No scrubs allowed in psych?

[Jedi of Zen]

I have noticed that among the staff at the psych unit of the hospital that I work at, at least from what little exposure I've had, they almost never seem to wear scrubs. Instead, they always wear dress clothes.

I'm a student, getting ready to do my psych clinical, and our instructions at school have been not to wear our regular student uniform to this clinical (which basically resembles scrubs); instead, we're supposed to wear conservative dress clothes. This is true for all of the different psych facilities that our class is doing clinicals at.

I'm just wondering - is there a reason for the (apparently) no-scrubs rule? Is this a common policy in psych units? I have no problem with wearing dress clothes; I'm simply curious.

Thanks!

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

I worked psych in the 80s and again now.

The rationale is to avoid reinforcing a "sick role"

However some of our Mental Health Counselors didn't like cleaning up crap & such, while in their own clothes, and started wearing scrubs.

I haven't noticed any patient change whatsoever, but the counselors seem happier.

[goettin98]

On my floor, we can wear business casual or scrubs. I would say about 90% of the nursing staff wears scrubs. The general consensus is that it's better for cleaning up bodily fluids and easier to move when you're tying somebody in 4-pts, etc. if you're wearing scrubs. I actually didn't take a psych job largely in part because they were not allowed to wear scrubs at that hospital.

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

They do this because the patients are not "sick" and scrubs are associated with sick people and hospitals. We had to wear casual clothing for our psych rotation too. I really liked it. I am not saying psych nursing is not real nursing, but it definitely felt different and I could not justify wearing scrubs, regular clothing gives a more therapeutic feel considering the environment and patients...IMO

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

If I have a medical condition :heartbeat, I want "scrubs" treating me. I want to know you know what you're doing, and those scrubs represent special knowledge and credentials I don't have. I trust you in your scrubs. (Have you ever noticed how people don't recognize you in public when you aren't wearing scrubs and they aren't having a heart attack??) .

This is a scary way of looking at it, even house keeping wears scubs at the hospitals around here...........

[PMHNP10]

I wore scrubs at a couple places and dress at another, so I've been at both ends of the spectrum; the problem with the dress place was that they expected males to wear a tie; needless to say I wore a clip-on and since I worked nights it came off as soon as I stepped on the unit

[goettin98]

I don't know where the idea ever came from that psych patients aren't "sick." Maybe it's just my floor, but we always have patients on IVF and IVAB, getting units of blood, patients with feeding tubes, trachs, central lines, ports, patients on oxygen, foleys, ortho issues like external fixators that take ridiculous dressing changes, etc, etc, etc. Last week, we had a patient who got tubes inserted in her ears at bedside. These are some of the reasons most of us wear scrubs on our floor.

[luckylucyrn]

We weren't allowed to wear scrubs to psych at my school either. Needless to say, I wore the same 2 outfits over and over again!

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Tomorrow is my first day on the floor as a new staff RN. It is either business casual or scrubs.

[RN2begin]

They do this because the patients are not "sick" and scrubs are associated with sick people and hospitals. We had to wear casual clothing for our psych rotation too. I really liked it. I am not saying psych nursing is not real nursing, but it definitely felt different and I could not justify wearing scrubs, regular clothing gives a more therapeutic feel considering the environment and patients...IMO

So this leads to a dilemma...we spend alot of time educationg our patients that what they have IS a real illness, just as diabetes. They require medical care to get better and hence a "medical" staff works at the psychiatric hospital where I work...we just aren't supposed to look like medical personnel...I think that being newly admitted to a psychiatric facility, especially psychotic and paranoid, scrubs rather than "dress casual" allow the patients to decipher who is who...right now the only people who wear scrubs are our environmental services staff (housekeeping)...once they are used to the system...they hopefully are able to decipher nurse (khakis) from tech (jeans)...

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

No scrubs here, either. As stated above, treating people with mental illness is very different from treating a medical illness. People with mental illnesses are often threatened by people who are dressed in an institutional way. They feel more comfortable talking about their particular illness with someone who looks like a regular person.

This is the answer.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

this is the answer.

actually, this modified quote is more accurate imho:

...as stated above, treating people with mental illness is very different from treating a medical illness. people with mental illnesses are often threatened by people who are behave in an institutional way. they feel more comfortable talking about their particular illness with someone who respects them and treats them like a regular person....

the way you relate is more important than your garb.

[aloevera]

I have to maintain my belief that my pts. are more comfortable with us nurses in scrubs/uniforms......our therapists are in street clothes...

we as nurses are looked upon for comfort along with other issues and I have seen in my hospital no evidence to the contrary.....