I am a psychiatric nurse in Tucson, AZ. Our administration is wanting everyone to wear the same clothes, e.g., scrubs or khaki pants with a polo shirt. Most of the nurses do not want to give up being able to wear their personal clothing. I work the night shift and prefer scrubs.
Please let me know what your facility requires and how that is working out for both shifts. We have also been asked by our administration to submit relevant research re: whether or not psych patients prefer staff to wear uniforms.
Our hospital has recently gone to the nurses either wearing Scrubs, or having a lab coat. However, they also don't seem to mind if wearing a smock type top with cartoon figures or what not on it (its children and Adolescents only). At first the nurses were peeved, but it has really been a non issue.
I work on a psychiatric intensive care unit and the dress code is business casual. I prefer wearing my scrubs. We get a mix of ages, including geri-psych at times, and scrubs are appropriate imo as a nurse for the work we do.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Back when I worked at a small community psychiatric hospital 2 years ago, staff wore slacks or khaki pants with polo shirts that had the embroidered hospital logo and/or smocks that had the same logo embroidered onto the chest portion. Absolutely no scrubs were permitted, because management did not want the patients to think they were sick. Apparently, patients believe they are sick when staff members are wearing scrubs (which I think is hogwash).
I work at the state forensic psych facility---we (level of care nursing staff) wear street clothes, jeans (no shorts) and/or scrubs. We are not permitted to wear khaki anything, as the inmates/patients wear khaki and dark brown. At my sister's prison it is the opposite, she and her staff are not allowed to wear DENIM anything. LOL
When I worked in a drug rehab, we wore regular clothes.
When I worked in psych hospital for the first few years it was street clothes, then it was scrubs for geri-psych(lot of fluids there), and then it was khaki pants with polo shirt with hospital logo on it.
But I think the point is, who is the "uniform" for? It is sometimes easier to wear scrubs, but what is the purpose of scrubs? On medical and surgical wards scrubs are meant for the purpose of easily identifying blood/debris/dirt and because they are easy to change in and out of to minimize the spread of things. On a psych unit, I considering that ideally it should be a psychosocial environment where medical procedures are not done, why wear scrubs? I think that it is true that for the most part clients in psych do know that they are in the hospital but does this mean that scrubs need to be worn that definitely identify a client as a mental health patient? I think that wearing scrubs in mental health really increases the stigma of a client for example when you are accompanying them out in the community like for a walk or on outings etc. I have worked on an inpatient concurrent disorder unit, neuropsych, mood disorders and now a longer term tertiary mental health rehab unit and I think that it would do harm to wear scrubs. I do agree that it is something that needs to be studied more as it seems like there is now a move in psychiatry (especially in the US?) towards medical models which is unfortunate.
The best policy I've seen is to require scrubs of one color for staff--this place did ceil blue (the pale blue). Navy is also a good color. I've never seen anywhere do the whites for psych, that is generally no good, and many DOC the prisoners wear white. The prisons and CSBs do colored scrubs mandatory for nurses but no particular print.
The state hospitals here do street clothes but the problem is (1) many people are not appropriate--wearing shorts, busting out of their too-small clothing, cleavage, political messages, saggin-baggin, high heels, etc. 2) it's hard to tell the employees from the patients in a crisis, particularly if you work on a unit where the patients are short-term and you don't really know them well. I'd rather look for a colored scrub than try to hunt for a tiny badge or check for shoestrings in their shoes. (3) labcoats are great, yeah, but then the docs get irritated that they aren't recognized instantly, and during the summer it's just too hot for a coat.
PRNMEDS
81 Posts
Our hospital has recently gone to the nurses either wearing Scrubs, or having a lab coat. However, they also don't seem to mind if wearing a smock type top with cartoon figures or what not on it (its children and Adolescents only). At first the nurses were peeved, but it has really been a non issue.