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.

[GadgetRN71, ASN, RN]

We wear warm-up jackets in the OR. I think it's expected that we wear one because of skin shed from the arms(This is what it says in the AORN book) but they also are nice because it's cold back there.

[Journey_On, BSN, RN]

We were required to buy a lab coat before we started clinicals. I wore mine for a few of our psych clinicals, when we wore business casual (but some of the places in which we did our psych clinicals did not want us to wear them).

I also wore mine to do my end-of-the-semester head-to-toe assessment exam (Fundamentals) and also when I volunteered in a flu shot day on campus.

We had to buy a coat that was about waist-length because our faculty member told us that MDs wore the longer ones. Maybe it was my imagination, but I feel like I've seen nurses wearing longer ones.

[not now, RN]

I wear a long sleeved shirt under my scrubs and a black or dark blue hoodie. My old NM forbid them but my new NM is her polar opposite and doesn't care. The only time I wore a lab coat was in school.

[Speed Freak]

I can see some people wearing them to keep their arms covered. I wear Under Armor with long sleeves. Mostly because of tattoos.

[Bones OMS]

According to proper etiquette, nurses are forbidden from wearing white lab coats. Some exceptions are acceptable if the nurse in question has risen to the level of practitioner, but even then it makes the physicians crazy. If you must, wear one that is shorter so the patients can distinguish you from the actual doctors.

[meadowsong, ASN, RN]

Bones, I have never heard that before.

I do wear lab coats, most of mine are colored to match my scrubs , but I do own a white one. I have a quite a few and wear one or at the very least, bring one with to work.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Actually I've been told by an intensivist that it is no longer "cool" for docs to wear lab coats and hasn't been for some time. He, a funny guy says you can always spot the insecure docs that way. Says, his "aura" ought to be enough to distinguish him (it does).

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

I wear a scrub jacket in various designs and patterns. I'd be lost without the pockets.

[Bones OMS]

The etiquette is old and predates the NP and PA professions. Interesting article about it:

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2007/04/10/doctor_nurse_or_student_consult_the_white_coat/

[mammac5]

I am in an NP program and we have lab coats that we purchased through the school. They are long, white, with our names embroidered. We are to wear them anytime we are going to and from the clinical site, we can wear them during hospital clinicals (unless in the OR or something like that) if we choose, we must wear them when we are on a clinical where we are dressed business casual (such as psych).

I never feel like I'm pretending to be a doc when wearing my lab coat. I'm not always comfortable with the length because the ones I wore in the past were always hip length; when I'm outside and it's windy the longer coat gets twisted up between the knees!

[Bones OMS]

lol!!

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

About 15 years ago I had to wear a lab coat for EMS clinicals at the emergency rooms. We were required to wear a short lab coat only - we were told the long ones were only for docs...

My nursing clinical instructors sometimes wear the long ones, but usually over business casual type clothes.