I received this email from a professor. I was a little shocked. Opinon?

Nursing Students General Students

Published

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 bed”; the nursing students with the one student with tons of earrings in their ear, it sure was not like that when I went to school”; 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 patients”; 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!”

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.

Thank you,

Einstein wasn't doing patient care. Besides, the standard for physicists in the middle of the last century was, well, rumpled. Care to play again?

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Yeah, like this guy. I bet he's totally incompetent. Just look at the wrinkles in his pants and that hair! haha... what you're saying is true in most instances, but remember, there are exceptions to every rule.

.[ATTACH=CONFIG]17168[/ATTACH]

Most nursing students aren't Einstein.

Here's the deal kids....there are rules. Interestingly enough, rules are meant to be followed. Even by students. You go to a job interview it is the over all "look" and professionalism that will get you to the second interview. That is the reality.

Would you REALLY want someone caring for you with nails like talons, black dirt under the fingernails, or shoes that looked like they walked to the barn to get into work? Would you really want to have large gauged earlobes that are the perfect place to be grabbed and ripped from your ear? That answer would be no. We all know about tongue rings and frankly I don't care whether you have one or not....if you can leave it in your mouth and not look like a farm animal chewing it's cud.

Now, I happen to not mind sleeves and tattoos. I think they are beautiful. But a dress code is a dress code. Sorry but when you are a nurse it is not about you. It is about the patient. Whether we like it or not the majority of the population you will care for is elderly and they have a different point of view about ink and it is, after all, all about them when they are held captive in a hospital bed.

Just like any other profession...there is a standard that is to be followed. Wall Street/CEO wears a suit. Police officers wear a uniform and don't have nose rings and their ears gauged. Nurses are supposed to be clean and neat. It is what it is. No long beards with food crumbs. No long pony tails that drag across the excrement in the bed or toilet.

When I was a manager and I heard these rumblings about one e-mail or another and being treated like children. I reminded them if they acted like adults they will be treated as such.

Specializes in Pediatrics Telemetry CCU ICU.

Ha At least most of the nursing school have white scrubs or the like for the clinicals. 27 years ago we were in white opaque stockings, a cotton jumper style dress with the school logo patch on it, pure white nursing shoes (no sneakers whatsoever), and our hair was pinned up off or our collar WITH our nursing CAP (yes ladies and gentlemen....nursing caps ugghh ) centered on our heads. (And we had better make sure that the nursing cap did NOT fall off...ya know...into the bed with a patient, into a wound or a bedpan...and lets not forget that cap getting caught in the privacy curtains...uugggh. Those opaque white stockings (yeah right more like leotards) were so uncomfortable. We were not allowed lab coats, only a sweater which could be white or blue. Not in full uniform? You were sent home. No excuses. This was not harsh treatment. I was in the military, so if I wasn't in the correctly aligned full uniform we didn't get "sent home." We did push ups and laps around the track oohhh and marching for miles in the same square mile.

Why would you be "shocked" It was clear and right to the point. Nothing inappropriate or demeaning was said unless you think "clean", "neat" and "professional" are words with a negative connotation. What a waste of precious clinical time when instructors have inspect students like they are small children because they can not follow rules and adhere to school/program/hospital policy. I didn't find anything wrong with the words or tone of the email. What is wrong is students who think they don't have to comply with policy like everyone else in the health care world!

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Absolutely wrong. The primary "job" of nursing faculty is not to make students feel good about themselves and their choices to become nurses. Read this very carefully: It is to prepare people who know nothing about being nurses to become educated and competent professionals who will be ready to take their places in healthcare upon graduation.

Why can I like this only once?

Specializes in Wound care; CMSRN.

We show up out of uniform (scrubs clean, pressed and of a particular color), clean white shoes, name tag, one ear ring per ear, tattoos concealed (hospital policy), nails not visible over fingertips held palmate, watch, pen lite and professional quality stethoscope, we are sent home and we miss that day of clinical. That's a clinical fail. We get one chance to make that up. It happens again, we're out of the program. There are plenty of people who would be happy to fill our slots. We are warned, in writing, in advance of our admission to the program.

