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?

[sunnycalifRN]

I suppose it depends on the policy at the institution. Some people like scrubs because they are very loose fitting and comfortable. An ID badge is usually worn to allow the public to know the position of the person before them.

[sunnycalifRN]

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:

Uh, all the respiratory therapists, physical therapists, nurse practitioners, speech therapists, pharmacists and dietitians where I work, wear "traditional" lab coats. Many of the docs just wear scrubs.

[Emergency RN]

The Scrub clothing was, at one time, legally mandated clothing required by the department of health that was only to be worn by authorized personnel (those with invasive surgical contact) within a hospital. That is, even hospital nurses or doctors could not wear them unless they had close contact with intra op or fresh post op surgical patients. The scrubs were required to be only worn within the hospital and could not be worn outside. At one time state inspectors used to stand outside hospitals during the midday, to observe and apprehend violators who stepped out in their scrubs for lunch. Hospital laundries were required to launder them according to strict washing guidelines. This was designed as a method of infection control; to prevent bedside personnel from bringing common household or street bacteria to the vulnerable patient.

However, over the years, as more and more hospital personnel wanted to get in on the exclusive "look" of the scrubs, everyone clamored to be allowed to wear them as they conveyed an aura of importance. Hospital infection control committees then started to bend rules, allowing even the most casual of "surgical" contact to be in on scrub club. Then it became not just surgery, but all those who were in critical care. After that, some distinction minded hospitals wanted to visually distinguish their various departments, so every section got their own color theme (eg. blue for surgery, green for ICU, red for emergency, brown for housekeeping, etc). By that time, uniform companies then saw an untapped market, and they began to make floral prints or scrubs with bold and colorful designs, and shilled their wares to the general public.

After a while, what was originally a thoughtful and effective infection control methodology was allowed to degenerate into nothing more than selfish fashion statements for the masses.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

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.

one of the reasons that scrubs should be reserved for nurses or (or for people in direct patient care) is that because everyone wears them, scrubs are being color coded by department. if the difficulty is that the patients don't know who is doing patient care and could get them a blanket and who is the janitor -- only patient care personnel should be wearing scrubs!!!

[j464335]

"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. "

In my "neck of the woods".... our Dr.'s, PA's, & NP's are the only staff permitted to wear 37 inch lab coats,

per hospital policy, they are also embroidered with their name & position... this is common practice in ALL of our hospitals within a 80 mile radius from me.

[Vanillanut, DNP, RN, APRN]

Personally, I feel that nurses should be the only ones allowed to wear scrubs. Unit clerks are not involved in direct patient care, and can look professional in other attire. As far as PCA's/CNA's go..... I have story to share:

I saw a CNA feeding a patient (I work in ER). The way this CNA was feeding this patient was beyond unsafe, and rude to boot. She was essentially scolding the patient (about 75 yrs old) about him not wanting to eat while trying to ram food down his throat (there was so much unsafe things about this scenario- positioning, patient's condition, etc)..... anyways, the patient was mentally "with it" and very sharp in all other means. When I stepped in and intervened, the patient told me that he "was scared of the other nurse" and that she had told him it was OK to eat. This CNA later denied any wrongdoing, and said she "had much more knowledge then some of the nurses anyways, because she had worked there longer".

Please realize I am well aware that not all CNA's are like this...... but different uniforms might prompt patients to be discerning about who they take medical advice from.

I've also seen family members frazzled, running up to the first person they see in scrubs (in that case, it was an XRAY tech) and saying "MY DAD CAN"T BREATH!".... again...... if they knew who they were looking for, perhaps some time might be saved. Plus, it's up to the Xray tech to inform the nurses of these types of situations. I would hope they would..... but it only takes 1 time to get distracted, forget, be too busy, whatever.

Personally I think even nurses sometimes appear "sloppy", with grungy hoodies and non-hospital gear...... I really think tightening the rope on appearances- even just a little bit- would go a long way in terms of representing our profession.

[TicAL]

Yeah doctors don't wear white coats anymore because everyone else wears them now. Why on earth would a social worker need to be wearing a long white coat...does it make them feel important?

[aem31]

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!

I think it would help if all the badges for different departments were color coded. That way you know off the bat that all blue badges are RN and red are techs or respiratory therapists or whatever.

[aem31]

Ah. Just saw someone else mention color coded badges.

[caregiver1977]

Yeah doctors don't wear white coats anymore because everyone else wears them now. Why on earth would a social worker need to be wearing a long white coat...does it make them feel important?

I know of a social worker that wears scrubs. I don't think I have seen one in a lab coat.

[KatzchenLSW]

Yeah doctors don't wear white coats anymore because everyone else wears them now. Why on earth would a social worker need to be wearing a long white coat...does it make them feel important?

The same reason the nurse case managers and admin nurses at my hospital wear the same long white coats?

I'm a social worker (psychiatric assessor) in a busy psych ER and wear per hospital policy have to wear business professional. Most of the time it is fine but every now and then there is a shift or two that I would love to be in scrubs as I often am spit on, have dinner trays thrown at me or have clothing damaged by angry or psychotic clients.

I guess I don't see how taking people out of scrubs would limit role confusion. I've never worn scrubs but 9 time out of 10 the client will refer to me as "the doctor" or "the nurse" even though I introduce myself as a social worker when I come in to the room. I think it has less to do with clothing and more to do with the TV mentality that everyone who works in a hospital must be either a doctor or a nurse

[David Byrne]

Bit if a weird question.

Maybe this is a loaded question. 

Scrubs were meant for the environment  not aeans of rank or fashion as in all the cat walk ones you have now.

They were originally  meant for clinical area staff from Consultant's  down to ancillary.

Scrubs as I see it have morphed into a uniform which I believe is not the intended original  purpose of cleanliness.

As far as I can see it historically they were interchangeable work wear when spillage and splutter were in the environment.

Colours were used denote in a basic manner type of staff 

Doctors Green , Nurses Royal and Ancillary staff Sky blue.

I believe their origin came from Theatre then morphed into all areas for cleanliness 

Scrubs also had a dispenser in the floor when spillage took place you had to change from the closet provided

So really scrubs don't denote nurses or other health professionals,  it's the environment. 

As for IDs and tool belts creeping  in , this has cross infection written all over it.

This well just have to go on a journey  of learning the hard way along with fashion  scrubs.