Should nurses go back to wearing all white?

Nurses General Nursing

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If you walk into any given hospital ,clinic or Dr. office, you will see many different colors of scrubs and prints.They are very nice to look at, have a bunch of them myself. But, are we nurses blending in so well with all staff members that it can be confusing to the patients? Im sure we have all been in a situation where a nurses aide or lab tech were called a nurse by a patient. My nurse pin fell off one time and was found by housekeeping under a bed,I can tell you that was the last time I wore that gold pin to work. Sure, they give you a name badge with your name and title, but I have noticed even those are starting to look all the same.Just what are you all thinking about this.Should we reclaim the "uniform".

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NO NO NO---- White is too impractical, esp for the messy units like OB and ER. I do think that assistive staff- lab people, housekeeping, therapy, Xray should wear something different than the nurses. I think it confuses older people. LOL one of my male coworkers (CNA) is referred to as Dr by the confused pts all the time. One lady said "Im fine, the doctor is here every day in the afternoons and feeds me dinner" :rotfl

laura:

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NO NO NO---- White is too impractical, esp for the messy units like OB and ER. I do think that assistive staff- lab people, housekeeping, therapy, Xray should wear something different than the nurses. I think it confuses older people. LOL one of my male coworkers (CNA) is referred to as Dr by the confused pts all the time. One lady said "Im fine, the doctor is here every day in the afternoons and feeds me dinner" :rotfl

laura:

LOL!!!!!!!!! :rotfl:

That's pretty funny.

I would not ever want to wear white. Ick. I just always make sure to introduce myself as the nurse. It does get a little irksome when people complain about the "nurses" sitting around at the station, when it's actually secretaries or something like that. Oh well. Let them eat cake. ;)

I think there have been some previous discussions about this, so if you do a search you can probably find some interesting debates. :)

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No. I would rather not look like a marshmallow.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I vote no.

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Only if someone besides me is going to keep it clean! Besides the usual "hospital messes" I am accident prone.

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Specializes in LTC, ER, ICU,.

i vote yes to wearing white because this is what i wear 95% of the time to work. moreover, it would be nice if you could go any where and know, for an example, each department can be identified by a specific color. rn-lilac...lpn-green...nursing assistant-blue, etc.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Sure, if soemone wants to wash them, dry them, iron and starch them, get the stains out, and keep them white, fine i'll wear white. I do not want to spend my off time maintaining that crap.

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My mom worked in the era of all white nursing uniforms, starch stains and all...and guess what my chore was from the age of 9 laundry. Swore I'd never wear a white uniform again. Funny thing is a do prefer white scrubs.

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When I worked the floor I hated white with a passion - it was hard to keep clean even on a medicine floor much less with surgical patients. But I do agree that older patients are easily confused by all the colored scrubs. In our ICUs all the nurses where a particular color [uniforms supplied by the hospital], so do our lab techs. The nurses in dialysis coordinate them so they all look a like. But on the regular floors it's go for it! It would be nice if the nurses wore a particular color -- but even that would be hard but a great idea.....

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The other big problem with white is that it turns gray after a few washings. I thought I would be smart and use bleach....but nobody told me bleach weakens fibers. I bent over in my white britches and SPLITT!.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

This one has been done to death, too.

Some say yes, it's more professional and people can recognize nurses more readily this way.

Some say no, it's impractical.

I myself hate seeing esp. men in all white; to me, this harkens to days of insane asylums, straight jackets and the Good Humor man. All white on women reminds me of my frightening hospitalization as a child where the nurses were stern, on the verge of mean really, and scary-looking to me. The wards were NOT child-friendly in the 1960s and 1970s and I remember best what they wore. I still remember that feeling today. In Peds, it would seem a little bit less intimidating to wear the colorful fun scrubs they do today.

Myself, I work in OB where wearing starchy white is definately a wee bit on the impractible side. Esp since we do surgeries like csections and D and C's at the drop of a hat at times. The company provides our scrubs and I think that is the best way to go. No bringing creepy crawlies to or from home on our clothes.

Besides, I am all for variety. Professionalism is a behavior, not just what we wear. JMO.

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