Is there power in the color white?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi all. I'm looking for some opinions on whether you believe that returning to wearing all white uniforms might give us back some power.

Now let me explain power. I've been an RN for 21 years and we (the profession) seem to have gone from "thank you nurse" to being treated less than a house keeping staff (and their role is important in hospitals too). I just find patients, their families, government, even our own supervisors do not treat "hands on" nurses with the respect we deserve.

Please be bluntly honest.

No one ever likes to admit that appearances matter, but they do. By "appearances" I don't mean how pretty you are, but rather what your physical appearance conveys, and that includes whatever message is presented by your clothes. Uniforms say "I'm official". Even if I'm in McDonald's (I never am, but go with it...) I'm going to go up to the guy in the McDonald's uniform when I want to know where the ketchup is. The guy standing next to him in a business suit may be the district manager for all I know, but he's not wearing a uniform, so I turn to the guy who is wearing one.

I think people understand now that the person in scrubs could be a nurse, but they see the scrubs as a sort of casual-duty outfit, like your old clothes that you wear to clean house. Things that bring to mind traditional nursey images, like a white dress or even a pin of an old nurse's cap on your sweater, make you seem more official, and thus more trustworthy.

The most important thing isn't the actual outfit, but rather how you wear it, really. If you wear your scrubs like a uniform- neat, clean, unwrinkled, no cheesy plastic clogs, etc.- and conduct yourself with a certain kind of "trust me, I know what I'm doing" bearing, then people will treat you like you know what you're doing. If you slouch around in something that looks like you slept in it, people just aren't going to be inclined to take you as seriously.

Where my daughter does her clinicals, they have LPN students who wear maroon scrubs w/ their school's logo.

I do like the scrubs with the logos embroidered on them, and I also really like the tailored scrubs. They don't look like someone's old pj's!

Who wears uniforms? In our society those lower in the heirarchy wear the uniforms. The service workers wear uniforms, the doctors and administrators do not. I was told that going to scrubs instead of uniforms was a step up, not a step down.

Scrubs are a sort of uniform. A doctor's white coat is a sort of uniform. A military uniform is, well, a uniform. Try telling a colonel that he's low on the hierarchy. Airline pilots, professional athletes. Even a business suit could be considered a sort of uniform. There's nothing wrong with wearing clothes that identify your profession.

Just my 2 cents. Er, actually, about 6 cents, by the length of it. Sorry!

Specializes in SRNA.

That's all well and good but I'm just not going to wear a skirt. The hat? Not unless I was in Korea bucking for a Section 8. However, I'm all about comprimise. I'd wear my kilt to work if they let me play my bagpipes too.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

:)

:)

Now, Klinger could carry it off :w00t: :nurse:

But as for me, no thanks.

steph

Specializes in Critical Care.
No one ever likes to admit that appearances matter, but they do. By "appearances" I don't mean how pretty you are, but rather what your physical appearance conveys, and that includes whatever message is presented by your clothes. Uniforms say "I'm official". Even if I'm in McDonald's (I never am, but go with it...) I'm going to go up to the guy in the McDonald's uniform when I want to know where the ketchup is. The guy standing next to him in a business suit may be the district manager for all I know, but he's not wearing a uniform, so I turn to the guy who is wearing one.

I think people understand now that the person in scrubs could be a nurse, but they see the scrubs as a sort of casual-duty outfit, like your old clothes that you wear to clean house. Things that bring to mind traditional nursey images, like a white dress or even a pin of an old nurse's cap on your sweater, make you seem more official, and thus more trustworthy.

The most important thing isn't the actual outfit, but rather how you wear it, really. If you wear your scrubs like a uniform- neat, clean, unwrinkled, no cheesy plastic clogs, etc.- and conduct yourself with a certain kind of "trust me, I know what I'm doing" bearing, then people will treat you like you know what you're doing. If you slouch around in something that looks like you slept in it, people just aren't going to be inclined to take you as seriously.

I do like the scrubs with the logos embroidered on them, and I also really like the tailored scrubs. They don't look like someone's old pj's!

Scrubs are a sort of uniform. A doctor's white coat is a sort of uniform. A military uniform is, well, a uniform. Try telling a colonel that he's low on the hierarchy. Airline pilots, professional athletes. Even a business suit could be considered a sort of uniform. There's nothing wrong with wearing clothes that identify your profession.

Just my 2 cents. Er, actually, about 6 cents, by the length of it. Sorry!

Here's the thing: nobody is saying that you CAN'T wear a white uniform. Just don't tell me what I have to wear. I'm just not interested in symbolism over substance.

