color coding staff

Nurses Uniform/Gear

Published

  1. does color coding staff make a better work place?

    • 16
      It's working
    • 13
      It's ok
    • 20
      I don't see any difference
    • 14
      I don't like it
    • 3
      It makes doing my job more difficult

66 members have participated

My hospital is presenting the idea of color coding all staff (except management). Our union is currently in negotiation (as this is a change in working conditions they failed to bring up during our last negotiation). I'm looking for any documented evidence that this is working or not working in other facilities. I will also welcome any personal anecdotes or experiences that reinforce that this idea does (or does not) work. Also, pediatric nurses with dress codes, when do you don't wear cute child appropriate scrubs have you noticed a change or difference interacting with children?

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

It doesn't work. Patients call anybody and everybody "nurse".

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I'm coming from a smaller facility without a dress code to one with color coordination. I was against it at first, but it makes sense in the bigger organization, with less confusion to who is who...at least for staff. It is probably just as confusing for patients, I would assume.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I'm coming from a smaller facility without a dress code to one with color coordination. I was against it at first, but it makes sense in the bigger organization, with less confusion to who is who...at least for staff. It is probably just as confusing for patients, I would assume.

Staff should KNOW who is who. Unless you're floating to a new unit every day, you ought to know your colleagues and know which one is the one to call for a spill and which one is the one to call for a pressor order.

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

We implemented a color code two years ago. Our Peds and Onco units are allowed to wear more cheery tops but the scrub pants need to be the solid color that relates to their "title". It was pitched because we are Magnet and that other Magnet hospitals had found positive patient satisfaction scores with the change. There was also some discussion about a sentinel event that happened in some hospital where a patient/family member asked a housekeeper to suction a patient and apparently the task was not followed up on by a nurse or something like that. Ummm ok.

My biggest issue is that the public at large have no clue what the different colored scrubs mean and they don't really care. We also had to all go out and buy new scrubs out of pocket to be compliant, so I have tubs of scrubs I can't wear anymore.

It also doesn't make sense that our hospital doesn't or didn't hand out a color code to patients explaining the difference either...so what's the point?

Oh yeah, the color codes only effect nurses, HCT's, housekeeping (which is a very close hue to the nurses which doesn't make sense with the whole suctioning excuse story :yawn:), RT's, Lab tech's, and transporters. BUT we are all allowed to wear a white coat if we want to! :dead:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Oncology.

The hospital I work at now separates nursing staff, PCT's, transporters, respiratory therapists, and paramedics by color code. I'm sure the hospital admins think it's working, but really, a lot of patients assume all females in scrubs are nurses and the males in scrubs are physicians. Even if the male nurses wear scrubs that clearly say "Registered Nurse" sewed on the front in bold.

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Specializes in Rehab, pediatrics.

I find that it doesn't seem to make much difference for patients. They seem to call almost everyone a nurse. But we do have color coated charts in their rooms to tell them who is who... Some take notice but not all.

Honestly I like it. I don't have to worry about which outfit I'm going to wear and I can just quick throw some scrubs on. Also I can wear whichever color I want at my per diem job so I can wear them at the other job as well.

I found it helped most with staff knowing who was who... We get a lot of floaters which can get confusing. Plus when you are new it's easier to tell who is who until you get to know you're coworkers.

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Specializes in Pediatric.
It doesn't work. Patients call anybody and everybody "nurse".

So true! Just last week I had a patient calling for his nurse. I went in and he looked at me and said "No I meant the other nurse."

I said "You mean your nurse side?"

"Yeah whatever, send that one in."

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Our hospital has just implemented the change to color codes. We were notified 2 months ago and it will be enforced Jan 1st.

Full time employees get a whopping $100 towards new scrubs and part time $50. PRN employees get nothing. We HAVE to get our scrubs thru a certain online company too, which most employees are very unhappy about.

I'm not looking forward to it at all. We went thru this 15 years ago and it didn't work and nobody liked it. We've been able to wear any color the last 12 years...now we're going back to it again. Frustrating!

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Specializes in ER, Med-surg.

From a staff perspective, I like that I can tell who is who even when I go to another unit/when someone is new/when I glance down the hallway to see if there's a tech/phlebotomist/RT/other nurse around.

I don't think patients really notice, and I've never worked anywhere that bothered to try to educate them. There's also not much rhyme or reason to the color selection- several places I've worked have had multiple approved colors for some ancillary departments, and made no attempt to regulate what providers wore. So while you might know nurses were Navy, the person in dark purple, light purple, steel grey, or black, could all be RTs, and pharmacy and lab both wore all kinds of green. And the providers wore whatever, so you might get your head bit off for assuming a new provider was from some other department. And then students from various schools often wear colors that mean something else in the hospital scheme, so no wonder patients never pick up on it.

At my current hospital, nurses wear royal, and I don't like it- it feels really primary color and kiddieish to me. I didn't mind Navy. When I worked at hospitals that allowed use to wear anything, I did notice there was a lot of boundary-pushing in terms of the professionalism of what people wore, so I can understand why management wants standardization from that angle, too- unless you're working in pediatrics, I just don't think there's ever an excuse for putting yourself in the position of trying to talk to someone about end-of-life choices while you're covered in Tweety Bird or Betty Boop.

And white in nursing school was impractical from a maintenance standpoint, but boy, patients eat it up. If I ever go back to a hospital that allows you to wear anything, I'll probably wear white. Why not stack the patient satisfaction deck in your favor where you can?

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

We are color coded. I don't think it makes a huge difference. Patients still call most caregivers "nurse", despite our scrub color and huge "RN" letters on our name tags.

Some patients get it, and that's nice for them. Many don't pay attention.

It can be a hassle for staff changing to a dress code because you have to go buy new scrubs... Hopefully the facility will assist with that either financially partially compensate or provide the scrubs themselves.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

And white in nursing school was impractical from a maintenance standpoint, but boy, patients eat it up. If I ever go back to a hospital that allows you to wear anything, I'll probably wear white. Why not stack the patient satisfaction deck in your favor where you can?

My school dress code was all white. You are right, patients loved it! Hospital staff complimented it too. It was the worst to keep up with though. White doesn't want to stay white.

The white top and blue bottoms look nice also. Several of our nurses do that. White and/or royal blue are our required colors. I don't buy white for practical reasons, but it sure does look nice.

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