Standard Hospital Scrubs National Standard?

[HeartsOpenWide]

Does your hospital require everyone to wear the same scrubs? My hospital is instituting this. Everyone has to wear not only the same color, but we have no choice on the brand. I am a very petite person (100lbs) and none of the scrubs they are getting us fit (MC Hammer pants anyone??) everyone is complaining, but administration is telling us it is a national standard that most hospitals are having their nurses all wear the same scrub; stating it is a patient safety issue. They say the other hospitals in our area are going to be doing it, but when I talked to a friend at the other hospital she had no idea what I was talking about; even asked her manager who had no idea what I was talking about...

So, does your hospital have a standard uniform for nurses?

[neatnurse30]

We are color coded- in our hospital system ( which is 6 of the hospitals) we wear navy blue. We had sponsors who paid for the scrubs so each full-time nurse got 2 sets of scrubs, prn nurses got 1 pair. I'm glad that at least we are not wearing white scrubs, that would be so unpractical.

[Morainey, BSN, RN]

We have big hang-tags that say RN, NA, WS, RT, etc. Aside from that, we can wear whatever kind of scrubs we like as long as they are neat and professional.

The only exception I can think of is maternity nurses, the hospitals that I have been in they usually come to work in their own clothes, wear plain blue scrubs for their shift, and change out before they go home so the hospital washes their scrubs. Also, OR staff gets their own individual labeled scrubs.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

A number of hospital systems in my area color code different disciplines. I can think of two that require the hospital-issued scrubs embroidered with the logo. So it's not uncommon.

I am not aware of any JCAHO mandate - I think it's just a trend. It may stay ... or it may fall by the wayside in a period of time.

I sympathize -- I'm a petite pants gal myself.

[kenyacka]

We're allowed to wear any kind of scrubs as long as they're clean and wrinkle-free. Our nurses have an extra card on their badges that hangs down lower and says RN in bold, black letters. The only difference is our surgeons all wear light blue scrubs and lab coats.

[TeenyTinyBabyRN, BSN, RN]

Does the color coding really matter? Who cares who the patient is asking? The patient should be able to ask anyone in scrubs, whether RN, RT, CNA, or house keeping, if the person asked can't help them, then they are responsible for getting someone who can help. Upon walking in the pateint's room, everyone should introduce themselves, with their title. I work at a hospital, where we can wear whatever clean scrubs we want, and I have never heard any complaints.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

We went to a color coded system. We can wear whatever we want as long as it falls within our color choice. Really, in certain standard colors (black, white, ciel blue, navy, etc) colors are actually all pretty close. How well would a scrub company compete with a uniform policy if they couldn't do this to some extent? Sure "misty blue" and "carnation" might be tough colors to match, but the more basic ones all look pretty much the same to me!

[CharmedJ7]

We just moved over to uniforms. We tried the ID band thing, but they still flip around a lot which is maybe why they decided they weren't working (I suppose this is a solvable problem though if they just make them double-sided). The funny thing though, is that with the current state of things, now PTs wears NAVY blue, PCTs wear ROYAL blue, and RNs wear CIEL blue. Less confusing? Surgeons usually wear lt. green though sometimes they wear ciel too.

I will say.... much as I utterly hate the uniforms and I DO think it smacks at robotization/all nurses are interchangeable... it does make it a lot easier for staff to ID each other quickly. I think it does next to nothing for the patients, but I've heard from the docs it makes it a lot easier and it's easier for me too when I float to another unit or someone floats to us. What confuses me is that our tele techs can wear whatever they want which is often a white coat - kind of confusing when you come in the room and they're in with your patient and then turn out to be just changing the battery...

[NurseSnarky]

I worked in a hospital that was "color coded" as well and I strongly believe it's a great thing to do. Nurses wore white, navy, or a combo of the two...and on special holidays we could wear prints or printed jackets. Techs would wear burgundy, unit secretaries wore scrub pants and polos. Housekeeping also wore scrubs and polos if I remember right...in yellow I want to say. There was no confusion by the docs as was stated above. They knew white or navy would be a nurse. Hard to see our name tags from a long distance or from behind. The patients also did not have any confusion. We introduced ourselves and the techs also introduced themselves. We were also not limited to a certain brand. It created a professional environment as well. Then I worked in an ICU where everyone had to wear burgundy scrubs supplied from the hospital and no other color was allowed. Patients would always ask the tech questions intended for the nurse. It was confusing and yes, the docs also got confused unless they had been there long enough to know who was who.