does anyone get to wear fun scrubs

botch92 · Dec 7, 2004

At my job in Long term care a couple of years ago we petitioned to have colored tops & just in the last month we are now able to wear colored pants. Which the residents love them & so much easier to keep clean with out seeing the yellow stains from the hard water so of us have to do country living or bad town water. But of course the place wont pay for them not even give a uniform allowance. but the tops & pants colors have to match, which some people must be color blind they wear the weirdest combos together-- ---- :)

kmrmom42 · Dec 7, 2004

I can't believe that everyone is allowed to wear any color/pattern they wish. Patterns are verboten around her (fine with me-- I'm not a fan) and we have to wear navy or white (or a combination of the two, of course). As you may imagine, nobody wears all white. I'm fine with the dress code.
Doesn't it look a bit chaotic if nurses are walking around in different uniforms?

It is always interesting to me how many different opinions there are around this topic.

My experiences have been......

all white when a CNA back in the 70's (clean look when fresh but by the end of a busy, dirty day...yuck!)

In the 80's as a PCA-white pants and royal top....nice look but the royal top always showed any powder encountered (and in those days the gloves were all powdered).

As a student nurse- blue pin stipe....double yuck

As a nurse- 1) own scrubs in a nursing home

2.) street clothes and scrub jacket in home care (hated having to

decide what to wear every day!).

3.) all white in med surg

4.) hospital supplied light purple scrubs (shown in my photo), changed into on the premises on an LDRP unit (when we helped choose the colors and pattern we were told NO baby prints because it might make those having a demise too sad...WHAT??!! Like our clothes would have mattered one iota to them in the unimagineable pain of their experience. Our compassion and gentle, thoughtful care would outweigh our clothing in my opinion).

5.) Now on another Labor unit we wear our own scrubs in from home. I do think it can look chaotic and messy at times and to further the confusion all of the ancillary staff, including cleaning folk, all wear scrubs too. I keep to solid colors because I am a tall, big woman and I think that patterns are not flattering. But I HATE navy for work because it shows all the lint from blankets etc. Mostly I wear light blue and khaki cheapo Wal-Mart Basics.

I think in some ways it is easier for the patients to tell people apart if each role has it's own color scheme but I don't think that it is TRULY important considering all the other problems in health care these days that we need to work on.

Now shoes.....that is ANOTHER story!!!

kmrmom42 · Dec 7, 2004

At my job in Long term care a couple of years ago we petitioned to have colored tops & just in the last month we are now able to wear colored pants. Which the residents love them & so much easier to keep clean with out seeing the yellow stains from the hard water so of us have to do country living or bad town water. But of course the place wont pay for them not even give a uniform allowance. but the tops & pants colors have to match, which some people must be color blind they wear the weirdest combos together-- ---- :)

Did you know that you can deduct uniforms from your taxes?

ednursedee · Dec 7, 2004

Personally, I think it's great when a hospital let's you express yourself with the scrubs you wear. I think as long as you're neat and clean it shouldn't matter what color your scrubs are. I've worked at hospitals where we had "dress codes"...nurses had to wear royal blue (which I hate) or white (how much sense does this make in an ER?)...nursing had their color, respiratory therapy had their color, pharmacy theirs, etc., because, supposedly, this would help the patients and family members tell us all apart from the color scrub we wore (because the RN on our name badge was not sufficient, I suppose). However, I was still addressed as an aid at times and told to "go find a nurse". I guess that happens when one is only about 5 feet tall, I don't know. At any rate, I now can wear "anything I want" as long as it's tasteful and professional. I get many compliments on my print jackets that are coordinated with my solid color scrubs...and, well, yes, once I lost my mind and bought a pair of plaid scrub bottoms with coordinating solid top, but I got a lot of positive compliments on those, too!

ICUnowOHN · Dec 8, 2004

I'm wearing FLAMES right now, also have camo, American Flags, fireworks etc... :)

ICor9:24 · Dec 8, 2004

I can't wait to wear all the fun scrubs! I go thru STNA training in Jan, and hope to work someplace that 1) pays well enough for a nurse aide, and 2) where I can wear fun scrubs! I wouldn't make my job decision on whethe I could wear bugs bunny and spongebob or not, but it certainly would suit my personality! I am such a dork I have already have a bunch of scrubs catalogs! :-):roll

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Dec 8, 2004

I do think it's better for facilities to color-code staff. I like a combo of navy and white for RNs. When I worked med-surg, nurses were mandated to all white. It's very hard to find white tops that don't show through. I always seemed to get all dirty. Even after being on the unit for only a few mins, seems I would have spots and dirt on me already.

In my last job, anyone could wear anything- I mean techs wore sweats on the job, which I though was awful.

Because I could get away with it at that unit, I ordered 50 (that's right, 50) custom-made scrub tops. I have tops in several different colors of leopard prints, toile, and even vintage 1940s and 50s fabrics. My pants are colorful, too. I always kept my hair up in a bun, and white shoes polished. I did wear antique jewelry, brooches and earrings. My earrings were always the button-type, not dangly.

I'll admit, wearing my custom scrubs, deciding what colors and coordinating jewelry every day has been fun.

I was going to attach a pic of some of my tops, but looks like I can't do that anymore without a premium membership.

Betty_SPN_KS, LPN · Dec 8, 2004

what are scrubs?

Scrubs are the type of healthcare workers' attire often worn in the US. Scrubs were originally worn in operating rooms for surgeries (as far as I know). I don't know how we started varying the styles and patterns and wearing them for other healthcare jobs as well.

If you click on the scrubs advertising links, or do a web search, I'm sure you can find some pictures of scrubs.

What kind of uniforms do you wear in Nigeria?

been there · Dec 9, 2004

I like loud, zany, crazy prints. If the hospital pays for uniforms, they can tell me what to wear, otherwise, no. I get so many compliments from patients and their families about my prints that professionalism has never been an issue.

I agree with you totally. I had loud hot pink and other colored tops with flowers, etc. that I wore in home health and the patients loved it. Even in the nursing home I suggested to my staff that they wear colored tops . The residents loved it but the owners didn't. There is, however, the nurse image. A hot topic currently in Nurse Week, November 15, 2004 issue is about the professionalism of nurses being better portrayed in "whites" so the patients can distinguish us from housekeepers, etc. Reminds me of the time I was in Wally World with a printed vest over my scrubs and a customer asked me where something was. She admitted she thought I was an employee! There is a lot of sense to both sides and I'm caught in the middle. At times I think colors work better, but I always want to recognized as a nurse.

ednursedee · Dec 9, 2004

i agree. i always want to be distinguished as a nurse, too. whenever they don't recognize me as a nure, i always wonder why they can't see the huge letters on my nametag that say rn. :chuckle heck, i'm just glad we don't have to wear those stupid caps anymore!

lisamilgrim · Dec 11, 2004

Since im graduating from Lpn school next week, i am very excited to be getting to wear some fun colorful scrubs. In school we had to wear white with big ugly blue aprons. I hated them. Now i have some pretty tops with flowers and purple bottoms and some tops with breast cancer ribbons and pink bottoms. I feel alot more comfortable in these and i have gotton compliments on them at my new job.

Pattiecake · Dec 11, 2004

I work in a prison and I wear "Garden of angels" printed little cows with halos doing their gardening, and singing melodious little tunes in a charming and perversely happy manner. My grown sons think I'm a little bonkers wearing stuff like this at a prison , but I think it takes a little of the tension out of a very tense place. :chuckle :clown: