Imagine a hospital in which all nurses and doctors exhibit professionalism, beauty, splendor, and awe among colleagues and patients. A place where the people taking care of you appear greater than human, larger than life, infallible figures, portraying an image that captures total trust and total confidence from those nearby. What a wonderful place that would be. But alas, we have work ahead of us.
This thread is designed to discuss the importance of impressions in nursing. While many nurses take pride in appearing beautiful or handsome, many walk in to work with a case of the feck-its when it comes to appearance. Unfortunately I feel that nurses are much worse than doctors in this arena. Where I work the majority of female doctors wear their hair down, liberally apply makeup, wear form fitting clothing, and hard soled shoes. They try to appear as beautiful as they can. Likewise, the male doctors come in with tailored clothing that had been ironed, they have well-oiled hair, nice watches, and other things reminiscent of the show "General Hospital."
Meanwhile, in the ICU I've worked in, we've got a female nurse with a buzz cut, one woman wearing a pirate-like black eye patch, nurses with baggy wrinkled scrubs, nurses wearing those ugly skechers shapeups, everyone wearing their hair up or back in a plain boring pony tail instead of letting it flow, men or even women with untrimmed or unneatly trimmed facial hair and people exhibiting other drab or and in my humble opinion, embarrassing features. I feel like no other college educated profession dresses down as much as nurses do and it bothers me.
What do you think of nurses and the images they portray in the professional setting? Use this thread to talk about what you like or dislike, what you think should change and what shouldn't.
Have you ever considered substance as a value over appearance? How does immaculate appearance reflect an individual's ability to critically think, act ethically, and engage a spirit of inquiry as a lifelong learner?
I think what needs to change here is your values and priorities for professionals. Clearly, the concept of professionalism is one which needs to be explored, not the fine science of interesting hairstyles and fingernails.
I'm literally elbow deep in c-diff poop 15 times a day at work. I don't give a crap (pun intended) how pretty I look while I'm doing that. And you better believe my hair is going to be tied up while I'm doing it. I DO care about providing good thorough care to my patients. That should really be all that matters.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
This thread is a great read, and I'm gonna finish it, but I have to get ready to go to work now.
(Audience: AAAAAAAAAWWWW!)
I really want to give OP some words of advice in the art of debate: When you present a premise, stick to that premise Those you are arguing with are using some techniques, like "changing horses in midstream". In this case, the whip and the charting stuff. I know you tried to keep them on topic, but allowed them their diversion and lost some footing in the meantime. Now you are debating three areas; fighting three fronts so to speak, which is going to spread you thin on an already weak premise.
I gotta go. In the meantime, watch the excellent movie "The Great Debaters".
Female nurse here, and I have half a buzz cut. As in half of my head is buzzed and the other half is longer. Guess how much I care if you think I "should" have a different hair style or I "should" wear makeup (I don't wear makeup except maybe twice a year). Yeah, I don't care at all. I am clean and neat and act professionally as I care for my patients and that's all that matters.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Few things:
(1) I've never done whip-its while at work. They don't last any longer than about 30 seconds either. So that isn't very germane to my professionalism. But it's fun to talk about nonetheless.
(2) I am not saying it's a hard and fast rule that every nurse should be beautiful or handsome. But at least try. I've always believed that no matter how much natural beauty anyone has, they can always be "done up" to look pretty good in a certain light.
It doesn't matter how long they last. If you're willing to use one recreational drug, odds are you'll be willing to try another, "just this once," then again and again.
This thread is a great read, and I'm gonna finish it, but I have to get ready to go to work now.
(Audience: AAAAAAAAAWWWW!)
I really want to give OP some words of advice in the art of debate: When you present a premise, stick to that premise Those you are arguing with are using some techniques, like "changing horses in midstream". In this case, the whip and the charting stuff. I know you tried to keep them on topic, but allowed them their diversion and lost some footing in the meantime. Now you are debating three areas; fighting three fronts so to speak, which is going to spread you thin on an already weak premise.
I gotta go. In the meantime, watch the excellent movie "The Great Debaters".
It doesn't matter how long they last. If you're willing to use one recreational drug, odds are you'll be willing to try another, "just this once," then again and again.
RNdynamic
528 Posts
Did I mention anywhere that I recently huffed? All I've said was that I've done it. Could have been last week, could have been last year.