Do You Wear a Lab coat?

[L3Janit0r37]

I'm not a nurse, yet. I do work at a hospital as my name implies as a janitor (housekeeper, environmental services). I was wondering if any of you nurses wear a "lab coat," (that look like doctors or close) and if your a nursing student do you plan on wearing one one day. If you do have a lab coat what does it say like obgyn msn cen bsn list goes on. I swear the charge nurse in med surg has a sentence after her name.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

I wear a lab coat - have since my days of working on a nursing unit. It serves me 3 purposes:

keeps me warm

has lots of pockets

covers up my butt:wink2:

I just wear a plain one - though maybe next time i order one i'll get the alphabet soup that would follow my name

[LisaDNP]

Ditto to what Firefighting RN said...three very good points.

As for the alphabet soup after my name, I limit the initials so they don't run underneath my arm!

[Jules A, MSN]

We had to wear one in school but I never wear one now.

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

There's a middle-aged male nursing student at the hospital where I'm doing clinicals who wears a looong white lab coat. I suspect he gets his kicks by looking like a physician and confusing patients. Surprised, too, that his instructor lets him dress this way for clinicals.

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

We had lab coats for nursing school clinicals, it was optional to wear but if you chose to wear a lab coat it had to be the school issued one. I always wore a lab coat, during class time and clinicals.

Now that I am out of school and working, I always have a lab coat with me, for several reasons (some already listed by other posters). I usually wear a plain white lab coat, no name or alphabet soup after my name (then again LPN is only 3 little letters hehee)

1. I need more pockets than what my scrub top has

2. I tend to get cold easily but don't like wearing a long-sleeved top under my scrub top because its not easy to take it off if/when I get warm again. Its much easier to put the lab coat on or to take it off when needed. Add in that the rooms in my LTC all have seperate temp controls so one room might be like the Artic while another feels like Jamaica in August, its just easier to take the coat off if I'm in "Jamaica" or put it back on when I enter "the Tundra" :)

3. That lab coat has saved my bare skin from getting hit with all kinds of bodily fluids. For example, not long ago I was doing a blood glucose check on a resident, she tends to be "greedy" with blood so i always have to milk the finger to get the amount needed. This one particular day, I pricked her finger w/the lancet and proceeded to gently milk the finger, all of a sudden, blood shot out of her finger like an arterial spray, the blood went up my entire arm and onto my chest. Had I just had on my scrub top w/no lab coat, her blood would have been all over my bare skin...ewww, rather not have that happen.

[Straydandelion]

has lots of pockets

covers up my butt

Yes, I wear one.

[L3Janit0r37]

There's a middle-aged male nursing student at the hospital where I'm doing clinicals who wears a looong white lab coat. I suspect he gets his kicks by looking like a physician and confusing patients. Surprised, too, that his instructor lets him dress this way for clinicals.

Hehe many my friends at work think its because they want to be like doctors. I said no if they want to be doctors then they would. I did notice that the scrubs at my hospital only have like 2 pockets and the breast pocket just dumps everything on the floor when you bend over.

We dont wear scrubs but if i did i could fool people to thinking im not a janitor!

[Candycornrocks]

Yes, I wear a lab coat!

[THAT Nurse., MSN, RN, APRN]

I have sometimes. Generally no, cause it gets in the way. My pants have tons of pockets for me.

Also, I have enough patients who think I am a physician, even though I am still a student!

[amjowens]

There's a middle-aged male nursing student at the hospital where I'm doing clinicals who wears a looong white lab coat. I suspect he gets his kicks by looking like a physician and confusing patients. Surprised, too, that his instructor lets him dress this way for clinicals.

There's a student in my class who is very competitive, knows "everything", and lets everyone know she wants to be a nurse practitioner. We have a uniform which is mostly white. We're about to graduate, and I've noticed she's started to wear a long lab coat. They can be bought at any uniform store, and one day she wore it to class. I about fell over!!! I mean, lab coats serve a purpose-many people from different disciplines (sciences, health, etc.) wear lab coats, but I think some people want to pretend-play "doctor". There's a guy at our school (in a different class, apparently), that I see wearing a lab coat, too. Again, nothing wrong with the coat, just that oozing attitude that's just, well, uugh.

[Blove86]

I wear my lab coat for clinicals only