How to dress for lecture part of internship??

[daisy87]

I'm starting an internship for my new job in a few weeks--it is half hands on, half lecture/bookwork. Anyone who has already been thru an internship program, can you tell me how most people dressed? At first I was going to do buisness casual, but then I thought maybe all these fresh out of college folks would tend to just wear jeans (after all, we wore jeans to college lectures). I certainly prefer jeans myself, so if I could get away with it, that would be awesome....but, of course, I don't want to under dress either and look careless!

[llg, PhD, RN]

I would definitly stay away from the jeans -- regardless of what the other interns do. Jeans will not give a positive impression to your new employers. The only way I would consider wearing jeans would be if your employers told you explicitly that jeans were preferred. Always dress professionally to go to a professional event at your workplace. No if's, and's, or but's.

Dress a little more formally on the first day to get a sense of the culture in your workplace. It never hurts to be a little over-dressed -- but being under-dressed can really hurt you if you make a bad first impression. I suspect that in the long run, your instincts about business casual were correct. That's probably the right thing to wear most days.

Also, there is nothing wrong with asking the educator who is running the classes about the appropriate dress. That's a very reasonable question for a new person to ask. You are simply wanting to understand the culture so that you can fit in well and meet everyone's expectations.

[Baby*Pink]

I haven't started my internship yet (I start in January), but in the packet they gave us it clearly states for us to dress in either business casual or scrubs. I dunno how your hospital is because obviously every hospital has different expectations, but I would definitely do business clothes at least on the first day of lecture to get a feel for what is expected in terms of dress code.

[Quilter0225]

I wore business casual to the corporate part of orientation, then scrubs to the classroom portion at my hospital's education center. Scrubs look professional (I'm anal and iron mine) and, to me, are more comfortable than jeans. I agree with the poster who said better over dressed than under dressed. Just remember that even though you are taking a class, you are being paid to be there and what you wear will make an impression.

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

Biz casual or scrubs. I prefer scrubs and during the classroom part, EVERYONE wore scrubs. General hosp orientation was mostly scrubs and some biz casual.

[mommyX2]

I would definitely not wear jeans. It is very unprofessional.