Your quote: "If you wear your scrubs like a uniform- neat, clean, unwrinkled, no cheesy plastic clogs, etc.- and conduct yourself with a certain kind of "trust me, I know what I'm doing" bearing, then people will treat you like you know what you're doing."

I agree with the last half of this: If you conduct yourself with a certain kind of "trust me, I know what I'm doing" bearing, then people will treat you like you know what you're doing. I don't really see what a white uniform has to do with it.

I fully understand that hospitals have an interest in confusing who the nurses are so that it appears that there are more than there are. But there are easy fixes to that - fixes that DOESN'T require this male nurse to wear a cap or look like a psych orderly.

Again, no thanks.

~faith,

Timothy.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

If you wear your scrubs like a uniform- neat, clean, unwrinkled, no cheesy plastic clogs, etc.- and conduct yourself with a certain kind of "trust me, I know what I'm doing" bearing, then people will treat you like you know what you're doing.

My "cheesy plastic clogs" happen to be what relieved the pain in my feet. The do not define me as a nurse.

Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

I guess we know how oldshoes feels about Crocs! :rotfl:

Hmmm... I always thought red was the power color. :monkeydance:

I've always thought red was the seductive color :wink2:

Specializes in Pediatrics.
if the problem is that nurses wearing scrubs can't be distinguished from housekeeping, dietary, pharmacy, etc. then perhaps nurses should be the only ones wearing scrubs. if someone doesn't do patient care, i fail to see the need for them to wear scrubs.

well, your typical floor nurse doesn't actually need scrubs any more than the cleaning staff or linens delivery person. they are not somehow cleaner than street clothes, and we don't usually carry extras along to change between messy patients. if something will get messy, you wear a disposable gown these days. pockets are nice. i wish non or/ed nurses, not just administrators, would wear business attire with practical shoes and a lab coat over it for id/storage.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
as a student i dont feel qualified to talk to "what gives power" or "professionalism" in nursing.

when i was in the military though, every once in a while someone would pull out the "professionalism drum" and beat it. what i learned in fairly short order is when they said professionalism, what they really meant was appearance. it wasnt until i had 15 or 16 years in and was a senior leader though that i learned that there was an entire world of incompetance that some people attempted tohide with a snappy crease in their pants and a good shoe shine. from that point forward my yardstick for measuring professionalism is "how professional (knowledge, demeanor,drive etc)does this person appear. you can teach a monkey to dress up fancy and shine his shoes. my thoughts,

aloha

jim

as a student, jim, you make a lot more sense than some of the experienced nurses!

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
as casualjim said, i'm not yet qualified to talk about power and problems in nursing, but in my humble opinion i wouldn't say it's power. you're just conforming to how people think you should be or look and it makes them more comfortable to have you in the little box they want you in - that's all. every time i read the debates about white uniforms on here and someone mentions positive reactions from the patients i think back to my sociology classes. i can't remember the concept but it's about how people unconsciously act more negative towards people who don't conform to their personal beliefs or standards in an attempt to beat them down so that they will conform. i can see that as clear as day when i read people's stories of how they were treated when they wore all white solely by the words other people use when they "compliment" the nurse when she wears white, for instance, "now you look like a real nurse!"

if every nurse wore white they wouldn't have any more power or be treated any better than you are now. the problems in nursing are beyond uniform colors.

your sociology concept is an interesting one, and i believe you're right. the thing that frightens me is how many nurses are jumping on the white bandwagon in an effort to win more "respect." the problems in nursing aren't about uniform colors!

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
wow! you've submitted some strong and wonderful replies. i get the feeling that basically we need to take ourselves, and each other, seriously as professionals. respect each other and others will respect us in turn. too true. there in lies some new problems we need solutions to;

1. how to stop sniping at each other?

2. how to get upper management to take the role of the hands on nurse more seriously?

3. how to open the eyes of the public at large to the true power of nursing and the profession?

the uniform thing....some style, or color, that distinguishes us from other workers, at a mere glance. certainly does not need to be white.

thanks all

wendy

after reading this and many other similar threads, i still don't understand the need for some unifrom thing that distinguishes us from other workers at a mere glance, but if there is a need, perhaps getting other workers out of our scrubs would do the trick.

i just got home from a 3 day hospital stay, and can assure you that i had absolutely no problem distinguishing my nurse from any other worker. my nurse introduced herself at the start of each shift, and wrote her name on an eraserboard on my wall. my nurses were knowlegeable and professional. the pcas also introduced themselves and wrote their names down for me . . . something that i appreciated because the drugs made my memory somewhat fallible.

i suspect that these threads are more about some nurses wanting to wear a uniform like cherry ames used to than about the inability of patients and families to distinguish who is who.

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