dress codes

granny7 · Oct 12, 2004

can you believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my hospital has always had a dress code. now they are changing the policy and it now states that all staff has to wear white leather shoes!!! or all black leather shoes. i understand that for the floor nurses and staff. i work in the or. i was wearing the calzurio clogs, they are very comfortable for me. granted i was wearing the hot pink ones. so being the good rn, i ordered white leather clogs. they look very nice ( i know that won't last). but they aren't comfortable.

does anyone one else in an or has such a dress code? we are also not supposed to wear any jewerly, except a watch and wedding ring. no earrings unless they are covered and no necklaces. we are required to wear socks and as stated "foundation garments" that don't show thru clothes. just venting here, but would like to hear from others.

thanks

apaisRN, RN, CRNA · Oct 12, 2004

I'd think the OR is where dress code matters least! The patients are either to nervous to notice what you wear, or they're under anesthesia. I agree with non-visible bras and panties though.

Our hospital's CNO (was later asked to leave) wanted everyone to wear white shoes. Obviously she hadn't worked at the bedside in decades. White shoes look nice at first and do promote that nice nursey image, but after you've dropped poop, methylene blue, tube feed and whatever else on them they will never look nice again. And I tried, too. All different polishes and coatings. Now I wear brown Danskos and love them. I wanted to get purple but they were discontinued. My unit wouldn't have minded (I work MICU).

granny7 · Oct 13, 2004

Thanks for the reply. I agree that dress codes in the OR are like the bottom of any priority list. I have had patients and visitors alike comment on my Hot Pink shoes, all positive comments. I really don't have a problem with the rest of the dress code. I have always been a person to shy away from senseless confrontation. By the way. I wear Dansko clogs to work. They are so expensive that I don't want to invest $100 in a white pair to wear in the OR.

Are there any other comments??? pro or con?

Also I was told by a manager that US Nursing Standards call for white leather shoes?

shodobe · Oct 13, 2004

I have bought all kinds of expensive shoes for the OR and for the past 6-7 years I go to Costco and buy their brand tennis shoes. They last forever and when I want get another pair I just take the OR ones home and use them for outdoor shoes. They cost me just $15.00! My director doesn't care what we wear as long as they have some kind of heel support, no straps.Never been an issue because we don't have to abide by the hospital dress code. Mike

EmilyCCRN · Oct 14, 2004

I'm just a student, but all of the OR's that I've been in have required that staff wear booties over their shoes. In that case, what difference does it make what color the shoes are? I have white Danskos since we're required to wear white shoes for nursing school. I guess I might get some use out of them when I graduate, too! :)

shodobe · Oct 14, 2004

emilyerin, that is a no-no! The only time you need to wear some sort of shoe protection is when you are scrubbed on a particulary messy case, lots of blood,etc...

It has been established that wearing shoe covers is just a source of contamination throughtout the hospital. You must never leave the department with shoe covers and should always change between cases. I never wear covers during a case where I am circulating and always wear them when I scrub. Not everyone in my department wears them all the time or they don't wear them at all. Check out the AORN site and it will give you all the needed info on shoe covers. Sounds like someone is living in the past where your doing your clinicals. Mike

EmilyCCRN · Oct 14, 2004

emilyerin, that is a no-no! The only time you need to wear some sort of shoe protection is when you are scrubbed on a particulary messy case, lots of blood,etc...
It has been established that wearing shoe covers is just a source of contamination throughtout the hospital. You must never leave the department with shoe covers and should always change between cases. I never wear covers during a case where I am circulating and always wear them when I scrub. Not everyone in my department wears them all the time or they don't wear them at all. Check out the AORN site and it will give you all the needed info on shoe covers. Sounds like someone is living in the past where your doing your clinicals. Mike

Thanks for the information! I haven't been in an OR for about three years. Have the guidelines changed since then, or was it a no-no at the time? Without naming names, the hospital I saw this in was a big "HMO" place that doesn't have the best reputation in my area.

