possibly going to all one color scrub tops

ckh23, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2012

I worked at a facility that did this. It did not work because the facility failed to inform patients of who wore what color.

PMFB-RN, RN · Apr 5, 2012

Yes I have worked at several hospitals who did this. It does not work if the goal is to help patient's identify who is who. Everybody knows it doesn't work. If your hospital is going to all one color for nurses they must have their own reasons for doing so. My guess would be they have control issues. I am betting they don't have rules about what color tie or shirt the physicians have to wear now do they? They (physicians) are professional and do not have to be told how to dress in the morning. We nurses, being only skilled labor and part of the room charge must be told how to dress in the morning, like little children.

wish_me_luck, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2012

I echo what the above posters said. There's a couple health systems where I am at and one uses the one color for each role and the other doesn't. The one that uses the one color still doesn't distinguish the role.

1) Like the other poster said, everyone else knows who is who except the patient; plus, some patients are so sick, that they don't care what color you wear or do not want another thing to have to memorize/think about.

2) Sometimes the roles have such close colors that after a couple of washes of the scrubs, it becomes ambiguous.

3) Think about the patients that have poor eye sight or are color blind.

4) What's wrong with the good ol' fashioned "Hi, I'm Jane/John Doe, I am going to be your nurse today"? or having tags on the badges that tell your role.

Just doesn't work. Plus, I would rather pay less money for a plainer hospital and have the staff in "pretty scrubs" than pay more for a "pretty hospital" and one color scrub providers. My point is, typically, the hospitals that do the all one color thing have the pretty art, etc. in their hospitals; but the cost is passed on to the patient. The "pretty scrubs" are paid for by the employee.

Good Morning, Gil · Apr 5, 2012

My hospital has this. And, we buy our own scrubs. I guess it looks professional for the hospital system to have uniform colors for each discipline. I don't think most patients care, but it's just easier for the hospital. That way they don't have to worry about people showing up in a skull and crossbones top on an oncology floor. Some people just don't have enough common sense to choose professional looking print scrub tops.

I don't really care what I wear. I'm there to work, and then I come home. I do like the color they picked for our nurses, though.

txredheadnurse, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2012

I work in a position where I am on the floor in SNFs and rehabs doing QA etc. I don't wear scrubs or a lab coat. I wear business casual attire. I am constantly asked by residents and visitors alike things like where is such and such, how is Mr Jones today, honey can I have a pill etc. They don't see what I am wearing. All they see is someone with a name badge in the vicinity of the nurses station so I must be an employee.

I bring this up because some of the facilities do use color coded scrubs. People, even the residents who are at the facilities for months or years, don't pay attention to the lovely matching color coded scrubs. All they see is someone with a name badge and they don't care what your role is you are automatically labeled a "nurse".

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Apr 5, 2012

I am amazed at how many facilities think this will solve any issues. Visitors, patients and many employees will have no idea what color goes to which discipline. We got around that by having RN, LPN, RAD, RT, Dieatary, Housekeeping, etc printed in big letters and placed behind our badge, but hang down beneath the badge. Much more visible, everyone knows what it means, and we wear what we like, as long as it is a solid color. The hang-downs are color coded too, but most people do not pay attention to that.

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2012

Patients don't seem to notice. It DOES lead to some great humor when new docs ask which nurse has so-and-so. You can deadpan "Oh, his nurse is the one wearing teal scrubs."

I still get called "doctor" all the time by patients, and there's no color coded chart posted either. I think administration just likes the way it looks and tries to justify it by saying it helps patients. We have the big letters behind our namebadges and even that doesn't seem to help patients figure out who we are. I honestly think knowing our exact role is low on their priority list.

SkipBeat · Apr 5, 2012

Hi all, my hospital may be planning to implement a universal Teal scrub top policy for nurses(don't know tech color yet, but that's universal also). What I want to know is does it seem to help your patients know who the nurse is? Did your employer pay for them? Or did you really notice no difference?

I don't work at a facility where you have a uniform, but I do wear the provided OR scrubs. I think I'm in the minority but I like the idea of color coded scrub uniforms. At some facilities I've been to I've had a hard time figuring out who was who because everyone just wore what they wanted. I couldn't quickly figure out who was a nurse, practitioner, tech, assistant or housekeeping. People had badges, but they were sometimes under jackets or lab coats, turned around because they never stay flipped the right way, or you're squinting your eyes trying to see way down the hall what someone's badge says or what coloring it had on it. I think it would also help with security. I can walk in my nearest hospital now with a pair of scrubs on, blend in, piggy back through a security door and cause some mischief. Granted, uniforms can be copied also, but at least it's an added control. A little patient education could easily correct a knowledge deficit and direct patients to the needed personnel without you even saying a word. I also don't care about if the hospital will pay for them or not either. It's a tax write off if you do have to pay, and I'm at work to work, not look cute.

turnforthenurse, MSN, NP · Apr 5, 2012

Not at all.

I worked at a hospital that implemented a one-color uniform policy. Nurses wore all white. PCTs and CNAs wore hunter green. Lab techs wore all gray or all red. Patients couldn't tell the difference on who was their nurse.

At another hospital, we had in very big, black letters, our job title underneath our badge. It would say "RN" or "LPN" or "TECH." It had it on both sides of the badge. Patients would still refer to me as their nurse even though I was a "TECH" at the time.

Sometimes I get called a doctor by my patients because I wear a white scrub jacket at times and they confuse it with a white lab coat.

Even with educating patients they still get confused at times. Others KNOW that I am their nurse. I guess it just depends.

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Apr 7, 2012

i give it 6 months to a year, before they realize that it makes no difference and change back. thanks all.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 7, 2012

i give it 6 months to a year, before they realize that it makes no difference and change back. thanks all.

sounds like a hospital with control issues, and that won't go away in six months to a year. i'm hoping for your sake that it does, though. i hate color coding!