor and professional outlook does a lot toward building bridges between nurses and patients

[harley007]

The general public is still in love with the traditional look of all white. During the time, long, oh so long ago, when nurses were first allowed to wear colors patients really disliked it. I understand managements thoughts and pleasing the public is number one. But, allowing personal choice to a professional nurse and then removing it without their input is disrespectful. I hope there is a chance of some mediation on this. Good Luck!

[RNBelle]

JMO - i think there should be color coded uniforms - but not necessarily white. wore white pants to work the other night - and ofcourse that was the night i spilled cranberry juice and salad dressing on my pants and then managed to throw in a bit of blood....grrr!

back to color coded uniforms for respective specialites - i believe they help identify the different specialities in the hospitals such as PT, RT, RN/LPN, CNA, etc but not all white.

[anonymurse]

"Liberals don't care what you do, so long as it's mandatory."

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

jmo - i think there should be color coded uniforms - but not necessarily white. wore white pants to work the other night - and ofcourse that was the night i spilled cranberry juice and salad dressing on my pants and then managed to throw in a bit of blood....grrr!

back to color coded uniforms for respective specialites - i believe they help identify the different specialities in the hospitals such as pt, rt, rn/lpn, cna, etc but not all white.

no matter what color is chosen, someone won't like it. so let the pts wear street clothes, and if rt wants to color code themselves, fine. cnas can color code themselves, too. but nurses are professionals and i object to anyone trying to tell a professional what to wear to work.

[cassilee30]

I like my job and i am not going to quit if we go to all white. Yet, I feel compelled to state my opinion because of how I feel about this matter, but I want to get other opinions on this matter before I precede. Maybe I am the one behind the times?

I would not be able to handle an all white uniform. I wouldn't even be able to work somewhere where they mandated a scrub color. I have already decided that if my place of employment mandates a certain color (other than just pants color....I could handle it if they stated a pants color, but we were able to wear whatever top we wanted), that I would have to find a new job. I worked hard to be a nurse and I find it oppressive to be forced to wear what management states is proper....but that's just me.... a rebel at heart. Cassi

[leslie :-D]

it personally wouldn't bother me, if there was a mandate.

for me, there are bigger fish to fry.

leslie