there's been a debate on another thread about the way scrubs, particularly patterned scrubs, are perceived by non-nurses. the original poster's position was that they diminish the respect (or potential for respect) other health care professionals have for nursing. many members argued that patients, particularly paediatric and geriatric patients, prefer them.
research indicates that the public find it harder to identify nurses now that the 'traditional' uniform of whites (plus or minus cap) is the exception. skoruspki and rhea (2006) compared perceptions of four kinds of uniforms and ten characteristics, finding that
the white uniform was the most frequently selected for 5 of the 10 characteristics: confident, reliable, competent, professional, and efficient. the print uniform was most frequently associated with the other 5 characteristics: caring, attentive, cooperative, empathetic, and approachable. in contrast, the solid uniform was least of ten selected for 6 of the 10 characteristics with the print uniform being least often selected for the remaining 4 characteristics.
for overall images, the white uniform was paradoxically the uniform most often selected as the nurse that patients would "not like to take care of you" but also most often selected as being "easiest to identify as a nurse." the print uniform was the most often selected as the nurse "you would most like to take care of you." the solid was the least often selected both as being the nurse "you would most like to take care of you" and as the "easiest to identify."
in other words, the white ensemble allows easy role identification and conveys the professional aspects of nursing care, while a patterned uniform makes identification harder but conveys the human aspects of nursing care and is preferred by patients.
as a student i wore a very traditional uniform, complete with voluminous starched white apron and belt, laundered by the hospital. as a newly registered nurse i wore a pale blue dress (known as the blue sack), until a new don noted that the only other staff who wore uniforms were support staff, while the other professionals wore street clothes (scrubs are reserved for or, ed and icu). i wore, and still wear, black laced shoes, navy or black pants, a white polo shirt or t-shirt and a vest (red, navy or black). i introduce myself to my patients and their visitors as "hi, i'm talaxandra and i'm the nurse caring for you today." i've never yet had a patient or family member voice confusion about my role or status.
i think reducing role fragmentation (so patients have interactions with fewer people), uniforms for support staff, and a policy that all staff introduce themselves would improve identification by families and patients without requiring the regressive step of starched white attire. what do you think?
ok just my , but first off if you look a person that immediatly decide that they are not smart, professional, or a good nurse becuase of printed scrubs, then it is you have the problem, not the person!!! Or is not judging people by their look not apply to heathcare, I don't care if your an employee, or a patient a smile and an a name will go farther then anything we wear! Second, at my last job, in addition to changing the dress code to prevent me from wearing charcters, they also added color coded tags that went behind the name badge. to every person, red=RN, blue=LPN, grey=CNA green PCA ect. even if you tag got twisted around people could still see you jobn function as they were large, bright and double sided. I am all for that change, but this idea they I can't look professional in my favorite disney, or is bears and angels is just stupid, I not in am office, on the floor, and as a former CNA, elbow deep in poo urine, and God knows what diseases who gives a rats hiney if I'm, wearing winnie the poo or nun's on a Harley if as stated above I treat all of my patients with love and respect and tell them who I am and my role is for the 8 or 12 hours?
Lastly this idea that nurses should be in white because that how we are remembered is as realistic as people idea of what a nurse is. Think about, they know that nurses once wore horrible white dresses and paper hats, but we were also housekeepers with needles and had little respect.....the saying "hello nurse" ring any bells? if you don't like printed scrubs outside of peds that you, but let me let you know what my mom said after over a month in the hospital..."I was happy to see nurses walk in with pretty printed scrubs, made me feel better, and they seemed more cheerfull and not all depressed."
I work in the ER and cannot imagine wearing anything other than scrubs. As a nurse we often get ourselves dirty with every imaginable body fluid, not to mention having to be able to move fast at all times, which requires comfortable clothes. I've worked in a LTC where we could wear printed scrubs, and in my current position we wear blues. I must say, I feel that printed scrubs have no place in adult care. It is easy enough to identify nurses when they all follow the same dress code (such as our blue scrubs), and when you introduce yourself to your patient as a nurse! Well-fitting, clean solid scrubs that are color-coded by job title ALWAYS look both professional and realistic to what our job entails.
Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.
you won't always be a nursing student, and it's not too much to expect you to know the health professionals you work with on a regular basis. if you're saying you favor color coding for you, why should we professionals submit to a color code for the benefit of students who are just temporary visitors to our unit. and if you're saying you favor color coding for the benefit of the patients, understand that it doesn't work. even if you provide the patients with a code to the colors, some of them can't read, can't read english, lack reading comprehension skills, have poor short term memory, are demented or are just too sick to care.
nurses are professionals; attempts to force us into certain colors is nothing more than an attempt to make us subservient to the management gods. and i'm against that.
yes, i won't always be a student, but i can see from a patient perspective that knowing that x color means nurse would be a good thing. while i realize that it wouldn't work for all patients, it'd work for a lot, and for the rest nothing'll help them.
further, many professionals do wear uniforms. due to various parts of my background, i'm more than happy to wear one when justified. if your sense of individuality runs only to the clothing you can wear, your distinctiveness can't run all that deep.
