Greetings. I just received this email from a professor. I was blown away by the content. I found it unprofessional. I wanted to see what other nursings students had to say. Have you received similar emails before?
Hi NUR 150 Students!
First of all, I would like to thank the majority of students who took to heart the need to dress professionally at clinical this week. The faculty of NUR 150 appreciates your dedication to learning and professional behavior.
This email is aimed at the small number of students who were not in uniform at clinical this week. I wanted all students to read this email, because the unprofessional dress and lack of professional behavior reflects badly on all NUR 150 students. I do not want your clinical group referred to as: the nursing students with the one student whose uniform was so wrinkled it looked like they just rolled out of bedâ€; the nursing students with the one student with tons of earrings in their ear, it sure was not like that when I went to schoolâ€; did you see the fake nails, do they not teach infection control at that college, I am not sure about that clinical group doing anything on my patientsâ€; or lastly WOW, what is with the tattoos that student had, I sure do not want them to be a RN on our floor, my patients would be shocked!â€
Your first impression is often what you will be judged by for the whole clinical rotation and nursing school career. Being in a clinical group with students who do not follow the dress code and professional policy, does reflect back on you. Every day you wear your uniform you are on a job interview. You represent every nursing student at the college. Your dismissal of the uniform policy and/or professional behavior standards is a direct reflection on every student, faculty member, and alumni of the college.
I know that the uniform policy has been taught and enforced previously. I know students are sometimes counseled in their weekly feedback about how to properly follow the professional standards. I am also very disappointed about the dismissal of the policy, since this was discussed in the NUR 150 course and clinical orientation on Monday. I stated the faculty knows that you are able to effectively follow the professional standards and uniform dress code, since you have completed NUR 121. I clearly stated that student who are not in uniform will be sent home for being unprepared. I fully believed that this would be a non-issue, since you are all adult learners.
Next clinical day at the beginning of your clinical day, you will line up and your professor will inspect your appearance to ensure that you are fully following the dress code. Students who are not in their proper uniform in accordance with the policy will be sent home. This will count as a clinical absence. No exceptions or excuses will be entertained by the faculty. Dress code policy from the ADN program handbook has been added to the end of this email for your convenience.
Again, I would like to apologize the large number of students who were following the uniform policy this week. The college faculty thanks you and is proud of you.
As a person with other degrees possibly coming in from another profession, I can see how the nursing school BS is kind of difficult to fathom. That is how the medical world is, unfortunately, with hazing and bullying and meaningless protocol. Physicians get it even worse in med school. Just do what they say and see it as a learning experience. There are still nurses that act like this because of a whole ton of socio-demo-political stuff that went on a hundred years ago. Look up "oppressed group syndrome" for the reasons why.
Ok are you serious?? This isn't "hazing" or "meaningless". All your other quotes are nothing along the lines of nursing protocol. I doubt you are a nurse
I was in dress code. I did think the email was a little much. I understand that dress code is important, but the tone and going on about hypothetical quotes from imaginary people was unprofessional and overboard. I've been in school for awhile, with other degrees- but I've never received an email from a professor that sounded so demeaning.
Protect the image of nursing? What image is that? A graduate nurse can be "quality" regardless of tattoos or jewelry. This nursing instructor is living in the nineteenth century. If nursing is like the military we need to rethink our profession. It is not an image we need to uphold- images are meaningless. Nursing is not marketing. We are not a concierge profession. We are not butlers. Where is this nonsense coming from?
It's not "nonsense"; it is the norm of the market, in terms of the relationship between nursing programs and clinical sites; the rules are in place to present a consistent professional image. you may not like it, but there is an "image" that has been here before I went into nursing school and still continues to this day.
Nursing school is like the military in terms of presentation, mitered corners and SBAR; all variants of military influence; the image of a nurse in a uniform is one of the many variants that had been adopted in nursing school culture; there are many aspects to nursing that are like the military, and as a member of a military family in which high standards were taught, there is NOTHING wrong with nursing having "standards".
Part of what we do is service oriented, and has been so since the 90s and corporations came into the business; not sure when you entered or what your areas is like, but in MY area this business has been service oriented for decades, and some of those aspects are correct, others are overkill; this one is not, especially while in NURSING SCHOOL-where again, the onus is on the program to produce a quality product to ensure they are able to allow students to
come back to the facility-that's point of the instructor; individuality comes after nursing school; and this instructor WANTS the class to be presentable image wise to the facilities that they are GUESTS in.
