The sloppy image of nurses today

[RNdynamic]

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.

[nars_wannabe]

Grooming and good hygiene is very important. My scrubs are pressed and ironed and my hair are pulled back in a pony tail or in a high bun with minimal accessory, like stud pearl earring or tiny diamond (no rings). Not to look professional but because I do take care of myself, to feel good inside and out and ready to conquer the world (like Wonderwoman).

[NanaPoo]

My basic haircut, 3 piercings in each ear and minimal makeup everyday. And a damn good nurse all day, every day.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Shallow and ludicrous as it is, it's popular.

The problem with the woman with the military style buzz cut was that it was cut so close to her scalp that you could see like, pimples from ingrown hairs or something, and a wart/mole thing on the side of her head. That is just freaking gross.

And the reason for the military style buzz cut may have been that the hair was just growing back after a fun run of chemo.

Shallow.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

Short and sassy!!!

I was 8. Terrible thing to do to a child.

Yeah, I was 6. Good times.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Grooming and good hygiene is very important. My scrubs are pressed and ironed and my hair are pulled back in a pony tail or in a high bun with minimal accessory, like stud pearl earring or tiny diamond (no rings). Not to look professional but because I do take care of myself, to feel good inside and out and ready to conquer the world (like Wonderwoman).

My scrubs never need to be pressed and ironed! They come right out of the dryer wrinkle free.

I haven't used an iron is so long, I honestly can't remember the last time. Hooray for permanent press!

[nars_wannabe]

My scrubs never need to be pressed and ironed! They come right out of the dryer wrinkle free.

I haven't used an iron is so long, I honestly can't remember the last time. Hooray for permanent press!

Good for you! :) I have slight OCD and I like to iron my scrubs, it's a wonderful feeling Lol!

[nars_wannabe]

My basic haircut, 3 piercings in each ear and minimal makeup everyday. And a damn good nurse all day, every day.[ATTACH]20820[/ATTACH]

This is a nice haircut...I'm just wondering if this will suit me. Less time for hairdrying in winter.

[GraceAnna, BSN, RN]

.....where is the decency.. respect.. kindness? (I'm referring to nearly every post on this thread).

- beneficence - nonmaleficence - veracity - fidelity - justice - respect for autonomy -

As a prospective new nurse, I absolutely want to exhibit professionalism through all aspects of my role as a HCP. Not through looks alone, but certainly included to make an effort to look clean, thoughtful, and presentable without drawing attention. Also, doing so through aiming as best I can to treat my patients and colleagues with respect, honesty, and kindness regardless of my opinions, pride, and emotions on any given day/shift. I will say, it is a bit discouraging to see the harsh dialogue between, who I understand to be, professionals here? However, I think that leading by example is the better route, and just hope that all of you will do just that with your patients' safety and wellbeing in mind first... and that does include taking the profession seriously and making an effort to look professional and presentable. Then, do what you do best and make those decisions to get that patient to the next step of progress! Do it with a buzz cut, with your beautiful hair nearly pulled out of your face or patient's face, with zero make up, or with pleasant, understated makeup on (though I will say, black and white is black and white: don't fix makeup for the nightclub or bathe in perfume). Most importantly, though, do so because you are a nurse and have the incredible privilege and responsibility to impact your patients' lives. I see that there are a whole lot of them, and there are a whole lot of meds to pass and doctors to call and boxes to click and notes to write, but the patient is a person with a family (or not - even more so), and with a soul and mind and ideas and a heart. If nothing else from my post means anything, remember that truth about each patient being an incredibly unique, genuine and imperfect person (just like each and every one of us here). Be conscientious of others, especially colleagues... am I naive to say this must apply to social media too!? That will help the image of professionalism within nursing immensely!

[Nurse Leigh]

.....where is the decency.. respect.. kindness? (I'm referring to nearly every post on this thread).

