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.
That isn't limited to just the ER. What about call outs or short staffing on the floor where nurses are mandated to stay for either an extra four or eight hours?
A floor that is short staffed has float nurses from other units, or the unit gets a break from bed control until the next shift and the new guards come in. If that particular hospital doesn't have those back up policies in place, then it's the same kind of hospitals that I avoid as I previously mentioned in my other post. It reflects on the staff.
The ER is different. You can't stop patients from coming in, even if you are full. If you are full on a med-surg unit then that is it, no more admissions for you. In the ER, they just keep coming. Yeah, you can go on divert and not get as many ambulances, but that is a courtesy. If the patient requests your hospital, or the patient is in critical condition and your hospital is closest, they are coming to you whether or not your beds are full, and you are obligated to just make room.
If you found this unprofessional, the professional thing for YOU to do is to address your instructor. If you don't feel comfortable doing that over this issue, then it's probably not as big of a deal as you think.
She was spot on with what's being said behind y'all's back. If you can't take care of yourself and have a neat appearance you can't take care of patients. If some of the students dressed as poorly as described they deserve to be told about it. Nursing is different, get used to it.
Specializes in Neurosciences, stepdown, acute rehab, LTC.
I like this letter actually .. I thought he may have been directly quoting though.. It seems realistically possible that people could say those things. I would be grateful really.. I went to a community college that focused on details like this too and that's part of the reason it's easier to get a job coming from that school .
I know this thread is a month old, but I absolutely agree with this professor.
When I began the program, our uniform requirements were stressed, then stressed again, and since that wasn't enough, they were stressed again. Our rules are very strict, down to the number/type/size of earrings, no visible tats, no rings/necklaces/bracelets/other jewelry, hair must be off the collar at all times and cannot fall forward when bending over. Our socks must be white, and our shoes must not have any design. Plain white or black ONLY. We are expected to adhere to the rules. If one person walks through that hospital in our brightly-colored student scrubs, with their hair down, it makes ALL of us look unprofessional. It makes the program look unprofessional. My instructor will absolutely send you home for that and give you a written reprimand that goes in your permanent record.
If we all follow the rules and live up to the expectations, there aren't any problems. If I can do it, so can everyone else. If I do it, I expect you to do it as well, and if you don't, then the consequences are yours.
Specializes in ICU, APHERESIS, IV THERAPY, ONCOLOGY, BC.
There is nothing wrong with the email. Nursing code of dress is an age old topic and although Nursing students today are not expected to follow a strict uniform code, they still need to convey a sense of professionalism, representative of the profession which is health care. Patients react to us , their nurse with trepidation and will feel insecure. Dress code in any healthcare facility conveys the sense of professionalism. Practically it is also part of infection control and serves not only to protect patient buts also staff.
Whether nurses work in community health or tertiary care, how we appear and present ourselves to the client is part of the patient/nurse relationship and embodies respect for self, client and professional practice.
I find that if it does not apply to me then it is not worth the effort to get upset about it. Follow the rules that your school requests of you, take pride in your training and appearance, and know that once you are out of nursing school you can wear whatever color socks, and relax a bit on the dress code. The nails on the other hand will never be acceptable. I do not know any hospital other than maybe a psych location that allows acrylic nails.
I felt the need to comment on this. As an up and coming nursing student, I have watched similar behavior from my professors and find it appalling. The reality is that the email is extremely unprofessional. The tongue-in-cheek method used by the professor is indeed demeaning, and were it to be shown to a CEO or a supervisor for a major Fortune 500 company, either individual would ask for the professor's name to apply a reprimand at the very least, or at most a public apology. I spent six years in the military, and for half of that I was a non-commissioned officer. We are required to take professionalism classes as part of our supervisory development, and this is NOT an email that would be approved of. The examples that she used should NOT have been put in there. We are taught as a common core of professionalism that you are to take the individual aside and speak to them privately about the shortcomings, and respond with further messages as necessary, but in a private, professional manner. Furthermore, what shocks me is that many of the commentators on here say that 'because my nursing instructor did it, it's perfectly acceptable.'. This is a foolish statement, and demonstrative of a status-quo state of mind, something that good supervisors and business owners are wary of. They used to assume it was necessary to burn people at the stake to cure them of demons, because everyone did it. It used to be acceptable to not inform test subjects about the contents of injections, because everyone did it. There are other examples throughout history where this same attitude was often used to justify other social injustices. Just because someone else in your past did it to you, does not make it acceptable. In fact, in psychology, we are taught that the recipients of abuse often perpetrate abuse themselves, and it's usually because they use a similar rationale to justify their actions.
I suggest that as nurses, nursing educators, and student nurses alike we pay closer attention to what really IS professional, versus rationalizing past injustices to use as false examples.
Welcome to the real world, where what you believe doesn't matter one bit. Your instructors are not your peers. They are real, human, fallible people with enormous power over the course of your life. If your instructors treat you as an adult, great! If not, keep your mouth shut, your head down and focus on your studies. An instructor can make your life miserable. An instructor can find an excuse to get you removed from your program if you rub her the wrong way. There is no such thing as "acceptable" behavior for a nursing instructor. The instructors have all the power and you have none. You're not engaging in a relationship of equals.
It might or might not be right. That's just the way it is.
. Furthermore, what shocks me is that many of the commentators on here say that 'because my nursing instructor did it, it's perfectly acceptable.'. This is a foolish statement, and demonstrative of a status-quo state of mind, something that good supervisors and business owners are wary of. They used to assume it was necessary to burn people at the stake to cure them of demons, because everyone did it. It used to be acceptable to not inform test subjects about the contents of injections, because everyone did it. There are other examples throughout history where this same attitude was often used to justify other social injustices. Just because someone else in your past did it to you, does not make it acceptable. In fact, in psychology, we are taught that the recipients of abuse often perpetrate abuse themselves, and it's usually because they use a similar rationale to justify their actions.
I suggest that as nurses, nursing educators, and student nurses alike we pay closer attention to what really IS professional, versus rationalizing past injustices to use as false examples.
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.
they still need to convey a sense of professionalism, representative of the profession which is health care. Patients react to us , their nurse with trepidation and will feel insecure. Dress code in any healthcare facility conveys the sense of professionalism. Practically it is also part of infection control and serves not only to protect patient buts also staff. 
NuGuyNurse2b
927 Posts
A floor that is short staffed has float nurses from other units, or the unit gets a break from bed control until the next shift and the new guards come in. If that particular hospital doesn't have those back up policies in place, then it's the same kind of hospitals that I avoid as I previously mentioned in my other post. It reflects on the staff.