Call it nursing etiquette; you may not have to agree with it, but it is what it is; unless, you plan on becoming a change agent in nursing education, then have a crack at it. :)
In the "old days" (years before I was in nursing school) the students DID line up and they WERE inspected. The dress code was adhered to to the letter and those that did not match up went home to correct the infraction. When I was in nursing school piercings were limited to one per ear, must be in the lobe, and only for the females. No earrings for the men. Body ink had to be covered. Or go home. Uniforms were to be in good condition. Excess wrinkles were spoken toat least we weren't sent home for that. And this was in the mid-80's. Call me old fashioned, but the professional appearance of the medical professional is of utmost importance. As children grow to high school students and are able to make their own decision about tattoo and piercings, they fail to realize the importance of the appearance of the professional in the workplace.
Perhaps a letter to the offending parties would have been more appropriate. But there was nothing inappropriate about that letter.
I liked the email! I think it will be more memorable than 'dress code is xxx' and 'be on time' etc. etc. because EVERYBODY has already seen that, they would just skip or delete. This one will stick in your head!
I work in an upscale restaurant, I press my uniform every single day (pants, blouse, apron). I have hair up, (men must shave neat, no growing in facial hair, you have to take a week or so off until it's in!), small earring, neat nail, etc, etc.....otherwise go home. Why? Exactly what your professor said, people will 'talk' badly about us. In general terms. Not "our server was a mess", but " that place was awful, the staff looked so unprofessional, we won't be going back" (This is Boca, it's how they are...lol), so I can see exactly how a hospital (or patients, who don't know the difference between you and regular staff) would really look down upon improper dress code. It DOES reflect on every single one of you, and the school, and the professor. (Oh, you're from THAT class? The one with the (choose infraction).....sorry, no job here....)
Maybe it's happened before. I'm surprised your class got another chance, she was probably just being PC and can easily say 'you've all been warned multiple times, sorry no more chances' and it probably went out to ALL the class to cover her butt in case somebody NEXT time (there is ALWAYS a next time) says they didn't get an email warning THEM like so and so did.....
Worse case, you can call her out on it and ask if you did anything you should be aware of??
Nurses are not waitresses. A hospital is not a restaurant. We do not "serve." When taking care of patients we work as a team; there is no distinction between nurses and "regular staff." We are all medical professionals.
This post reminds me of my first job interview out of nursing school. I was interviewing at a very prestigious hospital on the east coast and the nurse manager was taking me around the unit and introducing me to all of the staff. We stop to say hello to one particular nurse and I was flabbergasted at this nurse's appearance! She was wearing scrub pants, and what appeared to be only a black t-shirt on top. The shirt was full of lint and who knows what type of hair. In addition, this nurse was very top heavy and it didn't look like she was wearing a bra. Overall, she just looked like a big, sloppy mess. I knew right then, at that very second, that I did NOT want to be member of that team. I declined the job offer.
You are guests in a facility that is allowing you to learn on their patients. I think you should all follow the dress code. In our program if you are sent home from a facility, it says you could be removed from the program. Who would not want to be properly dressed, especially when you might be working their someday. I don't think the instructor went too far. She said it correct. You are all adults and should be able to follow the rules if you want to become RNs.
In order to be a professional in the competitive marketplace, maintaining a dress code standard as individuals is essential. While the letter may have been a little much to some; nursing students need to understand that rules and standards of practice go right along with standards of appearance. You are ambassadors for your school and for the organization you are at, and when one person looks as if they slept in their clothes or have garb on that reflects badly to patients, it unfortunately reflects on everyone around you. In an acute care setting, we deal with patients who grew up wearing dresses and suits and so today's clothing, piercings and tats can be daunting to them. As a former clinical instructor, I felt the letter was appropriate and peer pressure never hurts...
I'll never forget the day a student showed up wearing her house shoes and smelly scrubs for clinicals. I had to go find her instructor to report her. Seriously, she wore fuzzy black covered with wet mud house shoes.
They were probably more to the point the first time around during orientation. Obviously a number of students didn't take the policy seriously, so the instructor felt the need to send a more detailed email out.I hope you reread some of the posters have said here, because I don't want you to go to nursing schoolbeing offended every time something like this happens, because it will happen often in my experience lol. Heck, in my experience it happens like this but in person and individually directed, sometimes in front of my clinical group.
The email wasn't unprofessional, but it probably did come from a place of disappointment. It will be easy for the students to fix this issue, and move on, which is great.
Nothing wrong with that letter, actually well done. The professor reinforced what was done right and pointed out what was done wrong. Part of being a nurse is to wear a uniform and as the prof stated, it was made clear in the previous course. No excuse, enough prancing around the subject. It is what it is , uniforms, clean and wrinkle free are the dress code. Period.
floridanurse1983
169 Posts
Ok are you serious?? This isn't "hazing" or "meaningless". All your other quotes are nothing along the lines of nursing protocol. I doubt you are a nurse