The hospital where I work is instituting color coded uniforms for all staff (except MD's) in patient care areas (RN/LPN-royal, PCT-teal, Radiology-black, Transport-brown, etc) to help patient's be able to identify who is who. Tops and bottoms are the same color. They are providing all staff with a ONE TIME only stipend toward buying the new uniforms. Full-time staff will receive $100, part-time $60, and per diem $40. Staff will be required to buy the scrubs online through the hospital and there is one brand (Cherokee) with 6 styles to choose from. If your scrub order costs more than your stipend, you pay the difference. The scrub prices range from $12-$24 each piece with the unisex being on the low end and the more fashion forward and maternity scrubs being on the high end. You will not be allowed to go to your local scrub store and buy another brand of scrubs, even if they are the correct color. If you choose to wear a shirt under your scrub top, it must be the same exact color as your scrubs or black, no prints. Also, no jackets are to be worn over the top.
Currently the hospital provides scrubs to the OR staff at no charge and will continue to do so. They also provide uniforms to the environmental staff at no charge and will continue to do that. If they are limiting our attire to one specific brand and specific styles and we have to purchase them from the hospital that seems like a uniform and not a dress code and the hospital should be providing them like they do for the other departments wearing uniforms. As far as I know, other companies outside of healthcare that require uniforms actually provide the uniforms.
I, like many of my coworkers, am fine with the required colors but am upset that I have to use my own money to buy the scrubs and can not even buy what fits me best. I wear tall length Koi cargo scrub pants, they are available in royal blue (I own 2 pairs) but I can not wear them. Instead I must buy pants I don't like for $24/each, because that is how much the tall length pants are through the vendor. My other option would be to buy the cheaper regular length scrubs and have them be 2 inches too short or buy the unisex pants and worry about my butt showing every time I bend over or feel gross and unprofessional because the crotch is sagging halfway down my thigh. According to the head of the uniform committee, staff should feel lucky though that they did not dictate what type/color shoes we must wear.
For those of you that work in hospitals with color coded scrubs, can you buy whatever brand fits you best as long as it is the right color? If your hospital does require a specific brand/color, do they provide you with the scrubs or do you have to purchase them from the hospital?
Obviously I am going to suck it up because I love my job and certainly am not going to quit over something like this, I just needed to vent my frustration and also wondered if this was the norm.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
While I do not love royal blue, I wouldn't care if the scrubs were paid for by the hospital or if they let us buy whatever brand we wanted.
The Cherokee scrub styles are are the itchy cotton/poly stiff scrubs. Reminds me of being back in nursing school. I work hard for my money and want to spend it on things I actually like.
They are also poor quality, fade fast and never ever lose their itchiness, even when they're falling apart. I feel your pain. My manager once commented that she didn't understand why people didn't iron their scrubs before work. I said that if you choose an unflattering color and style and make everyone buy it from a vendor with poor customer service and a website that doesn't play well with Macs, it's small wonder they don't want to iron their scrubs before work.
Our mandated scrubs don't come in a style that fits/flatters my body -- I always look like an unmade bed now. I had some scrubs that fit me and looked nice, but they're the wrong color.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I actually like Cherokee and they fit well on me...I use the Cherokee Workwear cargo style pants and the mini wrap top. The unisex cargo pants fit comfortably.
I don't like the styles we're allowed to wear, and they don't fit well or comfortably.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Even if I were able to deduct the cost of the uniforms, that is next year.
I am sure like me, many employees don't have the extra money today to buy new uniforms. Only a month ago we were told the uniform idea was in the "beginning stages" nobody expected to have to pay for them since the hospital pays for the uniforms for OR, maintenance, and environmental staff. Finding out that not only do we have to pay for them but we can not even bargain shop at our local scrub stores or online and have very little notice. Just because I make a good wage doesn't mean I have extra money.
I hear you. My hospital changed dress code policies a year before they instituted the color coded uniforms, and I had to run out and buy new scrubs. Then they changed their policies again six months later, and I had to run out and buy different new scrubs. And then the color coded scrubs. I'm not a happy camper.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
My hospital bought the vendor.
