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.

I know a LOT of people (on here and not) have discussed the pros and cons of white unifroms. And I'll give my two cents (like I have before): White uniforms are ruined the first time I wear them. Now, if they can figure out some way I can either get the stains out immediately, without having to stop caring for the patient or bring 5 changes to work every day, I'm going to stick with coloured ones that don't so as much.

Now, I do like white uniforms, don't get me wrong. But it just never seem praticle outside of movies and TV shows to wear them.

I don't necessarily advocate wearing white, but some of the arguments against it aren't very strong.

1) White fabric turns yellow. I'm sure some do but when I had to wear white for my time in nursing school, the sturdy polyester blends stayed bright and white through multiple washings and wearings. The crisp fabrics were stain resistant, washed well, held their shape, and rarely needed ironing. Some of the bright scrub tops out now also tend to fade and look ratty after multiple washings.

2) Undies will show. Thicker fabrics work fine covering neutral tone bras and undies. Besides, one can also wear undershirts and support hose to help cover undies (and avoid pantylines and help circulation). If one's clothes did get really messy, having an underlayer not only makes changing easier but you've got an extra layer between you and whatever splashes.

3) White shows spots more. That's a problem? As if we really want dirty spots on any of our work clothes in the hospital? And many fabrics these days are stain resistant, so those little coffee and mustard type spots can be quickly cleaned off without staining.

I'm not saying nurses should wear white. I just don't think the above reasons are strong arguments against it.

Specializes in Telemetry, Stepdown.

It doesn't seem to matter what color you wear, it's all in how you carry yourself. I've carried myself in a concise and professional manner, but still have been disrespected by patients and family members as well. The big kicker was the day one of my patients told their family, I haven't seen my nurse all day, but the "kitchen lady" keeps coming in here. (I did introduce myself as her nurse at the beginning of my shift and prior to assessing her and yes I did reiterate to her that I was her nurse.) Did it matter that I wore all white that day???????? No.

I am so glad someone has brought this up. I don't know about getting more respect, although at this point I'm up for anything. However, I do agree with professionalism that the all white "nurse" uniform has a certain status in my mind. I agree with another post that the scrubs are this big frumpy, cartoony, pj looking pantaloons! This is extremely unprofessional. I think the whole cartoon character thing alread for peds, but I would love to wear all white so my patients identify me as their nurse and not the cafeteria or house cleaning staff. They are just as important to running a tight ship, don't get me wrong. But nurses have worked their butts in comparison.... so let's dress like the professionals we are.

My 2 cents!

I don't necessarily advocate wearing white, but some of the arguments against it aren't very strong.

1) White fabric turns yellow. I'm sure some do but when I had to wear white for my time in nursing school, the sturdy polyester blends stayed bright and white through multiple washings and wearings. The crisp fabrics were stain resistant, washed well, held their shape, and rarely needed ironing. Some of the bright scrub tops out now also tend to fade and look ratty after multiple washings.

2) Undies will show. Thicker fabrics work fine covering neutral tone bras and undies. Besides, one can also wear undershirts and support hose to help cover undies (and avoid pantylines and help circulation). If one's clothes did get really messy, having an underlayer not only makes changing easier but you've got an extra layer between you and whatever splashes.

3) White shows spots more. That's a problem? As if we really want dirty spots on any of our work clothes in the hospital? And many fabrics these days are stain resistant, so those little coffee and mustard type spots can be quickly cleaned off without staining.

I'm not saying nurses should wear white. I just don't think the above reasons are strong arguments against it.

That's assuming you can afford this thicker, stain-retardent fabrics, aren't busy, and don't work at a place that screams at yoiu about being "unforfessional' if you have even the smalled spot on your clothing.

The power is in the nurses themselves. That are treated with more or less respect is because it is what we allow.

Hospital administrations and doctors historically have had the attitude "if you don't like it here go somewhere else we can always get another one.". Now is the time in our profession to educate them that not only do we deserve respect that we demand it, there are not that many of us to go around anymore and getting less.

As for the patients, I am an "older nurse" and I have noticed that if I show them respect I get respect back.

It is not inappropiate to say to a patient "You can't talk to me that way I am taking care of you."

