Everyone's wearing scrubs...is this good?

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I was reading a thread last night that brought up the subject of staff wearing scrubs who are not nurses, but being mistaken for nurses. I have noticed that this is not so much at my local hospital, but at my local state health department everyone wears scrubs. The file clerks and the social worker wears scrubs. How do you feel about that? In this thread, some people said that this isn't good because people who are medical assistants, etc., may act in ways that are not professional and then are mistaken for nurses because they are in scrubs. What do you think? Should non-nurses, file clerks, social workers, etc., wear scrubs?

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Specializes in SNF, Oncology.

I think scrubs should be reserved for those in direct patient care.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

In the hosptial where I work everyone wears scrubs.Housekeeping, dietary,lab techs, aids, porters, ward clerks.I don't think it matters.

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I don''t have any strong feelings about it one way or another. I find that people usually know the difference. My experience is that when patients start talking to the non-nursing staff about medical issues they usually come running to me in a panic to deal with it.

Reminds me of the time when I lost my wallet and my license. I went to the BON to replace it and I asked if I should get a new number in case someone wanted to use my license. They said "why would anyone want to use a nursing license?" Well. Point taken. Although I do check my status on the BON website regularly.

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Specializes in stepdown RN.

I don't see the big deal about who wears scrubs. Everyone should be wearing a name badge that shows their title. Every department wears scrubs at my hospital, I don't see how a person will get the housekeeper confused with a nurse, I don't push a big cart with a mop and broom. No one will get me confused with a kitchen worker, I don't wear a hairnet and push the big cart with all the trays on them. etc....Now I can see how aides get confused with nurses but like I said everyone should wear a name badge. Scrubs are not like nursing caps they are not ONLY for nurses. The hair salon I go to wears scrubs and I don't think they are all nurses just working a second job:)

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At my job, the nurses, housekeeping, CNAs all wear scrubs, but the CNAs have to wear blue scrubs, nurses can wear whatever they want so thats how people tell them apart. I wish PCAs (me) could wear scrubs! I hateeeeee HATE HATE our uniforms!!!!!!!:barf01: I think scrubs are nice for direct patient care because they're comfortable and look nice.

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Specializes in CNA: LTC & DD.

One of the complaints I heard from many people when I was in clinicals as a CNA at a hospital was that they couldn't tell who was a nurse and who was an aide and who was a tech or a transporter or anything because they all wore such an amalgam of scrubs and their ID badges were on lanyards which means - you guessed it - half of their badges were BACKWARDS! Even I had trouble as a student because everybody's titles were written in very tiny font on their badges, you practically had to stand right in front of people to read them.

Badges are great - when they're legible, and facing the right way!

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Specializes in stepdown RN.

Where I work also, our badges are two sided, they are always facing the right way:)

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

I really don't see a big problem with 'everyone' wearing scrubs. At my PCPs office everyone (secretary, MAs, nurses--ok, well everyone except the doctor) wears scrubs. In my hospital the unit clerks/secretaties, housekeeping, respiratory therapists, doctors, nurses (am I missing anyone?) wear scrubs. I have never for a moment thought "how dare the housekeeper wear scrubs and pose as something he's not!"

As for mistaken identity--I have been mistaken for a doctor, and I'm sure a housekeep has been mistaken for a nurse. If I'm mistaken for a doctor, I will find the patient's doctor to work out the situation. If a housekeeper is mistaken for a nurse and it is an emergency situation, it does not matter what they are wearing--they will find the appropriate person for the situation...

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

Everyone wears scrubs here. But our badges have a hang tag with 1 inch tall letters indicating our discipline or department. Each one is a different color. RN is green, LVN is blue, RT is --- dang, I forgot. But I can clearly read RT on the hang tag.

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I don't know where the idea came from that scrubs are reserved for nurses. At our hospital RNs and LPNs have BIG bright red tags that hang below their nametags. Scrubs are also color coded by dept. Scrubs are an easy way to make everyone look "professional" and uniform, and they are also easy to clean for the multitude of things that can get on you while working in a hospital.

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Specializes in stepdown RN.
Everyone wears scrubs here. But our badges have a hang tag with 1 inch tall letters indicating our discipline or department. Each one is a different color. RN is green, LVN is blue, RT is --- dang, I forgot. But I can clearly read RT on the hang tag.

We have the same thing, almost...RN's/LPN's have a hang tag also in red and we are the only ones....also the two sided badge helps.:nurse:

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