Have dress codes changed for clinical prep?

MunoRN, RN · Dec 7, 2012

When I was in Nursing school the dress code didn't allow for wearing anything underneath a scrub top because it was "unprofessional", I'm not sure if the instructors realized what happens when you bend over while wearing a V-neck scrub top and nothing but a bra underneath.

DoGoodThenGo · Dec 8, 2012

we never had to come the day before to do research, and im glad we didnt! i find that idea kind of silly anyway. when they become nurses, they dont come in on their day off to look up their patients so they will be prepared the next day. as students they have generally 6-8 hours with one or two patients, surely that is enough time to gather all of the info they need for their careplans?!
as for the dress code, yes, what they were wearing was inappropriate. they should have to wear their uniforms all the time. how are you to know some girl wearing heels and a low cut top looking through charts and computers is a nursing student, or just some nosey visitor who found a lab coat laying around?

IIRC the practice of students coming in the day before clinicals to to "research" has grown out of the changes in the amount of time patients spend in hospital.

Days of pts being admitted a day or so before an operation/proceedure and remaining for several days or weeks afterwards has pretty much gone. In some cases you are lucky to have them for a 48 hour period on some floors. This can be great for some but for students they could end up having only the one day with a patient and thus have to make the most of it.

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Dec 8, 2012

IIRC the practice of students coming in the day before clinicals to to "research" has grown out of the changes in the amount of time patients spend in hospital. Days of pts being admitted a day or so before an operation/proceedure and remaining for several days or weeks afterwards has pretty much gone. In some cases you are lucky to have them for a 48 hour period on some floors. This can be great for some but for students they could end up having only the one day with a patient and thus have to make the most of it.

One of the reasons my school stopped doing a day before prep was because so many patients would end up being discharged prior to clinical so the prep was often wasted. I'm glad they stopped, because with the pace of my program a night before prep when you already have 3 clinicals a week plus two 8 hour days of class would have been way too much. We learned to research and construct care plans quickly while getting vitals and doing am care. I think it was actually a good lesson in hitting the ground running.

sjbrk · Dec 8, 2012

Our school does not require us to go to the hospital and get information beforehand. Somehow, we all get our care plans and health assessments done. Going the night before is unnecessary and does not help prepare students with time management. That said, if we did have to get pt information the night before, our school would definitely require us to be in uniform, no doubt. Those students should not have been dressed that way.

bbuerke · Dec 8, 2012

So glad I'm not the only one who didn't have clinical prep work. As I was reading this post I was thinking "what the?!?!? Did I miss something when I was in nursing school?"

The idea of coming in the day before seems preposterous to me, for the reasons already mentioned. Also, I have to wonder how that affects learning. I am an experiential learner, and we would do a report every day after clinical. It was much easier to apply what we had learned in class to the patient's situation after having some experience with the patient, really helped to put all the pieces together. You don't show up to work knowing what patients you have ahead of time, so why should you in school? It doesn't reflect the real world...

timmedico · Dec 8, 2012

Inappropriate...and more importantly, UNPROFESSIONAL. Not exactly sure how this was allowed by the instructors.

lemur00, BSN, RN · Dec 8, 2012

We also had to wear business casual, no jeans/sweats/leggings/yoga pants or anything revealing, or we could wear scrubs. I just wore scrubs.

TeleRN44 · Dec 8, 2012

Students don't do prep at our facility...but I'm always stymied by the select few who wander through with Go-Go dancer make up and their hair down like they've rushed in from a shoot in a heavy metal music video. It soooo makes me want to drag each and every one of them off to the side and say "Listen hon, I don't know who exactly you're looking to impress looking like that BUT you want a doctor to be impressed with your BRAIN...not your bust/tarantula-thick lashes/life raft thick lips. The patient doesn't really care if you're pretty...they just want to know that you're competent, caring and above all else FAST when they ask for stuff. So, do us both a favor...go scrub your face clean in the staff bath. I'm sure you've got a scrunchie in your bag; You should put your hair up so no one pulls it...and we'll start ALL over in say...10 minutes?"

Wugh. :rolleyes:

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Dec 8, 2012

My school's dress code for clinical prep (which is a scheduled time/day with the instructor on the floor with us) is the same dress code for actual clinical days. School uniform, white shoes, hair up off collar, etc.

No way we could ever get away with what the OP described.

During my LPN schooling, even during our class time we had to wear scrubs (not our 'clinical' scrubs that were a certain color with the school emblem on it). The reason for that was classes that had graduated before us got worse and worse with what they were wearing during classtime. Daisy duke shorts with very low tank tops, low rise jeans so low that the southern region of their body was nearly/or was peeking out mixed with tight low cut shirts or the ones who were dressed as if right after class they would be going to the club. while I really hated having to wear scrubs all the time, it made it easier to figure out what to wear, and more especially, I didn't have to sit behind anyone with their butts hanging out or have to see anyones breasts nearly popping out to say hello

DoeRN · Dec 8, 2012

So glad I'm not the only one who didn't have clinical prep work. As I was reading this post I was thinking "what the?!?!? Did I miss something when I was in nursing school?"
The idea of coming in the day before seems preposterous to me, for the reasons already mentioned. Also, I have to wonder how that affects learning. I am an experiential learner, and we would do a report every day after clinical. It was much easier to apply what we had learned in class to the patient's situation after having some experience with the patient, really helped to put all the pieces together. You don't show up to work knowing what patients you have ahead of time, so why should you in school? It doesn't reflect the real world...

When is nursing school the real world? I didn't like coming in the day before preparing all night for clinicals but some schools require it. We had to learn all of our meds and procedures the patients were having. Along with all the path of their various diseases. And we had a dress code for our clinical sites.

seanynjboy, BSN · Dec 8, 2012

I was at work yesterday and the floor I was on had students there preparing for clinicals today. I was floored!! Two of the students had on leggings and super high platform heels. One had on a low cut shirt with her lab coat. I was thinking to myself is this a hospital or a night club?
And the clinical instructor was there!!!

That is just disrespectful in my opinion. When a student is doing clinicals in my opinion it is kind of a LONG job interview and it also has a reflection on the school.

We have uniform scrubs that we wear on campus at all times and also when we do our clinical prep. We have a different color set of uniform scrubs for our actual clinicals. My school is VERY VERY gung-ho about the dress code policy and the clinical sites are aware of that and will say something if we are not in compliance.

Floridayz, ASN, RN · Dec 8, 2012

I seriously worry about the judgment of these students now, once they are nurses.....it just plain scares me. I cannot fathom the thought process involved in selecting an outfit like that in a professional setting.