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.
I see a *small* amount of credibility here. I'm not endorsing that your "beautiful/handsome" stance is appropriate, but your overall message is something I support.
Wearing scrubs, while comfortable, is more out of practicality than anything. It would not be very practical to wear a skirt, heels, and stockings to perform patient care. There's a reason it went out of style. While scrubs are both comfortable an functional, professionals should take care to appear well-groomed, and please note this is different from "beautiful/handsome." Examples include hair combed, styled appropriately, body/clothing cleaned, scrubs well-fitting/free of stains, proper footwear, and all appropriate equipment.
(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.
You're freaking me out, man.
And if I can just add a few things as someone who formerly worked in substance abuse treatment:
1) the several patients I had who needed to undergo in-patient treatment would argue that indeed, whip-its are habit forming (from your other post)
2) 30 second duration or no, huffing anything wins you the fast track to brain damage land. I encourage you to research the literature on this matter. I have personally seen devastating consequences that are the mental/IQ equivalent of meth mouth.
3) Professionalism is important as is hygiene. Beauty doesn't even make the list of the top 10 qualities I look for in a nurse (as a patient) or colleague. Superficiality doesn't win any respect from me whatsoever whether it is artifice in interpersonal relations or extensively applied makeup.
And if I can just add a few things as someone who formerly worked in substance abuse treatment:
1) the several patients I had who needed to undergo in-patient treatment would argue that indeed, whip-its are habit forming (from your other post)
2) 30 second duration or no, huffing anything wins you the fast track to brain damage land. I encourage you to research the literature on this matter. I have personally seen devastating consequences that are the mental/IQ equivalent of meth mouth.
3) Professionalism is important as is hygiene. Beauty doesn't even make the list of the top 10 qualities I look for in a nurse (as a patient) or colleague. Superficiality doesn't win any respect from me whatsoever whether it is artifice in interpersonal relations or extensively applied makeup.
You're a bit off topic. I have a thread about whip its if you guys want to talk more about whip its. I don't mind. I created another about mental health if you are interested in that too.
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.
Let me guess-you're a guy, correct?
Asking for a nurse to be clean and well groomed is one thing. Asking them to be "beautiful," to "apply makeup liberally," and "wear form fitting clothes" is quite another thing altogether. It is a sexist, inappropriate, and impractical expectation. It's a lot less impractical for a female doctor to wear her hair down and have perfect makeup and nice clothes when she is not involved in the physical aspect of patient care. But even then, I dispute that most female doctors are aiming to "look as beautiful as possible." Nonsense.
This is one of the more bizarre posts I've ever read here. "Beauty," "splendor" and "awe"? How corny.
I am thinking of the earlier, glamour days of flight attendants.
There were strict regulations about age, weight, appearance, marital status and all kinds of other things that would be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit these days.
Nursing is more about performance than aesthetics. A fine appearance is an asset, but not required in most settings. The nurses and other staff at my local day spa are fully "put together", but they are not typical.
Meh, OP huffs. So not really surprised or grossed out by anything.
Is huffing any worse than drinking? Or snorting? Or shooting up?
You guys are being a little disrespectful and possibly violating community guidelines. Please try to keep in mind that we have a lot of nurses in recovery on this forum, who might be hurt were they to see you to dismiss other posters on the basis of their former or even current use.
"Eh, just ignore what she says. She drinks." I don't mind that sort of thing because I basically have teflon skin, but other nurses in recovery might not be as tough and you could be interfering with their recovery. For their sakes, please be mindful of what you say.
Farawyn
12,646 Posts
Nice catch, Leigh.