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.
Are attorneys required to buy their suits from one store, one designer/brand?
No, go be an attorney if you like.
Are physicians required to wear the same colors, and buy from the same store?
Depends on what kind of physician you are. You want to wear designer duds? Fine. Have fun in medical school.
I hardly think that resisting being forced to purchase and wear clothes much the way fast-food establishments do is "holding the profession back".
If you think wearing standardized uniforms is like working fast food, you are outta your mind.
Please name a profession that makes this same requirement?
Military officers. Airline pilots. Police officers. Firefighters. (I know, what a bunch of sad sacks.)
I think this is more the problem, than what color is worn. I see no reason why there can't be some individual choices regarding fabric, cut, length, etc. as long as the chosen items match the specified dress code.
The sad thing is most patients have NO idea what the colors of the scrubs mean.
I work on a med surg floor that serves a the entire socioeconomic spectrum. One of my patients last night was a very well off wife of an MD. Another was a retired teacher, and another was homeless. They all quickly picked up on the fact that RNs are blue, NAs are teal, RTs are green....
I know this is a vent more about having to buy from one place (I feel you, OP, that stinks!!!! I'm hard to size and tried on a million scrubs before finding what worked for me). but I wanted to add that as an employee, I love color coding too! I float (PCT) and so it's hard to know everyone. But if I need help, I know a nurse will be in blue scrubs, another tech in xyz color, etc. The patients pick up on it as well. I've heard more than once that "you must be my cna today because you are wearing this color scrubs". Yup.
I think this is more the problem, than what color is worn. I see no reason why there can't be some individual choices regarding fabric, cut, length, etc. as long as the chosen items match the specified dress code.
Please look up the word "uniform" in the dictionary. As an adjective, it means "never changing or varying". As a noun it means "an outfit that distinguishes the wearer as belonging to a particular group." I've been a nurse for over 25 years, & I can tell you that, left on their own, there are some members of this profession who will dress in a most unprofessional manner without uniform rules.
This whole discussion is just sad. Police officers, firefighters, military personnel, athletes, and any number of professions wear uniforms. The members of these professions are told what to wear, and they do it, with no individual choices. Petty arguments such as this business about color-coded uniforms are the type of things that keep this profession from being taken seriously.
P.S. In trying to click the "Reply" button in your post, I hit the "Like" button by mistake...
Specializes in Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care.
My hospital is doing the same, with LVN's required to wear teal, yuck! As a full-time contract nurse I got around it (and ended up ******* a few people off) by actually reading the email detailing the new policy. It stated specifically that those subjected to the policy were ones who received compensation directly from the hospital. Since I am paid by my agency I do not fall in to that category, so I wear whatever I want. Not the most PC move of my career, I know. But, I have very specific uniform requirements. No elastic waistbands and POCKETS, POCKETS, POCKETS...
Please look up the word "uniform" in the dictionary. As an adjective, it means "never changing or varying". As a noun it means "an outfit that distinguishes the wearer as belonging to a particular group."...
I don't appreciate the condescension, and really don't think I need to "look up" a word such as uniform to understand it. My reaction was to your analogy of attorneys (who wear suits to work) and physicians (who wear what they deem appropriate) to nurses who are told to wear a specific scrub outfit from a specific vendor. Your analogy was faulty, as I pointed out; attorneys choose what they wear, physicians choose what they wear. The OPs complaint was that she now had to purchase specific clothing, something that is NOT an industry standard. Police who join the force are expected to wear a specific uniform, as are the firefighters, athletes, military personnel you mentioned. Nurses, however, are NOT, as a profession, expected to wear the same attire. At one time, nurses wore full whites, and that WAS the expectation. No more discussion. That time has passed, however, and now there ARE choices.....and that was the point.
As for the rest of your post, well.....viva la difference.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
"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."
Attorneys must wear suits to work. Do they ask the senior partners to pay for them? Physicians must dress professionally when they are in the office or seeing patients. Do they ask others to pay for their clothes? This sort of mentality is one of the things that is holding this profession back.
Your example doesn't fly. Attorneys can wear whatever color, style or brand of suit fits them best. Phsycians can also choose to wear whatever color, style, etc. fits them.
The kind of mentality that is holding us back is the kind that says "I worked HARD for my navy blue scrubs, so I can look just like all the other nurses" or "I don't really mind about the mandated colors -- at least I know who everyone is."
Brilliant idea, start Facebook drama and get fired! No thanks lol
NO, that was not the intent--literally, locals around here started a "Consignment" type of web page, sold all of their used scrubs (and lots of other "yard sale" type items) and made a killin!! It is like a yard sale online.
Otherwise, you could bring to a local consignment shop and get something for them. Nurses pay a great deal of $$ for scrubs--to now have that money go to waste is sad.
Didn't read all the pages of debate....but I kinda wish my hospital did the colour coding thing sometimes. I love choosing cute scrubs but no one knows who anyone is where I work unless you squint really hard at their ID badge, and half the nurses don't even wear their badge. RPNs, RNs, HCA's, business clerks, ultrasound techs...etc etc all wear whatever scrubs they want.
But to dictate what you can buy...that seems a little degrading to me. While management sits around wearing whatever they want, they dictate to their front line workers what they can wear like a bunch of toddlers or something..I don't know.
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ArtClassRN, ADN, RN
630 Posts
It's been done with military officers - professionals - for thousands of years and is not abhorrent.