Perhaps going back to My name is Ms/Mr Smith and I am your nurse instead of "Hi, I'm Sally and I'll be your nurse."might help. Sometimes we sound like the server at Denny's....not the professional nurse.

So my answer is Colors, no.....Attitude yes

We have to wear hunter green!

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
That's assuming you can afford this thicker, stain-retardent fabrics, aren't busy, and don't work at a place that screams at yoiu about being "unforfessional' if you have even the smalled spot on your clothing.

Exactly

It is more of a Professional thing than power to me.

If I were to return to work in a Hospital or Clinic setting... I would be the one with the White Uniform and Cap on !

Medically Retired ole Nurse

Specializes in Hospice, OR, Home Health, Orthopedics.
I take students to clinical two days a week. I am from the "old school" - I still wear white pressed uniforms, white hose, white polished shoes and my cap. Patients often put their call light on and ask for the nurse - when their regular staff nurse goes into the room they say "Not you, the real nurse." On days that I am not there patients often ask the staff "When is the nurse going to be here?" And family members of patients from other units often come to the floor to "ask the nurse a question." I do not work with an older population - I am on an OB/Women's Health Unit. I find it amusing, the regular staff finds it annoying. I am never confused with the lab techs, house keepers, kitchen hostess, or CNA's. I am often compared to Florence Nightengale by staff nurses - a put down on their part, but I take it as a compliment.

Here's the old diploma nurse chiming in to agree. I loved my uniform, complete with hose, shoes and cap as this lady wears. Now the only time it would seem to be appropriate in any cirmcumstance is at Halloween at a dress up party. I loved wearing my cap and the doctors used the different caps and uniforms to know who was the RN (this was at Georgia Baptist School of Nursing in Atlanta).

I would vote for a return to white. The Director at Grady has done it, (Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA) and has received so much positive feedback, both from doctors and others, that she has been invited to institute the change in other hospitals.

I had an instructor who used to work in New York and always rode the subways. They were dangerous even then. She personally related to me that regularly, when "aggressive" people were discussing who to jump, she would hear them say "Nah, man, she's a nurse. Leave her alone." She believed the white uniform set her apart as someone special. They never touched her, and this was at night.

Soooo, I vote yes, return to white, even though caps are probably long gone.

Jenny:nurse:

Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.
Look like crap in white, but darn it, I wish the caps would come back. I always thought white was a bad color choice, especially with everything that gets spilled. I remember Grandma coming home from work and having to wash her uniforms twice to get out all of the blood and stuff out of her uniforms. How she ever got all of that stuff out is still beyond me.

Cold water and a little bleach if necessary (that's why they were cotton). I remember my first uniform that was made of a "blend". I bleached it and it turned yellow! I don't remember how I got it white again but I did...

Specializes in Critical Care, Midwifery, ER, OR.

G'Day,

In Australia you would be hard pressed to find any hospital left where nurses where any white, let alone all white. I think that the word 'power' is negative and we should never assume that we have 'power' over our patients. The trend that I see in the forum is related to 'respect or regard' rather than 'power'.

In Australia our peak nursing body - the Royal College of Nursing, Australia - promotes itself as the 'Ultimate Nursing Professionals'. I disagree with this however. As a student I exchanged to the US and found that US nurses are regarded as true professionals. In the community nurses are respected in the US. In terms of your yearly salary you are remunerated accordingly for the difficult and important role you play in the provision of healthcare. This is not the same in Australia - heck, teachers are paid more than we are as nurses! Nursing in Australia is not seen as an important profession in the community - being a nurse is 'nice' not 'oh wow, a nurse - what an important job you have'. We are para-professionals in Australia - not quite there. Whether that has anything to do with not wearing white uniforms I am not sure. My current uniform is a red shirt and charcoal pants with black shoes - someone in the forum suggested red as a colour of power - I disagree - it doesn't give me any power.

The thing about uniforms that I don't like in Australia is that often the Patient Care Assistants wear the same or similar uniform as nurses and this causes confusion with the patients as to who the care giver is. I think that a uniform colour is not about power but rather about identification as the Nurse set aside from the other healthcare workers in the hospital. And ultimately a uniform should provide professionalism and respect for the knowledge and skills you have as a RN - not power.

Cheers

Keppel :twocents:

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