Published
I graduate in may. My nursing program is really strict. We have to wear all white, no piercings, no tattoos, hair up, white shoes, white socks. You know.
I'm all about helping people and nursing and I love it! But I hate that I can't be my own person.
I have been advised that I will not be allowed to keep a nose piercing in if I do it, which I accept. But I also want dreadlocks terribly, and the community that I was raised in would throw a fit if I had them! I fear even suggesting it to my instructors would cause immediate rejection.
Is this discrimination? If I were to have a piercing and dreads at a job interview and were declined, there would be no definitive proof that I was being discriminated against for my hair or facial piercings. I would wait until I established a job, but I don't plan on staying in one place for too long, what happens after that?
And I feel that I must say this, because my uncultured co-students have mentioned that they are dirty and "not even black people can work at a hospital with dreads", I am white, and I would wash my hair more often than I do now to keep the oils of my hair from ruining the dreads. And also, I could pull them back and they would not get in my way.
How am I supposed to be culturally sensitive to my patients if students, staff, and other nurses can't show the same respect to me?
I also want to add that I'm the youngest person ever to complete this nursing program, and they tend to treat me like that and say that I am "immature" "unprofessional" and I will "learn that people don't liked to be judged, but impressions are all that matter". Forgive my naivety, really..