- beneficence - nonmaleficence - veracity - fidelity - justice - respect for autonomy -

As a prospective new nurse, I absolutely want to exhibit professionalism through all aspects of my role as a HCP. Not through looks alone, but certainly included to make an effort to look clean, thoughtful, and presentable without drawing attention. Also, doing so through aiming as best I can to treat my patients and colleagues with respect, honesty, and kindness regardless of my opinions, pride, and emotions on any given day/shift. I will say, it is a bit discouraging to see the harsh dialogue between, who I understand to be, professionals here? However, I think that leading by example is the better route, and just hope that all of you will do just that with your patients' safety and wellbeing in mind first... and that does include taking the profession seriously and making an effort to look professional and presentable. Then, do what you do best and make those decisions to get that patient to the next step of progress! Do it with a buzz cut, with your beautiful hair nearly pulled out of your face or patient's face, with zero make up, or with pleasant, understated makeup on (though I will say, black and white is black and white: don't fix makeup for the nightclub or bathe in perfume). Most importantly, though, do so because you are a nurse and have the incredible privilege and responsibility to impact your patients' lives. I see that there are a whole lot of them, and there are a whole lot of meds to pass and doctors to call and boxes to click and notes to write, but the patient is a person with a family (or not - even more so), and with a soul and mind and ideas and a heart. If nothing else from my post means anything, remember that truth about each patient being an incredibly unique, genuine and imperfect person (just like each and every one of us here). Be conscientious of others, especially colleagues... am I naive to say this must apply to social media too!? That will help the image of professionalism within nursing immensely!

Thank you for this post.

It had been nearly three weeks (?) since a new member and non-nurse stopped by to tell us how we should behave and feel.

Awesome.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Eight WHOLE minutes? Were you having a bad hair day?

Lol! 8 minutes seems like a very long time to spend on hair, I know.

However, I have curls that I need to make reasonably presentable. It takes forever to comb out, even wet. Leave in conditioner (2) comb out hair, elastic for pony tail or bun.

8 minutes is pretty good.

[CountryMomma, ASN, RN]

.....where is the decency.. respect.. kindness? (I'm referring to nearly every post on this thread).

- beneficence - nonmaleficence - veracity - fidelity - justice - respect for autonomy -

As a prospective new nurse, I absolutely want to exhibit professionalism through all aspects of my role as a HCP. Not through looks alone, but certainly included to make an effort to look clean, thoughtful, and presentable without drawing attention. Also, doing so through aiming as best I can to treat my patients and colleagues with respect, honesty, and kindness regardless of my opinions, pride, and emotions on any given day/shift. I will say, it is a bit discouraging to see the harsh dialogue between, who I understand to be, professionals here? However, I think that leading by example is the better route, and just hope that all of you will do just that with your patients' safety and wellbeing in mind first... and that does include taking the profession seriously and making an effort to look professional and presentable. Then, do what you do best and make those decisions to get that patient to the next step of progress! Do it with a buzz cut, with your beautiful hair nearly pulled out of your face or patient's face, with zero make up, or with pleasant, understated makeup on (though I will say, black and white is black and white: don't fix makeup for the nightclub or bathe in perfume). Most importantly, though, do so because you are a nurse and have the incredible privilege and responsibility to impact your patients' lives. I see that there are a whole lot of them, and there are a whole lot of meds to pass and doctors to call and boxes to click and notes to write, but the patient is a person with a family (or not - even more so), and with a soul and mind and ideas and a heart. If nothing else from my post means anything, remember that truth about each patient being an incredibly unique, genuine and imperfect person (just like each and every one of us here). Be conscientious of others, especially colleagues... am I naive to say this must apply to social media too!? That will help the image of professionalism within nursing immensely!

Whoa. Look, I'm afraid of heights, so if you don't mind, I'm going to just jump down from this pedestal you stuck the entire nursing profession on. Thanks.

Seriously, I'm not a nurse 24/7, I don't eat breathe and sleep nursing, and I most certainly do not flit about quoting the ANA code of ethics. Professionalism could also go as far as understanding when one does not have standing to speak on a topic, one could surmise.

[Farawyn]

You do you, GraceAnna.

No worries about the rest of us. We got this.