Should nurses go back to wearing all white?

[stbernardclub]

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".

[nma24, LPN]

I work at a LTC facility that requires nurses to wear all white. I've gotten used to it, and I don't have tons of stains all over my uniforms. Its not that impractical. They just got rid of the caps a few years ago. The residents love that we wear white, they know exactly who the nurses are. Same goes for their families and visitors. We are allowed to wear warm up jackets of any print or color if we choose to, which breaks it up a bit. But not many people do. The cna's wear white pants and blue shirts in the colder months, and green shirts in the warmer months. All of the depts have a specific uniform, which makes it easy to tell who's who. And just because we wear all white doesn't mean it has to be boring. I've found a lot of white scrub tops that have different embroidery or styles that make them different, but still white. I have a lot of print and colored scrubs from my previous jobs, but now I"m glad its just white. It just seems automatic now. I don't mind at all. :)

[mariedoreen]

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".

Several years ago the hospital I worked for made a move to change all the badges in the facility to just the first name of the employee and, underneath, the department they were assigned to. That was it!!!!! All credentials were going to be removed, whether you were a med tech, radiology tech, RN, physician, etc... The thinking was that they wanted to level the playing field so to speak and do away with the medical hierarchy... everyone on the same team kind of thing. You cannot imagine the absolute uproar from every credentialed employee of the hospital... Thankfully, admin never followed through on it.

[jemb]

White is to bodily fluids as trailer parks are to tornados.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

I really would dislike wearing all white, but I agree about it being confusing. In the last hospital that I worked for, people said they thought the higher ups encouraged all depts. to wear these colored scrubs so it would look like there were more nurses than there actually were! Think about it! But I like my colored scrubs.

I read an article that stated that hospitals actually do this!

Looks like there are lots of nurses, but half may be housekeeping or aides.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

BTW, I always wear white pants. I have some pairs of white nursing pants that are ten years old. They still look bright white- I use hot water, bleach, and 20 Mule Team Borax.

My white shoes are another story- they always look scuffed and yellowed, no matter how often I clean and polish them w/ white polish.

[chaosRN, ASN, RN]

Originally posted by TeenyBabyRN. You were pushing your new white shoes down an NGT????!!!!

:rotfl: I tried, but they woulnd't fit. :rotfl:

Originally posted by BabyRN2Be. I do agree with skanded though. It would help if staff would wear different uniforms to differentiate who is who. It would be hard to make this universal though

My hospital used to do this. Nurses could only wear white, a type of blue, purple or maroon. But, either your pants or your shirt had to be white. Confusing. Each dept. had their own color. Lab- dark blue, RT - Army green, etc. The pts didn't care what each dept was wearing. They have now changed it to we can wear any printed top with solid matching bottoms. Except for black & denim. (there always has to be an exception!) :)