uniforms are killing us

Nurses General Nursing

Published

What do you all think of current nursing wear. it kills me to go up to a adult floor and see RN's wearing all these crazy looking tops with cartoons and teddy bears on them. personally i see why some of the public looks down to a nurse and is always wanting the DR. We look terrible. I think all floors should have set colors for each positon. RN's, LVN's, PCA's, it gives a sense of order. just wanted to know how others see it, because i just was looking at a web site for nursing uniforms, and i couldn't help but laugh at some of them.

There was an article in a nursing magazine some months back, about how nurses have short changed ourselves by not having a standardized uniform (like white color). No, not hats, but at least ONE acceptable color that is always used by RNs and yet, shoot me, but I'd vote for white again but in a scrub with an ANA insignia and not a step back in time to Nurse Baker with white dress and hose... White bleaches better than other colors, looks crisper, and shows blood/stool more and that is a GOOD thing (I don't WANT a patient's blood/stool hiding in my prints...)- plus every nurse should keep an extra set of scrubs around for that kind of emergency change (I would no sooner want to wear a patient's 'poop' on my print all day than on a white uniform!). Plus now they have those great little bleach pens that kill two birds with one stone...Hey all...wake up and smell the coffee! Like the poster above said, hospitals do not WANT nurses in uniforms. They WANT us to be confused with all kinds of less trained assistants to appear that there are more RN's and to lessen the demand for us. Be careful of confusing comfort and fashion freedom (why can't white 'scrubs' with maybe red piping at the V-neck and cuffs, be as comfortable as any other color, and reserved for RN's only and with a special ANA logo?), with the need to distinguish ourselves and present as professional an appearance as possible. You want more pay? Perception is everything...so along with that professional demeanor, why not work toward standardizing our professional appearances too? It never fails to amaze me the things that we can't agree upon, or work toward, which would only help to promote our profession, and increase status and pay...

I swear I'm tempted to create this kind of scrub, with an ANA insignia, and market it via a website where you have to give your license in order to be able to purchase. Nurses can opt to buy it and wear it and maybe we can start a trend...

(and now I'll duck for all the pies I expect to be thrown my way for daring to suggest a real 'uniform'...just make it pecan pie, please..that's my favorite!)

...

0 Votes
Specializes in cardiac.
There was an article in a nursing magazine some months back, about how nurses have short changed ourselves by not having a standardized uniform (like white color). No, not hats, but at least ONE acceptable color that is always used by RNs and yet, shoot me, but I'd vote for white again but in a scrub with an ANA insignia and not a step back in time to Nurse Baker with white dress and hose... White bleaches better than other colors, looks crisper, and shows blood/stool more and that is a GOOD thing (I don't WANT a patient's blood/stool hiding in my prints...)- plus every nurse should keep an extra set of scrubs around for that kind of emergency change (I would no sooner want to wear a patient's 'poop' on my print all day than on a white uniform!). Plus now they have those great little bleach pens that kill two birds with one stone...Hey all...wake up and smell the coffee! Like the poster above said, hospitals do not WANT nurses in uniforms. They WANT us to be confused with all kinds of less trained assistants to appear that there are more RN's and to lessen the demand for us. Be careful of confusing comfort and fashion freedom (why can't white 'scrubs' with maybe red piping at the V-neck and cuffs, be as comfortable as any other color, and reserved for RN's only and with a special ANA logo?), with the need to distinguish ourselves and present as professional an appearance as possible. You want more pay? Perception is everything...so along with that professional demeanor, why not work toward standardizing our professional appearances too? It never fails to amaze me the things that we can't agree upon, or work toward, which would only help to promote our profession, and increase status and pay...

I swear I'm tempted to create this kind of scrub, with an ANA insignia, and market it via a website where you have to give your license in order to be able to purchase. Nurses can opt to buy it and wear it and maybe we can start a trend...

(and now I'll duck for all the pies I expect to be thrown my way for daring to suggest a real 'uniform'...just make it pecan pie, please..that's my favorite!)

...

You do make some good points in your post. I would go for the one exceptable color that would identify us as nurses. But, does it have to be white? Especially for women, white can be a nuisance at times if you get my drift?:nurse:

0 Votes
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
There was an article in a nursing magazine some months back, about how nurses have short changed ourselves by not having a standardized uniform (like white color). No, not hats, but at least ONE acceptable color that is always used by RNs and yet, shoot me, but I'd vote for white again but in a scrub with an ANA insignia and not a step back in time to Nurse Baker with white dress and hose... White bleaches better than other colors, looks crisper, and shows blood/stool more and that is a GOOD thing (I don't WANT a patient's blood/stool hiding in my prints...)- plus every nurse should keep an extra set of scrubs around for that kind of emergency change (I would no sooner want to wear a patient's 'poop' on my print all day than on a white uniform!). Plus now they have those great little bleach pens that kill two birds with one stone...Hey all...wake up and smell the coffee! Like the poster above said, hospitals do not WANT nurses in uniforms. They WANT us to be confused with all kinds of less trained assistants to appear that there are more RN's and to lessen the demand for us. Be careful of confusing comfort and fashion freedom (why can't white 'scrubs' with maybe red piping at the V-neck and cuffs, be as comfortable as any other color, and reserved for RN's only and with a special ANA logo?), with the need to distinguish ourselves and present as professional an appearance as possible. You want more pay? Perception is everything...so along with that professional demeanor, why not work toward standardizing our professional appearances too? It never fails to amaze me the things that we can't agree upon, or work toward, which would only help to promote our profession, and increase status and pay...

