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So recently the Chief Nursing Executive as my hospital decided that all nursing staff are required to wear hospital provided lab coats while on duty, along with the ID badge, no exception. To the tune of thousands of dollars, I might add...
The rationale being that nurses as professionals should be easily identifiable to patients and other staff. Although a few didn't warm up to this idea initially after some grumbling and groaning it appears to be a rousing success.
So one particularly snotty nursing student who no nurse wished to be saddled with d/t her pompous attitude, strolled onto the unit wearing... a lab coat (the kind found at a medical supply store).
The NM took one look at her and said, "You are not staff, you are not a professional, go remove the lab coat and then you may return to the unit."
The snotty little thing went crying to her clinical instructor whining that she had been "discriminated" against causing a frenzy of bad vibes that has now caused a rift between an already fragile dynamic between staff and students, all because of one bad egg.
So was the student in her right to attempt to blend in or did she cross the point of no return?
Thoughts?
No one has yet addressed whether the students had lab coats included in their dress code.
No lab coats allowed; scrubs of any colour, school emblem patch on shoulder and school supplied name tags clearly visible on scrub top.
One thing I often come away from AN feeling is just thankfulness for the kind, patient and reasonable people that I work with both at my school and at my clinical sites.
I'm thankful for the students who stay in line, too.
Just out of curiosity, were lab coats a part of her school uniform? I know that my nursing school required us to have lab coats. Not everyone wore them all the time, but some of us sometimes did. They clearly identified that we were nursing students with our school patch on the shoulder.
We also wore different colored scrubs, so we were easily identifiable. I wore white scrubs as a nursing student. worst color ever!
I don't really know the dynamics of the situation or if the student was pretending to be a nurse. As long as the lab coat was in dress code and she identified herself as a student nurse, I don't see anything wrong with that. Again, I don't know the details. I'm sure the manager could have handled it better.
after getting more facts from op it looks as if this sn likes to stretch the rules and if she has had a history of doing so and the lab coat was the icing on the cake then she had it coming. but i have to say that the nm should've dealt with this situation in a more professional manner, rather than to call her out on the floor for anyone to see and hear.
OttawaRPN
451 Posts
"For her white coat stunt, or was this just the icing on the cake?"
Yep, a culmination of several disagreements b/t her and the staff.