also, a lot of the issue seems to be that in some institutions everyone wears scrubs, rather than just patient care professionals. i've seen in other institutions that various groups (housekeeping, transporters, even pcts) would wear (color-coded) polo shirts rather than scrubs, which i think works well to further differentiate care providers from other staff.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i prefer white and starting in a month at my hospital all professional staff must wear either wear all white or white tops/nave blue pants. i cannot begin to tell you how often i have walked into a room and had both patient and family say "finally, the nurse". now i know the previous nurse was in that room, but they could not be identified easily. i have had family and visitors come up to me and the other 2 nurses who wear white ( one wears her cap) and tell us much they appreciate us wearing white and how professional it looks. and some of these people are in their 30's and 40's. as far as stains go, i've worn white for most of the last 30 years and only got stains on a uniform once-and i work med-surg.
if you want to wear white, go for it. but understand that all that color coding is just one more way for management to stick it to us. now we're no longer professionals, but "the help."
I've noticed in the ER that pts don't really care what we're wearing. I personally like scrubs. Aviator pants have the pockets I need and the $12 solid tops from walmart are comfortable and expendable.
If you act professionally, you will be perceived as a professional.
Thank you!!! I agree with all of this. Sure I want to help people, but why should I have to change what I wear? Makes no sense!
My previous posts advocate for you to wear what you want as long as it fits with the atmosphere and I am also advocating for scrubs with prints. I'm on your side too.:hug:
I in no way meant to be nasty. After re-reading my note I agree I forgot to address the uniform issue. Which would have been: in my humble opinion clearly seen name tags are sufficient. As a LPN myself I wear all types of scrubs and our name tag is worn on a lanyard around our necks, but they do nothing but get turned around and get in the way. So I don't think uniforms matter....clearly read name tags would fit the bill.
I feel strongly that in the hospital setting, that anyone involved in direct patient care should wear scrubs. When a nurse is wearing normal street clothes, I cannot tell the nurse from a visitor - and this does not inspire confidence! The color-coding thing that some hospitals have is great. Where I used to work, all PCAs and techs wore the cornflower-blue scrubs and nurses were not allowed to wear that color. This made it easy to tell the techs from the nurses.
The newer scrubs for women are tailored, professional and attractive. Unless you work on a pediatrics floor, I think it's unprofessional to wear scrubs with teddy bears on them.
Just as I expect an MD to be wearing his lab coat while making rounds, I expect a nurse to be professionally dressed in some type of "scrubs-like" attire. It's part of maintaining a professional attitude, demeanor and dress as a nurse. No, we don't have to go back to wearing starched white pinafores - but I dislike the dressing-down trend that has pervaded many workplaces.
White is impractical for nurses because it shows stains and bodily fluid splashes very quickly. However, it looks crisp and professional - and it commands authority. I'll admit that I tend to take a nurse more seriously who marches in wearing an all-white tailored scrub set than one who shows up in khakis and a polo shirt.
At my dentist's office, everyone wears the same color scrubs, including the dentist. I looks very professional. They wear a different scrub color for each day of the week. I love it and so do the patients who go there.
You ended strong but what is it with you and this "white commands respect" thing. I do not like street clothes either because it lends itself to "dressing abuse" and it frightens patients who may associate street clothes with invaders, especially on the night shift. However, though I believe that a nurse should wear white if he/she wants to it should remain a personal choice and not branded as a "respect" thing. Nurses in printed scrubs, including male nurses who wear them, although I find it a little tacky, are just as professional as the nurses who wear different colors and commands the same level of respect and it has nothing to do with the clothes but rather their level of performance. Though I choose to wear a white shirt, I'm male, I hope no one expects me to wear white pants as well. During nursing school I was required to wear all white at clinicals and one of my female colleagus commented that I looked like an orderly. I replied by thanking her until I learned what an orderly was, my background was in engineering at the time. Let everyone wear what color scrubs they want. These kind of issues are some of the reasons I'm working on my degree in Healthcare management - freedom to express oneself within certain limit is a fundamental human right and though we would like to pick on nurses, as the general public and administration does, our freedom to express ourselves should not be taken away. And most nurses feel good and self confident in the color scrubs they choose to wear. Ladies support me here - don't you like wearing scrubs that express something, your caring, your sports team, the weather, support for the fight against breast cancer and the likes, support for our troops, the color of your hair, eyes, nail polish, lipstick, the different tones of the skin - and every tone is beautiful, etc, etc, etc.? EXPRESS YOURSELVES! I LOVE IT.
Maybe I'm just showing my age but male nurses in all white uniforms remind me of the days when hospitals had orderlies roaming the halls wearing their ice cream suits. What exactly was an orderly anyway? At the time my impression was their main duty was to "control" unruly male patients.
And lets not forget the ambulance attendants on that very campy television show "Emergency!" who had no discernible purpose rather than standing around waiting for the paramedics to load the patient up for transport.
While ladies in white may bring up nostalgic thoughts of the "good ole days" when nurses looked like nurses, they only thing it reminds me of is the time when a male who worked in a hospital was considered to be nothing more than a bed pan jockey.
if you want to wear white, go for it. but understand that all that color coding is just one more way for management to stick it to us. now we're no longer professionals, but "the help."
