Should nurses go back to wearing all white?

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If you walk into any given hospital ,clinic or Dr. office, you will see many different colors of scrubs and prints.They are very nice to look at, have a bunch of them myself. But, are we nurses blending in so well with all staff members that it can be confusing to the patients? Im sure we have all been in a situation where a nurses aide or lab tech were called a nurse by a patient. My nurse pin fell off one time and was found by housekeeping under a bed,I can tell you that was the last time I wore that gold pin to work. Sure, they give you a name badge with your name and title, but I have noticed even those are starting to look all the same.Just what are you all thinking about this.Should we reclaim the "uniform".

Specializes in PICU, Peds Ambulatory, Peds LTC.

Don't forget about us male nurses. I hated wearing white in school. Now that I graduated I'm looking forward on wearing colored scrubs. ANYTHING BUT WHITE:uhoh21: PLEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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I do wear an all white uniform.

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:bluecry1: I think that back to white uniforms would be one flu under the cookoos nest, nurse rachet and all that stuff. Shall we start doiing lobotomies again also? I hope not. When a child begins to grow and becomes more like and adult, do you tell the child to be a baby again? I think no.

:specs: :chair:

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i vote yes to wearing white because this is what i wear 95% of the time to work. moreover, it would be nice if you could go any where and know, for an example, each department can be identified by a specific color. rn-lilac...lpn-green...nursing assistant-blue, etc.

lilac is not my color :imbar i like the solution my current employer has...big red letters on the id badge; rn, lvn, lab, rt, etc.....now if they could get the docs to wear some sort of id!

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NO, NO, NO! As the world's most messy & most clumsy nurse, all my white uniforms would be another color in no time. I just love wearing dark color pants with a printed shirt. Harder to see stains. Just Wednesday, I got bright yellow medicine all over my new white shoes. :o (I was pushing them down a NGT) :chuckle

You were pushing your new white shoes down an NGT????!!!! :eek: :eek:

Sorry, I couldn't resist - I know what you meant - my shoes are multicolored as well :p

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Specializes in Acute rehab/geriatrics/cardiac rehab.

Oh no....not white.... My nursing school uniform was all white.... I'm looking forward to some colorful clothes to go to work in.

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Obviously white would easier distinguish us from everyone else, but I am not crazy about it. I do think the idea of having all the "levels" of staff wear different colors though.

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No, nurses should not go back to wearing white. Besides who wants to be recognized by the patients/visitors "as the nurse". Once they find out you are "the nurse" at the LTC they bug you to death and you can't get any of your work done. :chuckle

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Obviously white would easier distinguish us from everyone else, but I am not crazy about it. I do think the idea of having all the "levels" of staff wear different colors though.

I agree with everyone on this, that white is too impractical, it goes gray after a few washings... it doesn't fit in with today's nursing.

I do agree with skanded though. It would help if staff would wear different uniforms to differentiate who is who. It would be hard to make this universal though. Most people still think of nurses in white uniforms, that's a hard mold to break. Every hospital could have a different color of scrubs or whatnot, and tell the patient that PCT's wear one color, nurses wear another, techs wear something else. This could be placed in the patient handbook one receives upon admission to the hospital.

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.

I really would dislike wearing all white, but I agree about it being confusing. In the last hospital that I worked for, people said they thought the higher ups encouraged all depts. to wear these colored scrubs so it would look like there were more nurses than there actually were! Think about it! But I like my colored scrubs.

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Sure, if soemone wants to wash them, dry them, iron and starch them, get the stains out, and keep them white, fine i'll wear white. I do not want to spend my off time maintaining that crap.

you mean you don't wear polyester white????????

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Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.

No. It would feel demeaning, as if I am not professional enough unless I wear a certain color.

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