Scrubs for nursery staff suggestions please?

[tammki5g]

Hi everyone this is my first time posting. I am a manager on a LDRP unit. new to the hospital and job. I am looking to change things on my unit but I need input to help me out since I have to take the proposal to the board to get it approved, Right now we are LDRP with a level 2 nursery. they nurses are all supposed to wear pink scrubs (their own) or hospital scrubs for the OR. (that is a state requirement in NJ by the way that anyone in the OR wear hospital laundered scrubs)

anyway what I end up with is some nurses wearing pink others wearing blue (the hospital scrubs) the doctors and sturdents and residents all wear the hospital scrubs too. so the end result is a mixture with the patients not knowing who is who.

I would like for us to buy special scrubs for the entire unit. the hospital to wash them and the nurses to come in and change at the hospital. but I would love information from anyone willing to share about what you so at your hospital. I believe this is a security issue to for our babies.

please you can post here or if you want send a private responce. thanks in advace to anyone who has some help for me.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

michaelglass The budget required to dress launder for an entire nursery staff and physicians will be monumental!!!!

My suggestion would be for the nurses to have name tags that say RN in huge letters. I'm sure you already have security features in place so the name badge would be a safety backup. I'd also suggest that you not allow anyone on your unit without sufficient and VISIBLE identification.

Best wishes

[suzanne4, RN]

That is what used to be done all over the US, and hospitals have gotten away from it, as it is not a requirement except for the OR in many states.

Doesn't matter what your budget is, it just isn't going to be cost effective for you to do anymore. And color of scrubs will not affect security issues at all. If someone was thinking of getting in, and just got the same color scrubs??? And you can purchase any color, anywhere. Badges only with pictures. Do

[jennyga]

I have seen nurses in the nursery:rolleyes: with a patterned top (but very simple, flowers with a white backround) and purple pants and only nurses wore it. It seemed good because you knew who was who. Hope that helps!

[SmilingBluEyes]

our nursery and L/D nurses wear hospital-issued scrubs.

[nurse_clown]

when i was a student, i did my consolidation on the transplant unit. the nurses had two colors to choose from and they also bought their own uniforms at a super discounted price. they were also a very close knitt group and a very effective team. the hospital didn't have to do their laundry and they considered their uniforms "thier colors." i don't think they minded buying their own uniforms because they considered themselves pretty "elite." not that "elite" is a bad thing because they were very effective. the manager set expectations that one might consider high but they lived up to those expectations. but that type of environment (transplant) needs people to always be on the ball. he was always testing them (the rn's) and they were always learning. and unit colors was a part of that team that i remembered most. it was a very intense and high acuity unit but their moral and confidence were really high.

[MIA-RN1, RN]

we wear lavendar pants and either lavendar, white or coordinated print top. I don't like it at all. People still don't have a clue who the nurse is. The housekeepers, doctors, and labor nurses wear hospital issued blue scrubs. The techs wear dark purple.

I would have the nurses wear white pants and then choose between white and another color for tops. White pants are such a symbol of nursing and the patients will know that they mean its a nurse.

I can't imagine the hospital laundering all those scrubs. Maybe a cash incentive to buy scrubs---maybe a deal with a local shop that will come in and offer them at a reduced price? That may be the easier way to go than to convince the hospital to add to their budget.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Where we are L&D and OR nurses wear hospital-issue, simply because of the blood spatter issue being prevalent among those two specialties. (Although on mother-baby I've seen a few PP hemorrhages myself where blood nearly covered the room....)

Anyway, the hospital where I had my son used to have specific scrubs but they've moved away from that I think. If you're are doing it for security's sake, please know that its REAL easy for someone who's not hospital staff to find identical scrubs & pretend. I agree with P_RN who says that staff ID badges need to be highly visible, distinguishable from other hospital staff, and hard to duplicate. And patients need to know that just because someone comes to take baby who has a particular outfit on, they still need to ask for ID, ask how long the babe will be gone, and moms (or other family members) should be able to accompany babe to and from wherever should they want to.

All that said, I like the idea in itself. I just don't like the drawbacks. Welcome to allnurses.com!

[mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP]

Our mom/baby units have name badges with a yellow background, another facility uses pink. Parents are instructed to NEVER EVER allow their child to leave with anyone that doesn't have that badge, regardless of who they say they are.

This sets them apart from the rest of the staff. There is no question that you work for that unit and their badge has the yellow (or pink at the other facility) on the front and back, along with your title in LARGE letters on the front and back....that solves the flipping over the of the badge issue that arises sometimes.

They tried the scrub thing and they have hospital issued scrubs, but they rarely use them unless they are scrubing in for a c-section or have a particularly nasty day ahead of them because everyone has a set of those scrubs now.

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

Our department used to issue two sets of scrubs each year. Solid color pants and a patterned top. When I started, we had cute babyfeet scrub tops for the entire MCH dept. That did set us apart from the rest of the hospital, only the nursing staff wore that pattern. Now we buy our own as a cost saving measure for the department. We have to buy solid colors and the only restrictions include no denim and no fluorescent colors.

Several years ago, the hospital dress code forced us into white pants, I'm glad that ended, as the ones we were issued showed everything underneath. Panties, peripads and polka dotted boxer shorts do not look professional, and blood stains etc show up too well.

We have name tags that have a colored stripe for this department, and a little babyfeet pin to wear with it. The docs have a different colored stripe on their nametags (I wish more of them would actually wear one!).

We do have cheap scrubs for OR or the times when we have change, usually related to deliveries, or baby barf, pee and poop. Babies have no respect.

If money is no object, it would be wonderful to have scrubs provided. I prefer to launder my own, as everything gets thrown in together in a hospital laundry. I hate finding somebody's hair in a baby blanket, let alone in something I wear.

[Honeychild]

Where I did my clinical rotation, the nurses wore hospital purchased lavender scrubs. It worked pretty well, but the scrubs were always disappearing.

[mslpn210]

hello

at my hospital , anyone who can transport babies, go into the nursery, etc has pink IDs with green footprints on them.... but at my hospital we don't change at work but L and D, Postpartum and the nursery all wear the same color scrubs...

that's all we do.. well we also have an alarm system with baby bracelets