Colorblind Nurse

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My husband is in a BSN nursing program, he is worried about employment since he is colorblind. What are your options? Can you be hired in a hospital or would that be a safety issue? Thank you.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

I can see where color blindness could be a disadvantage in that some medication vials (like insulin and heparin) color the kids and boxes differently to help with differentiating between the dosages. However, thorough reading of the medication label would ensure usage of the proper med.

Maybe someone with more experience can chime in as well, but I can't think of anything in nursing that would absolutely require the need to see a full spectrum of color. Maybe wound charting depending on the colors that he can differentiate? Not sure.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Although color is used as part of 'alert systems' on meds and equipment, Federal law requires there to also be a secondary alert mechanism such as symbols or bold typeface... because color blindness is actually quite common.

The biggest issue will be related to point-of-care testing in which test results are interpreted by color. Ex: Nurses in critical care & ED frequently use 'dipsticks' to test for ketones & the presence of hemoglobin. Part of the orientation and competency validation process is testing for color blindness, so this could disqualify him for an area in which this occurs unless the hiring manager could accommodate it. There are a lot of different types of color blindness, from minor to severe - and a lot of work settings in which it would not be an issue at all.

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