I swear I'm tempted to create this kind of scrub, with an ANA insignia, and market it via a website where you have to give your license in order to be able to purchase. Nurses can opt to buy it and wear it and maybe we can start a trend...

(and now I'll duck for all the pies I expect to be thrown my way for daring to suggest a real 'uniform'...just make it pecan pie, please..that's my favorite!)

...

Not all nurses are ANA members, nor do they necessarily want to be, so the insignia wouldn't work for everyone. And I've said this before, but I'll repeat it: Starched white uniforms are uncomfortable, they are unflattering to most figures and almost impossible to find in large sizes, they stain terribly, and they project an image which harkens back to the days when nurses were merely assistants to the physician, not professional people in their own right.

No thanks..........I wear street clothes to work, so this doesn't really pertain to me anymore, but I've worn probably every sort of modern nursing outfit on the market, and I'd quit before going back to starched white.

:(

0 Votes
Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
People in a hospital are sick and looking at drab, white uniforms isn't going to help. The real way to discern a professional from something else is in the nurse's attitude and behavior. I would be glad to be taken care of by a good nurse who also had in in them to be a bit light hearted.

Actually, public opinion polls have shown the opposite. They show that the public favor all white or traditional uniforms. A major reason, that when they are sick, they want us to be easily identifiable. The seriously ill, stressed patient and family members are not any shape to discern attitudes, behaviors or really in a position to appreciate lightheartedness.

Someone that is seriously ill should not have to examine "attitudes" and "behaviors" to feel like we are RNs/LPNs.

I agree that I do not like all white and that old uniforms are impractical. But if you are going to use the idea that the public like prints, please review the larger mountain of evidence that indicates otherwise.

I know that some patients will tell you that they like your print top, but for everyone that does, polls show that there are many others that do not. Much like nurses that have personal cell phones that ring in a patients room. Some patients will say, "Cool ring", meantime thinking the nurse is slack for having the phone on her person, and more will think that she is poor nurse for not having the common sense to turn the ringer off, or not have the cell on her person at all when working.

I agree that we should demonstrate good behaviors and attitudes. And again, I do not like wearing traditional white/uniforms. But the onus should not be on the patient to "figure out" who is the nurse.

0 Votes
Not all nurses are ANA members, nor do they necessarily want to be, so the insignia wouldn't work for everyone. And I've said this before, but I'll repeat it: Starched white uniforms are uncomfortable, they are unflattering to most figures and almost impossible to find in large sizes, they stain terribly, and they project an image which harkens back to the days when nurses were merely assistants to the physician, not professional people in their own right.

No thanks..........I wear street clothes to work, so this doesn't really pertain to me anymore, but I've worn probably every sort of modern nursing outfit on the market, and I'd quit before going back to starched white.

:(

I think my comfy white 'scrub' idea, complete with some colored trim & special insignia that only licensed nurses could use, just got morphed into a "stiff starched white" uniform...

(but at least i jumped up in time to catch that pie...yumm...my favorite too...Pecan! :wink2: )

...

0 Votes
Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

I like the prints, although I am not much on cartoon characters. Only have one top with Pooh and Friends Christmas on it. All the rest of mine are landscape type prints. I think having the freedom to wear whatever I want to is very uplifting.

I used to work at a place that had prescribed colors for each floor and type of nursing personnel and it was so boring. And NO ONE that didn't work there had any idea who was who, the color coding so people would know who the nurse was, did NOT work.

0 Votes
Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

The day I would have to wear a uniform with the ANA insignia on it is the day I quit nursing...then and there.

0 Votes
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I think my comfy white 'scrub' idea, complete with some colored trim & special insignia that only licensed nurses could use, just got morphed into a "stiff starched white" uniform...

(but at least i jumped up in time to catch that pie...yumm...my favorite too...Pecan! :wink2: )

...

Sorry, didn't mean to throw a pie at you.........I'd rather keep all that pecan goodness to myself!:wink2:

Comfy scrubs would be OK (I STILL hate white though, and not just because I look like an appropriate mate for the Pillsbury Doughboy in it). And the ANA shouldn't have anything to do with it---not all RNs are affiliated, nor should we have to be in order to purchase and/or wear this theoretical uniform. But that's a topic for a whole 'nother thread, which not incidentally has been beaten to death elsewhere............:uhoh21:

0 Votes
Specializes in Med-surg, homehealth, and hospice.

I agree, I feel as long as we dress professionally, it should not matter if we wear cutesy tops or not. On our floor we can wear print tops but we have to wear soild colored bottoms. Our hospital tried to get us to all wear one color on each floor. Each floor picking thier colors, however, the hospital was not willing to pay for them. So guess what? That got voted down real fast.

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I agree 100%!! The print, colorful, and crazy scrubs look ridiculous.

With the exception of pediatric nurses, uniforms need to be standardized. It would certainly bring more of the much needed dignity to professional nursing.

When we wear clown pajamas to work, we shouldn't expect the public to look up to us a trained and knowledgeable professionals.

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I was going to say how much I agree with the cartoon print tops looking ridiculous on adults, but then I stopped and looked down at the Winnie the Pooh Christmas top that is a part of my regular uniform....even in the middle of the summer........

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When I worked the units and floors we wore the same color scrubs but could wear a print jacket. The patients always enjoyed a bright, colorful jacket. They said it brightened things up and it was nice not to see the same blah colors day in and day out.

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