I don't know how it is at your school. Either we're serious about this profession or we are not. Your professor was relatively kind.

Yes and it was like a purple unicorn had walked up to the nurses station and asked for an enema.

OMG, this is the BEST post this week! LOL.....the visual alone will keep me giggling!

Welcome to Nursing School.

Dear kdflet:

I don't necessarily think this e-mail is rude. It kindly addresses an issue without pointing the finger at one or more specific persons. As a nursing student, it's appropriate to be compliant about your presentation and uniforms as a student. Remember, you are a guest at their facility. When you dress for clinicals, you represent your school, your professors and yourself. Take pride in what you do! You got into nursing school! No easy task.

I will give you an example. I was embarrassed for my group one day when a leadership student was wearing a leopard print bra that CLEARLY showed through her required white top. (In my program, a leadership student is there on the floor to assist us first semester students. This woman was about to graduate from the program) Personally, I believe she should have been sent home. It was strictly unprofessional. And I believe it reflected badly on all of us.

Regarding uniform code, it is completely appropriate to:

* Wash and iron your uniform

* Not wear any jewelry that a patient can potentially tug at or rip off your body

* Not wear nail polish (it can flake off into a patient's medication or food, is full of bacteria)

* Not wear perfume or scented products. (If you have a patient who is non-verbal and is unable to communicate that your fragrance is making it difficult to breathe, then you are putting your patient at a safety risk)

Schools put uniform codes together for strict reasons; take your profession seriously. If you don't, it will be noted. Say you want a job on a unit that you have had clinical rounds on. Believe me, those employees on the unit notice you; how you dress, how you conduct yourself, etc. You may be the best, most compassionate student they have ever precepted. But if you show up looking sloppy or inappropriate, that may sway their decision to hire someone else.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I've been a nurse for 6 years. I'm a second career nurse, which means I am not new to the working world. I agree with the OP; the clinical instructor's e-mail was not professional.

They're going to do a uniform line-up? With adult learners? Really? Is this Catholic School, circa 1960 (I attended Catholic schools for 13 years)?

Someone earlier asked "What's wrong with a little butt-chewing?" When you've done nothing to deserve the butt-chewing, plenty is wrong with it. If people are not following dress code, they need to be dealt with individually. Send them home, write them up, do whatever needs to happen, but don't send a long, wordy e-mail to people who aren't breaking the rules. When people constantly get e-mails and memos that don't apply to them, they ignore them. A short reminder of the dress code would also work.

In my first nursing job, every personnel problem was solved with memos (no e-mail) that either chastised everyone or imposed new policies on everyone. No one appreciated that. The dress code was revised because, according to the memo, too many female employees were dressing inappropriately. Employee reaction was "I follow the dress code, so why am I being punished?" The same employees who flouted the old dress code flouted the new dress code. As a charge nurse, I was the building supervisor on weekends. I confronted dress code violators directly. They didn't like it, but it led to less grumbling and fewer ignored memos. My first nursing job taught me a lot, both good and bad.

In a nutshell, OP is not wrong to feel the way she does about the e-mail in question, but she should also get used to it. Make sure you're doing your job and following dress code, and you should be fine. Some managers would rather send endless e-mails than deal with problems.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.
Do you ever see doctors wearing wrinkled or stained lab coats?

When I worked in Nursing Home Hell, which was near a bike path, a doc walked in wearing sweaty cycling clothes, complete with helmet.

Einstein wasn't doing patient care. Besides, the standard for physicists in the middle of the last century was, well, rumpled. Care to play again?

The post was sort of meant to be funny. I'm just saying, rumpled doesn't necessarily equal incompetent. However, I am aware that in the nursing profession it is viewed that way and there is nothing to do about it but suck it up and play by the rules. I'm just saying that it's unfortunate that people judge a book by its cover, since external appearance is not always reflective of a person's character or abilities. Just playing the devil's advocate.

+ Add a Comment