The sloppy image of nurses today

Nurses Professionalism

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Imagine a hospital in which all nurses and doctors exhibit professionalism, beauty, splendor, and awe among colleagues and patients. A place where the people taking care of you appear greater than human, larger than life, infallible figures, portraying an image that captures total trust and total confidence from those nearby. What a wonderful place that would be. But alas, we have work ahead of us.

This thread is designed to discuss the importance of impressions in nursing. While many nurses take pride in appearing beautiful or handsome, many walk in to work with a case of the feck-its when it comes to appearance. Unfortunately I feel that nurses are much worse than doctors in this arena. Where I work the majority of female doctors wear their hair down, liberally apply makeup, wear form fitting clothing, and hard soled shoes. They try to appear as beautiful as they can. Likewise, the male doctors come in with tailored clothing that had been ironed, they have well-oiled hair, nice watches, and other things reminiscent of the show "General Hospital."

Meanwhile, in the ICU I've worked in, we've got a female nurse with a buzz cut, one woman wearing a pirate-like black eye patch, nurses with baggy wrinkled scrubs, nurses wearing those ugly skechers shapeups, everyone wearing their hair up or back in a plain boring pony tail instead of letting it flow, men or even women with untrimmed or unneatly trimmed facial hair and people exhibiting other drab or and in my humble opinion, embarrassing features. I feel like no other college educated profession dresses down as much as nurses do and it bothers me.

What do you think of nurses and the images they portray in the professional setting? Use this thread to talk about what you like or dislike, what you think should change and what shouldn't.

Specializes in ICU-my whole life!!.
Let me guess-you're a guy, correct?

Asking for a nurse to be clean and well groomed is one thing. Asking them to be "beautiful," to "apply makeup liberally," and "wear form fitting clothes" is quite another thing altogether. It is a sexist, inappropriate, and impractical expectation. It's a lot less impractical for a female doctor to wear her hair down and have perfect makeup and nice clothes when she is not involved in the physical aspect of patient care. But even then, I dispute that most female doctors are aiming to "look as beautiful as possible." Nonsense.

This is one of the more bizarre posts I've ever read here. "Beauty," "splendor" and "awe"? How corny.

I think the OP is referring to Grey's anatomy. :)

First off -- paragraphs make a post much more readable. A solid wall of text is very difficult to read.

But on second thought, maybe paragraphs weren't so necessary . . . the lack of them probably made a lot of people skip over this disrespectful post.

You aren't a nurse, GraceAnna. Do not presume to tell nurses how they are supposed to think or feel or how to be professional. For all of your desire to be a nurse someday, assuming that's what led you to post here, you don't have the first clue about actually being a nurse. You don't get it. Where is the kindness, decency and respect? The respect was completely absent from your post, and kindness and decency seemed to give it a pass as well.

I don't see GraceAnna's post disrespectful. I think you're just jealous. :saint:

I don't see GraceAnna's post disrespectful. I think you're just jealous. :saint:

Hahahhahahahaahaa!!!

Ruby, you jealous old biter nurse, you did it again.

Why can't you let this thread die peacefully? :eek: The inhumanity! I cringe each time I see this thread pop up.

Specializes in Telemetry.
I don't see GraceAnna's post disrespectful. I think you're just jealous. :saint:

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I think you're just jealous. :saint:

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Or because I'm too sexy for my shirt.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Image is nothing without substance and integrity.

Specializes in CVOR, CVICU/CTICU, CCRN.
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Or because I'm too sexy for my shirt.

Great. Now that song's stuck in my head. Oh well, it's better than the previous occupant. I was starting to get sick of Adele.

Specializes in Family Medicine, Tele/Cardiac, Camp.
And with this, you have earned my respect, young nursling :) Well done. You are going to be a great nurse.

I just squee-ed a little bit at the term "nursling". I know it was probably originally unintentional, but it's so darn cute. A young little nurse. Nursling. I love it. :)

Specializes in ER.

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Dress code requires us to wear our hair up and off shoulders. Nothing is worse than hair touching patients. Well-oiled hair? Well, we do have a male doctor that spikes his hair and I am 99% sure he is wearing eyeliner. Spike like gel ran through it not spiked like a mohawk spike.

Nice watches harbor germs. No one should be wearing watches. Maybe a stethoscope watch. No one should be wearing rings either.

I'll pass on the makeup. Nothing worse than sweating while doing compressions and getting makeup in your eyes. It burns. True story.

I currently am torn between my Alegria soft clogs and my Danskos. I wear bright colors. Alegria is so soft but Danskos can withstand getting blood, ****, and piss on them. I can wipe them off with a clean cloth.

Why is one wearing an eyepatch? Does she not have an eye? If I didn't have an eye, I'd exercise my right to wear an eyepatch too.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

I thought about this thread when the 2 year old girl I straight cathed peed like a geyser in my face.

Thankfully my mouth remained closed, and my hair in a braid.

No hair was harmed-and I got enough for a sample.

Tyrone and my other assistant were on lunch break during the event. :laugh:

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
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Why is one wearing an eyepatch? Does she not have an eye? If I didn't have an eye, I'd exercise my right to wear an eyepatch too.

Winning the internets today!

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