Our facility is looking to go to white uniforms for RN's because of uniform recognition. Research shows that when test members are shown pictures of people in scrubs, they almost always pick the person in white as the nurse. Currently, we have no restrictions as such; except our ICU's wear blue and OB/OR wears hospital issued. There is a group of us that do NOT WISH to wear all white.
What color do you wear at your facility? I am looking for where you are from, what type of nursing you do, and what the rationale is for what color you wear.
Location: Pittsburgh PA
type of nursing: Progressive Cardiac Care Unit - post ops, step down, telemetry
color of scrubs: maroon
rationale: I wear maroon because that is our floor color :redpinkhe
Thanks in advance for your help. I am attending a focus group committee and would like some data to take that helps our cause.
i hate white scrubs, they get stained so easily and i feel like you can see through them no matter what! the idea of uniform recognition is cool, but maybe they could pick a different color besides white.
my unit currently does not have a dress code, we all wear anything we want to. however, the trauma staff wears all black, the neuro staff wear red and black, and the OB/L&D/peds staff wear turquoise and black. so the colors really only represent the unit, not who is nurse/tech/secretary, etc.
My mother was recovering from a full cardiac arrest & resuscitation. Her mind was very "cloudy" for a few days after. By the time I was able to get to her bedside, she was becoming more oriented. I vividly recall some of her very first words to me: "I was a little confused as I woke up. But I knew when I asked the lady in white to help me, I knew she would take care of me, because I knew she was a Registered Nurse. I couldn't figure out who the other people in scrubs were that I saw. I couldn't tell the housekeepers from the aides. But I knew the nurse would take care of me."
"Whites" reassure patients and tend to label us as The Professional Registered Nurse. I know I am much more relaxed and perhaps behave more unprofessionally running around in "pajamas" than in "whites."
Specializes in LTC, Wounds, Med/Surg, Tele, Triage.
From time to time I will ask my coworkers/friends/family, if they know why nurses were originally mandated to wear white. Well, I was taught in nursing school, that many millenia ago, when health care was a role of the church, the women caregivers wore white as a sign of their virginity. At the time, women were no longer permitted to work after marriage. At which point they left their professions to stay at home, bear children, and serve their husbands. Nursing as a profession has obviously evolved since that time. Isn't it time for our uniforms to evolve as well?
Doctors won't wear white (except for a loose-fitting lab coat) because white makes everyone look fat. Think about it.
The Navy is the longest-running institution that has a white clothing fetish, and look where they ended up--giving the boot to everyone who looks fat. Think about it.
Maybe white on women gets them recognized as nurses, but white on men gets them recognized as food service or barbers. Or Navy. Think about it.
Oh, and what will LPNs wear? Think about it.
That isn't why doctor's only wear a lab coat.
They have NEVER worn all white at any point in history.
In many medical schools, students must dress in business casual even for attendance to class. You know why? It's to protect the integrity and image of the profession.
Professional dress plus a long white coat is a distinctive hallmark of not only physicians but of pharmacists..you know who they are when they enter the room without looking at their name badges.
Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.
I recently was mandated to wear white in a home health care job. I HAD to keep extra clothes in my trunk PLUS a lab jacket because it was impossible to keep them clean for an entire 10 hour day. Just getting in and out of the car during inclement weather was hazardous for whites. I had to keep a towel in the car (well I still do) to prevent drips from anything that I might drink while driving. Every ink mark shows. I live in an area with extremely hard water, so laundering the whites is especially challenging as I don't think that dingy, yellowed whites are very professional looking. And yes, as personal as it is...menstrual cycles can be a challenge when wearing all white. I am not a fan of white scrubs for nurses...we are too "hands on" and need something that doesn't look horrible if you get a drop of blood or coffee on your pant leg. I don't mind color coded scrubs...ie: navy for RNs, ciel for LPNs, green for techs, grey for RT, etc. That does help to keep patients and families oriented to who is coming and going out of the room. But to make RNs wear white because dementia patients are living in a world oriented to their lives in 1959 rather than 2009 is not "helping" anyone.
Mandated scrub colors annoy me. I just think that there's no good reason for it, other than management that wants to micromanage appearances rather than focus on quality care. I am a big girl, and I can dress myself professionally, thank-you-very-much.
I do like my current job well enough that if they mandated, I would comply, although I would object to all-white pants all the time d/t menstrual cycles issues that others have noted.
I worked in a hosp previously that was trying to go to color coding. They put housekeeping, transporters, and dietary into polos with (regular) black pants. Supposedly only clinical/direct care types were to be in scrubs; support staff would be in the polos, etc. PT/OT was purple or navy scrubs, and each nursing unit was to pick their own scrub colors. Women's health had one print and were allowed to wear that and the coordinating colors of pants, for example.
It did not help the majority of the pts differentiate who the various staff members were. They still asked dietary and transport for their meds to help to the BR. Honestly, the only way this would work is if you had a color chart at every pt's bedside to tell them who was who. Otherwise, how are they to know?
The other issue I have seen in color-coded hospitals is that pts have a hard time differentiating staff members. In other words, they don't know which of all those navy-wearing nurses is *their* nurse.
Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.
I an an NP now, so I alternate between my surgery greens or dress clothes (I prefer skirts because they hide my thighs) to my job. As an RN, I worked at one of the last hospitals in my state to require that all nurses wear white. They then relaxed to the point that we could pick ONE color to wear besides, and we had to vote on it. Now, 7 years later, they wear whatever. Stupidest bunch of nonsense I ever heard of.
A LTC that I returned to as a PRN attempted to force the white issue and was met with a near uprising. I controlled myself enough to just inform them that I would not be wearing all white, mandated or not ( I was a big girl by then, and had been picking out my own clothes for quite awhile). They eventually decided that it was not worth the headache of trying to police the policy.
I am very outspoken, and I have never been one to take anything lying down. I also have a big mouth, but I stand behind what I say. This served me well, especially when these cases cropped up, because they knew my position and knew it well. I detest being micromanaged and refuse to kowtow to some antiquated dress-up game that, as has been mentioned, was the way of life half a century ago. Nursing has evolved since then, and so should the trappings involved.
Sorry, it's just that the thought of a nurse in white brings to mind two things, either a Halloween costume or a bad skin flick. The first is cute (sometimes), the second is raunchy. I'd rather be thought of as a professional, which I can be in whatever I choose to wear.
Specializes in Surgery, Tele, OB, Peds,ED-True Float RN.
Atlantic Canada, Float RN
We can wear whatever we want, except jeans and jogging/workout gear. Most wear a uniform. Lots of prints and colors. Some nurses wear uniform pants and polo shirts. A few of the guys will wear cords or casual pants with polo shirts or long sleeve t-shifts. So glad that we don't have to wear white!!! Our RT's, PT's or Pharm. never wear uniforms, casual clothes most of the time.
flightnurse2b, LPN
1 Article; 1,496 Posts
i hate white scrubs, they get stained so easily and i feel like you can see through them no matter what! the idea of uniform recognition is cool, but maybe they could pick a different color besides white.
my unit currently does not have a dress code, we all wear anything we want to. however, the trauma staff wears all black, the neuro staff wear red and black, and the OB/L&D/peds staff wear turquoise and black. so the colors really only represent the unit, not who is nurse/tech/secretary, etc.