One bad egg...

point of no return, i would have never dreamed of doing that when i was a nursing student. the little stunt could have got her in a lot of trouble. what is a family member would have approched her for something beyond her scope. what is it would have been an emergency or someone from the board of the hospital came up to her. or a dr making rounds, they usually have no patience for us most of the time anyways, and she would have to talk her way out of that one. she has not earned the right to wear the coat yet anyways. and my clinical instructor would have told me the same thing. and would have removed us from the floor. she as a student should have known better.

she is a student they are not to "look" like the staff.

the apperal is intended to be symbolic of a status.

the student was undermining this effort.

that student can wear a lab coat til she turns blue in the face after she graduates , passes boards and becomes staff. til then, she needs to stay in her lane and respect the units dress code.

I think she was trying to look like staff. When we were students, we wore our school uniform. Imagine crying because she got called on it. She knew what she was doing.

A student is a student is a student. NOT staff. No, she should not have attempted staff impersonation.

So the 'coat' is the equivalant of the 'cap' ......maybe not appropriate but i think it could have been delicately addressed to her.

We're supposed to have lab coats in our program. Am I snotty for having one?

Seriously OP? Do you remember when you were a student and wanted to fit in? Could you be any more negative? I feel sorry for any students that end up trying to learn from you.

We're supposed to have lab coats in our program. Am I snotty for having one?

Of course not. The student in question was wearing a lab coat without authorization, so to speak. Staff wears a lab coat (in the original scenario), not students.

This is coming from a student... I can understand her wanting to look like the RN she may be someday. And it's ~possible~ she didn't understand that only staff should wear the lab coats to avoid confusion. But wow, there was no reason to cause further division by complaining about it to her instructor. I'm surprised that she succeeded in creating more division; her instructor should have enforced following the floor rules.

We are told to NEVER wear a lab coat to clinical site! The one thing that is similar that we can wear is one of the scrub warm-up jackets in the matching shade of our clinical uniforms (royal blue scrubs) and it has to have the school crest patch on it...

As a student, I don't think she has necessarily gone beyond the point of no return, depending on her year of school and how long she has been at that clinical site. If myself, or my fellow students, were to do anything similar to this, we would be given an unsatisfactory for the day, sent home, and probably be set up for a meeting with the program director.

The purpose of us standing out is a simple one, we haven't earned dressing in what we want yet. We are students, plan and simple. Would it be nice to be able to blend in? Yes, but if we were confused for a staff nurse it could cause safety issues as well as simply making ourselves and our school look silly, for lack of a better word.