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?
I am so glad to be in a country that doesn't dictate clothing. Hospitals allowing all employees to wear choice of scrubs is a step forward, but they still dictate to specialty units what color to wear. So is med-surg a speciality unit to be assigned the color white? I think slowly hospitals will relent on whites or add other colors.
I am so glad to be in a country that doesn't dictate clothing. Hospitals allowing all employees to wear choice of scrubs is a step forward, but they still dictate to specialty units what color to wear. So is med-surg a speciality unit to be assigned the color white? I think slowly hospitals will relent on whites or add other colors.
Many places of employment actually do have dress codes or uniforms in this country. What about firefighters, police, repairmen, forest service, UPS, Postal Service, etc.
I'm having heavy periods in my peri menopause, and would have big time anxiety about that.
I have heavy periods, period. So no thanks to the white. I'd be a nervous wreck.
When I was a young girl, I remember seeing my mom's friend with a great big "accident" on the back of her dress. This unfortunately happened to her twice that I saw. She had to walk pass our house to get home after work. This spooked me and nearly derailed my desire to become a nurse because I was so afraid of the potential for embarrassment. The hospital admin can go wear white then, since they are so keen on the color.
ok, here's my 2 cents; all white uniforms....hmmm....a truly antiquated idea to invoke chastity and purity in the late 1800's. anyone who has been a nurse today or anytime recently knows that this is just simply put impractical. nothing stains more permanently or even frequently than on a virginal white uniform. if the institution employing does the laundry than i could not even utter a condescending thought on the subject of white uniforms but ....yeah, i see that happening soon!! lol! personally, i think that we as nurses should say that to invoke professionalism one should look beyond the color of the uniform but maybe into our ability to improve the quality of our patient's care or here is a rave idea; how about including nurses in on the many ideas that affect nursing as a whole. nurses making decisions for nurses., wow what a concept. just food for thought.https://allnurses.com/forums/images/smilies/added/w00t.gif
hear, hear! nurses used to wear aprons too. oh, and for those in love with the historical concept of nursing, the early nurses were "uncommon women."
Hey, my school has all white uniforms, and it is a litte ridiculous.... we are actually rallying right now to get it changed, and I know that there is a lot of liturature on the disadvantages of white uniforms, everything from the "White coat syndrome" to the fact that it is so impractical and archaic that it just makes me want to wear pearls and vaccume.... (like the housewives used to do on the old sitcoms, i.e. leave it to beaver, sorry I had to explain because sarcasm doesn't always make the most sense when typed :) anyway, maybe you could present some of the research about the disadvantages of the white dress code, good luck!!
Many places of employment actually do have dress codes or uniforms in this country. What about firefighters, police, repairmen, forest service, UPS, Postal Service, etc.
i am from the philippines and we still do the white uniform. in certain hospitals though, some have adopted the scrub suit uniform type for special areas.like orange top with the hospital logo,embroidered with (Nursing Service-ICU) paired with white pants for ICU, or blue for mon-wed-fri then green for t-th-s..but still all white for floor nurses with caps! and get this in govt hospitals the skirt and white stockings and all!
can you imagine the painstaking washing we have to do during the monsoon season, not to mention that less sunshine equals undried/not so dry uniform(not all of us can afford washing machines need i say dryer?)
the funny part is actually, with the scrub suit type, a dozen of times Nurses are mistaken as SPA WORKERS..because of the blossoming business of wellness and spa centers whose got uniforms identical to that of ours. their uniforms also have logos by the way..but from afar you'd hardly read Perpetual Succour Hospital with Ruiz Derma and Spa..
catsibsix
15 Posts
I am so glad to be in a country that doesn't dictate clothing. Hospitals allowing all employees to wear choice of scrubs is a step forward, but they still dictate to specialty units what color to wear. So is med-surg a speciality unit to be assigned the color white? I think slowly hospitals will relent on whites or add other colors.