Aren't there laws that prohibit them from mandating that you purchase your scrubs from the company store? Mandating the standard and providing opportunity are one thing but requiring that you purchase from them seems wrong.
Aren't there laws that prohibit them from mandating that you purchase your scrubs from the company store? Mandating the standard and providing opportunity are one thing but requiring that you purchase from them seems wrong.
the whole concept of "color coding" supposed professionals is abhorrent.
Sounds like your facility isn't handling going to mandated colors in a good way. Mine allowed us to vote on colors (nurses chose navy and white, assistants chose teal and white, and other ancillary staff like radiology/respiratory chose black and white but no all black). No allowance, but we did have a year's warning, so those who needed to purchase scrubs during that time wisely chose the colors voted on. Peds still gets to wear prints, but that makes sense to pretty much everyone.
I'd just like to make a comment on how you talk about the hospital providing OR scrubs. There is reasoning behind it- no one wants pet hair or other contaminants from peoples' home leading to an increase in surgical site infections. AORN (the professional organization for OR nurses) strongly recommends hospital-provided and laundered scrubs for OR personnel. At my facility, we were always required to change scrubs if we exited the facility, and due to a recent spike in infections, we must now change after leaving the department (which leads to people needing to take longer lunches, but that's another post). We may not take scrubs home and wear them in the following morning. Even though AORN does provide recommendations for laundering personally owned scrubs, I can tell you that my consumer-grade washer and dryer can't get to those specified temps while the hospital's industrial grade ones can.
I can understand what you are saying about OR scrubs and maybe I should not factor them in to my point. The hospital provides uniforms for the security department, environmental service department, food department, and maintenance department. For this reason it does not seem fair to me that my uniform will not be provided/paid for. The residents also receive a yearly stipend of $250 toward scrubs of their choice. As far as I know "doctor scrubs" are the same as my scrubs why do I only get a $100 as a one time thing and they get $250 every year and are able to buy wherever they choose?
I work in the ED, inpatient nurses have told me that there were surveys going around their departments a couple of months ago regarding color preferences. No such surveys ever made it to the ED, which is the largest department in the hospital. They also said that none of the surveys mentioned specific brands or that they would need to be purchased through the hospital.
I just find it hard to believe that any patient is going to care or notice what brand my blue scrubs are. I also think that I will look more presentable and professional wearing my blue koi scrubs because they fit me properly and stay up when I do things like chest compressions, than some ill fitting scrubs that don't stay up on my flat butt causing me to flash my behind to everyone in the room.
I hear you. My hospital changed dress code policies a year before they instituted the color coded uniforms, and I had to run out and buy new scrubs. Then they changed their policies again six months later, and I had to run out and buy different new scrubs. And then the color coded scrubs. I'm not a happy camper.
They are also poor quality, fade fast and never ever lose their itchiness, even when they're falling apart. I feel your pain. My manager once commented that she didn't understand why people didn't iron their scrubs before work. I said that if you choose an unflattering color and style and make everyone buy it from a vendor with poor customer service and a website that doesn't play well with Macs, it's small wonder they don't want to iron their scrubs before work.
Our mandated scrubs don't come in a style that fits/flatters my body -- I always look like an unmade bed now. I had some scrubs that fit me and looked nice, but they're the wrong color.
I feel like that is what is going to happen where I work. People are not going to care about how they look anymore. Scrubs don't have to look sloppy, if you are allowed to pick styles that are right for your body.
And the patient that thought the RT or PCT was their nurse still wont know who their nurse is, aside from their nurse is the one wearing blue.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Our hospital let everyone "vote" on the colors, too. None of us ever saw any results -- but we WERE informed that nurses voted for navy, RT voted for carribean blue, etc. About that same time, I found out that the colors were chosen long before the "vote" ever took place.
Our hospital let everyone "vote" on the colors, too. None of us ever saw any results -- but we WERE informed that nurses voted for navy, RT voted for carribean blue, etc. About that same time, I found out that the colors were chosen long before the "vote" ever took place.
klone, MSN, RN
14,857 Posts
Yep, even with owning a house, our expenses are too small to itemize. I wish I could, I could justify my Dansko addiction even more.