Nursing Scrubs Policy Question

[nursesaba]

Hello,

I would love to get some information on nursing scrubs and about the current hospital policies. This is for a research paper in school so I'm hoping to get as much feedback as possible. I apologize in advance if posting here is NOT allowed. I'm just trying to figure out if nurses are allowed to have a design and/or writing on their scrubs? I'm referring to writing other than hospital names etc. For example, can nurses add pictures on their scrubs of flowers or anything else? Is having them against MOST hospital policies?

I hope you can help me out since I'm trying to understand the nursing industry a bit more. Thx

[beekee]

Depends on the country, hospital and unit. In the US, most nurses buy their own scrubs. However, some units, like the OR, will supply scrubs. For those that buy their own scrubs, the hospital may dictate the color and style, just color, or allow anything at all.

[gere7404, BSN, RN]

At my hospital, floor nurses can wear whatever scrubs we want except for camo because "it could be triggering to veterans." We can wear t-shirts we get when the hospital gets awards or for special events like fund raisers. My unit also has its own t-shirt we can wear if you buy it.

Procedural areas like OR, cath lab, and OB wear hospital provided blue scrubs.

[nursesaba]

1 minute ago, gere7404 said:

At my hospital, floor nurses can wear whatever scrubs we want except for camo because "it could be triggering to veterans." We can wear t-shirts we get when the hospital gets awards or for special events like fund raisers. My unit also has its own t-shirt we can wear if you buy it.

Procedural areas like OR, cath lab, and OB wear hospital provided blue scrubs.

Thanks so much! This means scrubs with designs and some sort of writing on them too. For example, let's say you decide to add text that motivates you to your scrubs..will this be fine?

Thanks for your help!

[gere7404, BSN, RN]

Like, custom embroidery? I've seen people put their names, credentials and units on their scrubs or jackets (hospital sells unit specific scrub jackets with department on the arms, really popular among specialty units but for some reason I rarely see any for the gen med or post-surg floor....), but I don't think I've seen anything with custom inspirational quotes. Most designs I see are either floral patterns, sports regalia, or cartoon characters.

I usually just wear gray scrub pants with one of the hospital t-shirts.

[RNperdiem, RN]

My hospital has a strict set of guidelines about what everyone wears. Nurses wear ciel blue top and ciel blue pants. Techs have their own color, xray techs have their own uniform etc. I have never seen any writing or designing on scrubs before. If a nurse has needs a bit of whimsy in life, we turn to novelty socks.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

Our hospital system has strict color coding for each job title (nurse, tech, therapist, housekeeping). Nurses must wear Galaxy Blue scrubs. Children's Hospital employees may wear child theme scrub tops, but many nurses wear non-cartoon print scrub tops.

[Quota, BSN, RN]

My hospital has assigned colors for staff (nurses, techs, respiratory, nutrition, secretary, transport, etc). OR, L&D get hospital supplied scrubs. Peds nurses get to wear designs and prints to appeal to the kids.

Custom unit/hospital shirts and jackets are also allowed but they are also generally in the designated colors as well. Personally I prefer my scrub top with my pockets to the shirts. I’ll wear the shirts in day to day life or when I come in for a class/training day.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

11 hours ago, nursesaba said:

Thanks so much! This means scrubs with designs and some sort of writing on them too. For example, let's say you decide to add text that motivates you to your scrubs..will this be fine?

Thanks for your help!

I've never worked in an environment where adding "motivational text" was allowed on scrubs. The most liberal policies for scrubs are often found in pediatric units, but I've never seen anything that you are describing on anyone anywhere. Not saying it doesn't happen somewhere, but I have never seen it in 23 years of nursing. There's always going to be "that person" who goes too far and puts something on their scrubs that offends someone. Easier for the facility to just say no rather than having to police this kind of thing. Who has time for that?

The closest I've ever seen to this would be t-shirts given out by the facility that can be worn with scrub pants. An endoscopy center I worked in would sometimes give us t-shirts to wear that pushed the colonoscopy agenda or our particular facility.

[NewOncNurseRN, BSN, RN]

My hospital has dedicated colors for nurses. You can however wear a shirt that is that color. Text on the shirt would be allowed but usually only if it is hospital related.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I work for a children's hospital with a fairly liberal policy. We allow any color, pattern and style with only a few exceptions to avoid confusion because 2 departments have a special color designated for them. We also can't include advertising (not even for a rock band, amusement park, etc.) Also, patterns etc. must not include any material that might frighten a child or offend anyone. Staff tend to use good judgment: so, we haven't had problems with that degree of flexibility.

I don't recall ever seeing anyone wearing something with motivational sayings. I suppose it would be tolerated unless patients or family told us that it upset them in some way -- or if the words were advocating a particular spiritual perspective, religion, etc. or perceived as trying to inappropriately influence people to things they would otherwise not do.

[turtlesRcool]

I'm not really understanding your question about motivational text to scrubs. My scrubs come from a uniform shop, so it's whatever color or pattern I like that is commercially available. I don't understand how I would add text to them, unless it's some sort of embroidery, but it seems like that would be expensive. We have wide latitude when it comes to picking out our scrubs, but I have never seen custom text.

It's not hospital policy, but PT/OT/SLP wear grey, transport wears navy, and housekeeping wears blue. Nurses, RTs, and CNAs wear whatever color/patten they want. Some people prefer solids, others have patterns. A few have seasonal/holiday scrubs they rotate. I've never seen one that could be construed as offensive. I'm not sure where I'd even look to find a questionable scrub top.

Thinking about it, I have seen some text in patterns, but it's usually something like "boo" on a halloween themed scrub top, or "cure" on one with pink ribbons for breast cancer. This doesn't seem to be what you're asking about, though.