Nurses with nose piercings?

[Chameleonchick]

Hi I am not a nurse yet, but are there any nurses out there with nose piercings? Do they make you take it out at work?

[pockunit, ADN, RN]

Nope...

All that "diversity" makes for some warm and fuzzy reading but it's not practical.

You can practice your culture at home.

I wonder if you missed a few classes in school. There are a few lectures on cultural competence that are worth listening to, if you missed them the first time around.

[OhioCCRN, MSN, NP]

Nose rings are not professional! at all! what next? midriff baring scrub shirts so that we can see belly piercings?

[Flo., BSN, RN]

My hospital is very strict with the dress code. No visible tattoos, hair in a natural color, only women may have pierced ears, no piercings other than ears.

[danh3190]

Has anyone seen any research about the effect of piercings, tattoos, etc on patients? Whether it upsets patients, relaxes them, or has no effect? In our culture more and more people are getting tattoos, so at some point it may be more normal to have a tattoo than not to. Obviously they have an effect on management, but I wonder what effect they have on the customers.

Although I personally don't like facial piercings and I don't see the point of tattoos, they don't affect my opinion of a nurse's professionalism. What does affect my opinion of nurses is if they can string words together to form a coherent sentence, if they listen to the patients, if they respond to the patients' needs and reasonable requests promptly, if they spend all their time chit-chatting at the nurses station or if they're in the patients' rooms...etc.

Of course there are some extremes. Heard a story on NPR about a priest in the west who helps rehabilitate gang members by helping them get their tattoos removed. They said it's hard to get a job when you have swastikas or obscenities tattooed on your face.

[rnay312]

Whoa.

To answer your question, no, nose rings are generally not allowed, though my facility doesn't mind.

I have a tiny nose stud and have had no issues. I go to work, care for my patients and give them 100%. My nose ring places no limitation on my capacity to care for my patients, nor does it make me less of a professional, and reasonable people understand that.

[lovecakecookies]

Nope...

All that "diversity" makes for some warm and fuzzy reading but it's not practical.

You can practice your culture at home.

Ouchhhhh... Whoa... try saying this at a hospital in the Bay Area in California... There is a hospital where some of the physicians who are women all wear their traditional clothes!

[Chameleonchick]

So you're wondering if you should wear them or not to wear them?

I would just never hire someone with face jewelry or visible tattoos.

My staff will project a positive appearance at all times or you're not even considered. It happens after you're hired you're gone. Plain and simple.

Harsh? Not from my angle. Whatever your reasons for doing it the choice is ultimately yours to make.

You just have to live with the consequences of your decisions.

... there are places that might tolerate it but not in my ER.

Good luck with your choices in life.

Wow, while I respect your opinion I have to say that I disagree with you.

[SummitRN, BSN, RN]

Fact: The lower rungs of society have the most tatoos and unusual piercings, the pinnacle being jail. Many respectable, competent, and awesome people have visible tattoos and piercings However, if you have these things visible at work with people who don't know you, you will be assumed by many coworkers and clients to be a unprofessional and questionable person, right or wrong.

Don't like it? TOO BAD! That's reality. Bottomline: They are unprofessional.

It is not our place to judge our clients, but clients will ALWAYS judge you and so will your coworkers and bosses.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

And with that, this thread will be closed for a cooling-off period and moderator review. Several posts have needed to be edited or deleted either because they quoted an edited post and/or continued the flame war that flared up on page 2.

Please remember: it is perfectly OK to disagree with one another, but it is NOT OK to attack, vilify, or question another's character while doing so.

Over and out.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Re-opening thread for further discussion. Please keep it polite, folks.

[pockunit, ADN, RN]

Nope...

All that "diversity" makes for some warm and fuzzy reading but it's not practical.

You can practice your culture at home.

I was thinking about this last night, and I wondered: do you wear a wedding band? a cross or crucifix? Do you color your hair? Those are cultural constructs. Are they wrong simply because another culture doesn't do them? By your light, it would seem so. It simply isn't possible to "practice your culture at home." One's culture is a part of them. You might as well ask them to leave their hands at home.

Not *liking* different cultures is another discussion entirely, and one we must all be careful of committing at work. It doesn't matter if you approve of someone's culture, it's still valid and important to them. To dismiss it out of hand (as, I suspect, a white person in America), is incredibly short sighted and bad nursing. I like to think that isn't what you were meaning to imply.

[Samantha79]

We all have dress codes we have to adhere to at work. If you don't like or agree with the companies dress code, then don't work there.

I personally think nose rings are super cute. Outside of work. I also wear ripped jeans, low(er) cut tops, and heels quite often. That doesn't mean these things are appropriate in the work environment.

Nose rings and head dresses for cultural/religious purposes are quite different and shouldn't even be discussed in this thread. Had nothing to do with the OPs question. I suspect we have a few more things to add to the "red herring" thread.