LPN's aren't considered (real) nurses in my neck of the woods and in fact they mainly work in LTC facilities. Hospitals have pretty much stopped hiring them unless they are in the RN program.....and a lot of facilities are offering tuition for their LPN's to get their RN degree because in the not too distant future they won't be hiring them either. And I'm gonna be honest with you...if me or my family member is critically ill, I'd like a RN rather than a LPN please. LPN's are very helpful but 1 year of schooling is no comparison to the 2-4 years of schooling for a RN. This is a no brainer. And before you take offense I like LPN's & hope there is always a place for them.
Don't ever come north to Canada, the home of universal healthcare and the home of the two year LPN programme. Yup, that's correct, two whole years to become an LPN. Gasp, we even work in ICU and ER. We had a family try and pull your stunt of "RN care only" who were taken into an office and shown the staff records. The only "RN care" their member had recieved was one circulator in the OR and the RNs in recovery (where he stayed for two hours). Otherwise, it was LPNs who had looked after him. Shock, horror, he recovered and went home.
Now back on topic. I don't care what you wear as long as it's clean and site appropriate. And for the "professionals don't wear uniforms" what do you consider the police and armed forces? The same uniform regardless of rank or trade.
I trained as an RN and worked as an RN in ICU and ER/Trauma for many years in South Africa before immigrating to the USA.
In South Africa there was and still is NO confusion as to who is the RN (or "Sister" as female RN's are still often referred to). All nurses wear Uniforms that are specific to that hospital group/company or government region requirement and then the RN's wear maroon epaulettes on their shoulders, Enrolled Nurses (LVN equivalent) wear White eppaulettes on their shoulders and enrolled nursing auxilliary wears a South African Nursing Council brooch on their uniform.
Scrubs are only worn in the OR's/ Theatres and sometimes in the SICU and trauma and are owned and laundered by the hospital. When you work in OR/ Theatre, you come to work in the regular nurses uniform and then change into scrubs that are worn ONLY in the OR sterile zone.
Uniforms are designed to look professional and are comfortable to wear.
I was dismayed when I first came to the US and saw patient's asking health advice from the EHS cleaners in the ER (who sometimes liberally gave medical advice as they saw fit indeed). Pts still really have no idea who is the RN and the MD or the tech or the cleaner/ house keeping. Another thing, is the design of the scrubs that are worn. Can you really expect your patients (adults and older people) to take you seriously when you are wearing a "Bart Simpson" or Micky Mouse print top or trousers?? I think not.
I really dont believe clerks, monitor techs, and non-clinical personnel should wear scrubs at all.
As a profession, scrubs have totally diluted our identity and distinguishability from other categories. I trust that one day in this country we will move back to some type of uniform identity.
I make it very clear to my patients how to identify the RN's while they are in my department.
I also wear my Badge from my training university which clearly indicates that I am a Registered nurse.
I always say to new nurses and students; for just a few moments consider how your appearance will influence how your patient regards you as a professional. Image is not EVERYTHING, but it does constitute alot in terms of how comfortable a patient feels with you as their Health Care Professional.
"Can you really expect your patients (adults and older people) to take you seriously when you are wearing a "Bart Simpson" or Micky Mouse print top or trousers?? I think not".
"As a profession, scrubs have totally diluted our identity and distinguishability from other categories. I trust that one day in this country we will move back to some type of uniform identity"
Sorry, but I think you are hallucinating. I never liked South Africa anyway and what you have just described sounds like a police state. Welcome to America where even patients and their families have some liberal tendencies. I'm an immigrant too and I'm loving America for its diversity.
:)
:hug:
eeyorelov
73 Posts
ok just my
, but first off if you look a person that immediatly decide that they are not smart, professional, or a good nurse becuase of printed scrubs, then it is you have the problem, not the person!!! Or is not judging people by their look not apply to heathcare, I don't care if your an employee, or a patient a smile and an a name will go farther then anything we wear! Second, at my last job, in addition to changing the dress code to prevent me from wearing charcters, they also added color coded tags that went behind the name badge. to every person, red=RN, blue=LPN, grey=CNA green PCA ect. even if you tag got twisted around people could still see you jobn function as they were large, bright and double sided. I am all for that change, but this idea they I can't look professional in my favorite disney, or is bears and angels is just stupid, I not in am office, on the floor, and as a former CNA, elbow deep in poo urine, and God knows what diseases who gives a rats hiney if I'm, wearing winnie the poo or nun's on a Harley if as stated above I treat all of my patients with love and respect and tell them who I am and my role is for the 8 or 12 hours?
Lastly this idea that nurses should be in white because that how we are remembered is as realistic as people idea of what a nurse is. Think about, they know that nurses once wore horrible white dresses and paper hats, but we were also housekeepers with needles and had little respect.....the saying "hello nurse" ring any bells? if you don't like printed scrubs outside of peds that you, but let me let you know what my mom said after over a month in the hospital..."I was happy to see nurses walk in with pretty printed scrubs, made me feel better, and they seemed more cheerfull and not all depressed."