National Nurse Uniform

Fiona59 · Apr 13, 2010

OK, I'm ready for the flames on this one. I'd love to have my employer provide and launder my uniforms. They only do it for the OR, ICU, NICU, Dialysis staff. Some how porters can get hospital issue and the floor nurses can't.

But hospital issued scrubs aren't sterile. Even in the OR, sterile gowns are put on over the laundered scrubs.

I agree with not going out to do your shopping after work if at all possible. But reality is we buy our own, launder our own and are expected to have common sense. If I've been in isolation all day with only hospital issued iso gowns to protect my uniform that I have to wear home, then I pretty much change in the garage and that uniform goes into the wash by itself.

But in reality, MRSA and other bugs are in the community. Most of my hospitals patients bring it in with them.

allnurses Guide · Apr 13, 2010

I quite agree Fiona, lots of infections within hospitals come from the community.

On a side note in the UK nurses who work for the NHS never pay for any uniform and I think it is accurate to say even now within all hospitals the uniforms are standardised. This change is that rather than different hospitals having different uniforms (all be it the same within that hospital) that the whole country of Wales will have standardised nurses uniforms.

At the moment (and this is just examples) in Cardiff nurses wear white tunics, navy trousers and blue epuilettes. In Swansea the uniform is royal blue tunics and navy trousers, in general unit managers everywhere will wear navy tunics. Within a year all nurses will wear exactly the same, these baggy, saggy scrubs (Not a fan, can you tell)

scared'o'needles! · Apr 14, 2010

Where are the top pockets for the pens?

Everytime I have one of those in my bottom pockets I stab myself in the legs when I am bending

karenG · Apr 18, 2010

when I trained (back in the dark ages) we wore a national uniform.. students wore white dresses with different coloured belts to denote the year of training, staff nurses wore pale blue and the sisters wore navy blue. and you were not allowed to wear uniform out of the hospital unless you lived in the nurse home, in which case you had a big cape to wear over the top. all uniforms were washed by the hospital.. we used to go to the basement once a week to collect our clean uniforms..

so much easier then!

suzanne7575 · May 19, 2010

scotland are also getting a national uniform

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/uniform

it has started to get rolled out and so far our SCN and CN have theirs. They are quite nice and certainly are comfy and cool. although a little conflict because band 6 are no longer distinguished from band 5's and also not many people quite sure what to do with the pockets on the combat trousers

RGN1 · May 21, 2010

Ha - you shoujld be here in Canada - everyone wearing scrubs in all colours - can't tell who is who! Still it's fun choosing the prints! I'm used to it now but it was really odd to start with.

scared'o'needles! · Jun 20, 2010

Ok - liking the uniforms as they are not white, and much nicer :)

Now for the buts -

1 no pockets to put pens in so they dont stab you when you kneel

2 - what happens when someone throws up or bleeds all over your uniform how do you take it off?

With the ones we have now I unzip it and step out of it, cant do that with the new stlye, Are we expected to pull it over our head and face? How does this sit with infection control?

Will it be ok top cut it off?

Sorry to be critical, but this is costing shackfuls of money, when the nhs has to make all these cutbacks and it hasn't really been thought through.

Who was it they approached to help them with this? Was it actually people on the wards, infection control etc.,

Sorry - I seem to always moan on this site, cant quite get into the thought process of why anyone would think that the new styles were practical