Oh no they didn't...uniform changes in florida

[pearljammer]

Our hospital has announced that in a couple of months our uniforms will be role-specific: all RNs wear navy blue, CNA's burgundy, ect. There will be no uniform allowance and they have taken it a step further to let us know exactly what company we are to purchase our scrubs through, plus what company we are to pay to have the hospital logo embroidered on it. Is this legal? How do we fight this without risking job loss?

[Turd Ferguson]

I think any uniform expense that is work related is tax deductible... not sure about the legality of forcing you to purchase from a certain company though

[headinsandRN]

OP what would you be fighting exactly?

I'm not a lawyer but the following seems evident:

A. Your civil liberties have not been violated

And

B. Working there is not a right

Other than that, the change is congruent to many hospitals are doing.

[missladyrn]

Our hospital tried to force us to buy from one company too, until all the mail order scrubs arrived and the tops didnt match the bottoms. And if you were size L you were out of luck they couldnt keep them in stock. The company was awful, you'd order L and they would send M or XL with a note saying they were out of L. Then you would have to pay shipping to exchange. And we had a special login as a "xyz" hospital employee to get our "special price" and our special price added 5 bucks to each top or bottom. If you left out the special sign in you saved a ton of money. I hope your not using the same company!

We all ended up ordering from our own fav companies and so far no one has "caught" anyone. Ha we figured at least we would all look alike, since most of us used the same company so how would they know.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Is this really worth the fight?

Compared to others in professions that require suits, dry-cleaning or keeping up with fashion, nurses spend a whole lot less to get dressed for work.

I own a pair of danskos and four company-logo ceil blue scrubs.

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

There's not anything you can do to my knowledge. My hosp system is doing the same thing. However, they are having uniform shows at each hospital about every two months, you can use payroll deduction and spread the payments out over four pay checks,they are discounted, and they finally agreed last year to buy the first set for us. Oh, and we've had over a year to "convert" our uniforms over. Maybe you could find the right avenues to make suggestions for something similar where you work to ease the sting of the situation a bit?

[JPRloverNurse]

That's very sad. The uniforms they usually want you to wear are so uncomfortable and don't fit! When I wear ill fitting clothing I feel so stupid and am less productive because I am thinking about how ridiculous and unprofessional I look! At the hospital I used to work at they had their employees "color coded" but you could buy any brand as long as they were the right color.

[Christen, ANP]

I like "color-coded" hospitals. The hospital I work at, you can easily tell who is who by what color scrubs they have on. Nurses are white and royal blue, PCTs are navy and tan, respiratory is green, radiology is black and red, transport is black and gray, OR is seal blue...Peds and L&D had a bit more leeway and could wear "cute" scrubs. You grow to love it. The other local hospital allowed TMs to wear whatever they wanted - when I was a student, I never knew who I was talking to - the nurse, the PCT, the secretary? They are color coded now too.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Many hospitals in my area did this a few years back. I like that there is sight differential between RNs and techs/CNAs. Too many of the CNAs like to play makebelieve.

[RooseveltERoosevelt]

Our hospital is going to one color for RNs- we are voting all of this week, with the decision to be announced next week. However, we were told that they will be providing us with 3 sets of scrubs, and if we choose to buy our own, we can buy any brand we want, as long as it's in the designated color. I'm not super happy about it, but the more I think about it, things could be worse, so now I'm just waiting to hear what color we have to have.

[mentalhealthRN]

I get the color coding thing. They are doing that here where I live and sounds like it's happening all over from other posts. However here its the color that is mandatory. They don't really care where you buy them from or the style. Not every style works for every body type.That's like saying every brides maid can look descent in the same exact dress! LOL That part seems silly. I do like the idea of the hospital logo on the scrubs though. They don't do that here. I think you have the option to buy things with the logo on it already and are allowed to wear them in place of/over the required scrub top--like I think they do a polo, a fleece vest, a lab coat, etc. and they are the only thing allowed besides the scrubs. Hopfully if the way they are doing it backfires and they have too many problems and complaints they will relax and just go with requiring a specific color.

[notjustanurse]

Our facitlity did this a couple of years ago. Nursing wears royal blue. CNA's wear burgundy. Dietary=purple, radiology=ceil blue, etc. We can purchase them from any company we choose though.

I've always kind of figured that as long as I get to work in the equivalent of pajamas, I'm happy.