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

[caregiver1977]

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?

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

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!

Everywhere I have worked has had a dresscode of sorts where everyone wears a certain color--for example, nurses in white or ceil blue, aides in green, techs in navy blue, etc. I have never worked anywhere where this code is enforced.

As for the name tag issue...our tags have a big attachment that says "RN" "LPN" "TECH", etc based on your position. They are, however, only one sided. Mine accidentally flips over. I even had one person try and tell me that I did this on purpose because I did not want people to know my full name.

[noahsmama]

I work for a county health department, and no one wears scrubs, it's all "business casual". I don't understand the point of wearing scrubs unless you're doing direct patient care.

[caregiver1977]

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:)

When someone is pushing a food or janitor cart, then that is kind of obvious:p

It is just that some of the staff that are not so obvious sometimes get mistaken for nurses, even when they do something that is not quite ethical. I would think that would be rare, but the subject did come up.

[jjjoy, LPN]

I don't know where the idea came from that scrubs are reserved for nurses.

From those young enough to have grown up surrounded by health professionals in real life and on TV in colorful scrubs?

[caregiver1977]

I work for a county health department, and no one wears scrubs, it's all "business casual". I don't understand the point of wearing scrubs unless you're doing direct patient care.

At my county health department they all wear scrubs and most of them don't wear name tags. I've not experienced any problems, but I just wanted to see how other nurses felt about it.

[purse]

i work with the same people everyday and they often refer to us as their 'nurse' because we typically are the only ones they see.. but i often reassure them by saying "im not a nurse yet" or i say "im not your nurse im your helper" I hate calling myself an aid haha. But i do see them say it to my coworkers who just let it go... but i would NEVER call myself a nurse if im not, even if it is to a 96 yr old pt who wont remember...its just not right.

[DPSGraduateNurse]

It's a uniform. Says nothing else other than an employee working and engaging part of an organization. Many service industry do it. Airlines, car rentals, hotels.... I don't see anything wrong with it.

[Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN]

i work with the same people everyday and they often refer to us as their 'nurse' because we typically are the only ones they see.. but i often reassure them by saying "im not a nurse yet" or i say "im not your nurse im your helper" I hate calling myself an aid haha. But i do see them say it to my coworkers who just let it go... but i would NEVER call myself a nurse if im not, even if it is to a 96 yr old pt who wont remember...its just not right.

Well some residents yell, "NURSE!" "OH NURSE!!!!!!" when they need something. So the aide just runs in and sees what they need. Sometimes their minds are so far gone, its pointless to redirect them. This one resident I have thinks everyone is her niece. Shes calm that way. So we play along. We call her "Aunt Mary" and she calls us by whatever niece she thinks we are.

[juliaann]

Everyone in my hospital wears scrubs, because everyone is expected to help with patient care. Any employee can (and is encouraged to) answer a call light while walking down the hall, or help pass trays, etc. We're all (housekeeping and dietary, too!) BLS certified and expected to help if we're the first ones present at a code or other emergency. Scrubs are an appropriate uniform for all employees in my hospital.

BUT each department/job has a uniform color, and each patient room has a big "scrub color guide to your health care providers" poster on the wall so patients and family can know who is in what department.

Our titles are actually in a larger font on our badges than our names are.

[Batman25]

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

Agreed.

[j464335]

I may be a bit old fashioned but I think it is confusing for patients and their families...and they shouldn't have to read a poster, or play a guessing game especially since their paying for services. Nurses should be distinguished from other staff members... ??? Anyone else Notice that the Physicians don't need to have discussions like this? They would throw a FIT if other hospital staff starting wearing their traditional lab coats..:twocents:

[noahsmama]

Anyone else Notice that the Physicians don't need to have discussions like this? They would throw a FIT if other hospital staff starting wearing their traditional lab coats..:twocents:

At the hospital I used to work at, lots of other staff wore lab coats, and I never noticed a doctor throwing a fit about it.