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Discussion

APRN in scrubs?

Okay so I have a silly question for this Saturday morning. 

I’m an RN and I wear scrubs to work (even though I work in a field where there’s basically no possibility of getting my clothes dirty). I love them. I have not put on a pair of real pants since I became a nurse. They are comfortable and also— I look adorable in scrubs. 

I am now starting graduate school to become a PMHNP. Do I have to wear “professional” clothes once I graduate??  My only frame of reference is my current job, and the advanced practice nurses there wear high heels and skirts with their white lab coats!  Horrors!  Does anybody wear scrubs to your APRN job??

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    • Experts

    If it were me, it would depend on if my workplace were an office with me behind a desk or not. If I had to travel from point A to point B then on to point C, like in a facility, it would be scrubs and athletic shoes. It is nice to think that an APRN has the wherewithal to make that decision for themselves.

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    I've seen both scrubs and business attire with my colleagues. I am more comfortable in business attire, so that's what I do. But it's up to you how you wish to dress. Unless there is a company policy about provider attire, I would think scrubs are fine.

     

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    • Guides

    Pre-pandemic, it depends on the setting and specialty.  Most APN's in surgical specialties, Critical Care, CRNA's, OB, CNM's wear scrubs.  Medicine-based specialties (IM, Neurology, Cardiology, etc) wear business casual with a lab coat.  Our Psychiatry residents and NP's used to wear business casual with a lab coat as well. Nowadays with COVID-19, most everyone wear scrubs as no one wants to bring their nice clothes to work.

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    My primary is an APRN, she just wears scrubs to her office.

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    Pre-pandemic, I wore scrubs only on Fridays to match the casual Friday thing. Now I wear scrubs 99.9% of the time because I do direct patient care and like Juan said, I don't want to wash my nice clothes all the time. 

    If you end up at a job where you're doing telemedicine visits almost all the time, then I imagine you can just wear a nice top and get away with that. 

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    PMHNP here, pre-pandemic I wore business casual to work. Now I typically wear scrub pant, long-sleeve shirt, and vest.  Occasionally I will wear scrub shirt too, but the I prefer the shirt and vest tone down the "scrub"  look a little, but everything can be thrown in the wash on sanitize. 

    Most of the NPs and MDs have gone over to scrubs/half-scrub look since the pandemic started. None of us want to risk bringing COVID home. I really don't know what dress  will look like once this is over maybe we'll go back to business casual, or maybe stay scrubs, not sure. 

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    • Author

    Thank you for all the responses— it sounds like there’s a range of dress, for sure, depending on the setting. 

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    I wear scrubs and my counterpart wears business casual. I get a little more dirty than she does as I m good with suturing etc so I can see how our styles of practicing dictate our attire. 

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    I think as long as the pandemic is rolling around scrubs are the norm but as a psych NP long term you are going to have to accept the world of business casual. Even IP thats what we wore pre-pandemic.

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    I was assuming scrubs for my new hospitalist position, especially since my office is in the middle of the COVID unit. Alas, business casual is the expectation for NPs. I'm hoping once I've got about 10 years in I can convince someone that scrubs for the night hospitalist is appropriate. I hate business casual. Oh well. 

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    Depends on your setting. We have 4 NPs, 2 PAs and 5 MDs for our dialysis group. All wear scrubs when they round, and in their offices (also in our building)

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    • Experts

    I see pts in dialysis units and in multiple offices and I wear scrubs all the time. When in the office, I do wear a lab coat over them though

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