During that same visit to the OR, the scrub nurse (or tech???) had 1" PURPLE fingernails and "sterile technique" was not exactly followed the way I learned it. ("The instrument didn't fall all the way off the sterile field, so let's go ahead and keep using it" :rolleyes:

). Also, I was allowed into the OR with no supervision (before the case started). I was doing a "job shadow" at the time, and the sterile field was already broken out (again, with absolutely no staff in the OR). I did NOT do it because I had a little knowledge regarding sterile fields, but if I had walked up to it and started picking up things off the table, no one would have known about it and the patient could have died. I don't know if it's correct, but I was taught that "it's not sterile if you turn your back to it." I'll probably get to visit the OR at my clinical site next term, so it'll be interesting to see if the staff wears booties.

By the way, I love your avatar. I have a six-month old Rottie named Nick. Dobies and Rotties are gorgeous, aren't they? :)

sharann, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2004

emilyerin, that is a no-no! The only time you need to wear some sort of shoe protection is when you are scrubbed on a particulary messy case, lots of blood,etc...
It has been established that wearing shoe covers is just a source of contamination throughtout the hospital. You must never leave the department with shoe covers and should always change between cases. I never wear covers during a case where I am circulating and always wear them when I scrub. Not everyone in my department wears them all the time or they don't wear them at all. Check out the AORN site and it will give you all the needed info on shoe covers. Sounds like someone is living in the past where your doing your clinicals. Mike

Do they rally have to change shoe covers b/w cases? That interests me because our nurses and staff(the OR crew) wear them outside the OR, and I don't think they change at all unless they leave the OR(some don't take the booties or gown or hair cover off at all).. They also wear the same mask for several cases.Is this against the rules?

shodobe · Oct 14, 2004

Well you have to remember that AORN standards are only "recommendations" and not the rule of thumb for most hospitals. I think most places abide strictly by AORN but many use it as a place to start for making thir own policy. I have always been under the impression, and I do this myself, that you change masks between cases, change your booties between cases and never, ever wear them outside the department. I know every hospital has their own interpretation of standards but I think this only makes sense because you don't want to carry germs, infection throughout the hospital. Hair covering is another story since many wear custom made or special head coverings. I still wear the old, blue bouffant because I could never find the surgeon type hair cover that I liked. Unless it is a department rule that you have to use the same stuff all day, I would use just common sense in when to change attire. I can't remember when it was changed, but it has only been less than 10 years that you didn't have to wear booties all the time.It use to be, when I started long ago, that you had to always wear booties, make sure they were grounded, had to wear a cover gown outside the department. Now you can leave the department without wearing any kind of cover gown. This is one of the few rule changes I don't agree with. I think it is appropriate that you should cover up your scrubs when leaving the department because I just don't think it looks good walking throughout the hospital with whatever on the scrubs. I guess I am still a little old fashioned. Mike

granny7 · Oct 15, 2004

i remember when i started in the or we had to wear white lab coats when ever we left the dept. i thought it looked professional. now we don't have to. but my real problem is that the new dress code has dictated the material our shoes should be made from!!!! and the color!!!!! i could wear the shoe covers but i have a real small foot...size 5. and the shoe covers the hospitals supplies are way too big!!! i have also found the shoe covers to be a hazard. they are slippery, they can cause a fall. no one at my hospital changes shoe covers. they look so nasty. i can at least wipe my shoes off and i do clean them before i leave the dept. i don't want to scare anyone with betadine splashed on my shoes. i am a circulator most of the time. i like the calzurio clogs. they are autoclave safe and for me very comfortable. i just want to find documentation that i can take to admistration to back up my request to examine the dress code and question how it should be addressed in the or vs the rest of the house.

thanks:saint:

DNRme · Oct 17, 2004

Seems obvious to me this administrator has waaayyyy too much free time.....

I like super birkies. They last forever, and can go into the washer/sterilizer when they get gross. I would not want to wear leather shoes anymore in the OR. "Stuff" can soak in to the leather and wind up in you required socks. What a feeling!