What do you wear to work?

Specialties Home Health

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Our DPS never would change our dress code...which said we had to wear navy blue and white. Then I hear someone asked the union about a uniform allowance and now we have a new policy that says we can wear any professional dress.

Does anyone else have to wear navy and white?

Dress clothes.

I work in a large teaching hospital. When I was a floor nurse, the dress code was white (yes white) or pastel colours. Uniforms must be of one colour, no mixing and matching. Whilte soled runners, or nursing shoes, no open backed shoes. Dark colours are discouraged upon, as are prints. During the week, when the chance of running into your nurse manager are high, we'd pretty much stick to dress code. On nights or weekends, we got a little more relaxed, wearing prints, or even greens. ALWAYS uniforms though. Our ICU nurse wear pink, they are issued unifoms. I am in the ER now, we don't wear white (it never stays clean), but have a little more leverage with our colours and styles. Most of the time though we just don our greens, they are available, you don't mind if they get dirty, you just switch to another pair, best of all, they are oh so comfy. I'm sitting here typing this in a pair right now!

Jo:)

I wear whatever I want. Mostly it's very casual. I work in a school setting with small children so I'm down on the floor a lot. They don't expect us to dress up. I try to pick shirts that the children will like - looney tunes, etc. They also notice what kind of shoes you wear and the color of your nail polish. I used to work in scrubs, which I really liked for comfort but I got this job and converted to what everyone else does. Carol

I used to work Med/Surg and had to wear scrubs for that job but I just started work at a Psych hospital and we can wear anything we want. I usually wear scrubs, just because I feel more comfortable in them when I am working. Besides, my scrubs are probabally the best looking clothes I own. All of my civies are falling apart. LOL I also wear my contact lenses more often at this latest job.

i have worked for a county health dept chha for 4+yrs. prior to my start, they were required to wear navy& white. this was changed to "business casual", the definition of this varies. :roll. we are NOT allowed to wear scrubs, or open toed sandles. other than that, no bare bellies, no cleavage, and basically we use common sense and comfort.

I am new to this field. Just had my orientation yesterday and Home Health is something I've always wanted to do. Yayyyyyy! :) I AM concerned with the clothing issue though and I'm not quite sure what to wear. We're told that we can wear scrubs or regular clothes with a lab coat covering. But I heard a horror story in orientation about all these nurses that were robbed going to this one patients house because of the fact that they looked like nurses (uniforms, lab coats, etc). Now I'm scared to wear scrubs or a lab coat. I'm thinking of wearing regular clothes and folding up my lab coat in the most inconspicuous bag possible and putting the coat on once inside the residence. Have any of you had this problem of being targeted because of the nursing attire you were wearing? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am looking so forward to my new venture.

as we do not wear uniforms or lab coats, we are not targetted for our attire. also luckily we live in a relatively low-violent crime county... however we are more likely to be targetted for our vehicles. we drive county vehicles, official plates and huge white emblem on the doors and smaller ones on the back/side windows...i have had a car get egged before...because of the easily recognizable cars and because we are a county agency, we also get scrutinized by people..they see us getting lunch at a drivethrough, or making a soda/potty stop at a store...and then follows the call to their legislator that there was a county vehicle being used for personal business...one nurse was confronted by a man in a convenience store, he couldnt believe that county employees worked holidays/weekends!!!!:(

Welcome to home care, Brita!!

I work in nicer, more affluent communities. BUT, coworkers who work in the rough neighborhoods all seem to agree that you WANT to look like a nurse. Most even drive with stethescopes around their necks!

Their belief is that people who live in these areas will recognize them as a health care worker who is there to help them, or help their own, if you know what I mean.

Some other safety tips are to get your visits done early in the day, be organized, know where you're going and act confident and sure of yourself.

Your agency probably has policies regarding keeping yourself safe on the job. Be sure to ask about the availability of escorts or armed officers if ever in doubt.

Safety first!!!

Specializes in home health.

Where I work nurses have a requirement for white bottoms, any "professional" looking top. I usually opt for a bright color tee under a short sleeved top that opens in front, worn as a jacket. I'd sure like the option of wearing dark pants, but I do understand that people (esp the elderly) associate white=nurse,and it makes it easier to pick us out of the crowd. CENAs wear maroon, kitchen is navy, Pt/OT khaki bottoms, polos with logos.

The dress code says professional casual... I've seen nurses wearing everything from scrubs to shorts and tee shirts. Supposedly no open toed shoes or clogs, but I've seen those, too.

Myself, I am an old hospital horse so I prefer looking like a nurse, I wear khaki scrub pants and white polos with white athletic shoes every day. I got a week's worth when I started and just toss them all in at the end of the week with the socks and underwear I wore, voila. They have a cleaner that does clothes we can option to use at our agency but that would mean my having *two* weeks of uniforms, so I'll just wash my own ;-p

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