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.

[GraceAnna, BSN, RN]

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.

Point taken, foot-in-mouth and all. Thank you for the reply and honest insight. I'm being serious, I appreciate it.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

People come here to laugh and vent sometimes. These forums are moderated, and provided that posters stay within terms of service (includes respectful debate), they can say what they like.

You are also free to disagree.

Based on the original poster's views (well oiled, flowing hair comes to mind)......we've had a lively debate.

You do realize that this thread is loaded with intentional sarcasm, right?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

You do realize that this thread is loaded with intentional sarcasm, right?

You ...you ...you mean not all these posts were serious? Dangit, where's the sarcasm font when you need it? So I should stop oiling and braiding my nose hair?

[GraceAnna, BSN, RN]

People come here to laugh and vent sometimes. These forums are moderated, and provided that posters stay within terms of service (includes respectful debate), they can say what they like.

You are also free to disagree.

Based on the original poster's views (well oiled, flowing hair comes to mind)......we've had a lively debate.

You do realize that this thread is loaded with intentional sarcasm, right?

Thank you joanna73, I do realize it now with your help. I'm a young nursling learning, and sticking it out.

I am also an ESFJ, if that tells you anything!

[RescueNinjaKy]

.....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!

Honey, I'm a nurse, not a saint. I don't poop rainbows and sprout flowers wherever I walk just because I got my license as a nurse. Because you are new and not yet a nurse, I am telling you this with all seriousness. Find out what a real nurse looks like. There are tv nurses, childhood fantasy nurses, textbook nurses, and real nurses. If you keep thinking that nurses and nursing is a certain (naive,idealistic) way, then you are going to be in for a rude awakening when you become one.

We nurses are always portrayed one way or another but the most authentic portrayal is one where we are humans. We don't live on smiles and thank yous, we want monetary compensation. We don't work endlessly, tirelessly, or even selflessly. We get tired too, we get grumpy too, and we can be mean too. And we certainly want rest and proper compensation. Yes a degree of compassion is needed but we don't have an endless supply of that. We are nice, kind, understanding, patient, and compassionate to our patients (except when they need some tough loving) but even we have our bad days, not to mention a break from that in our PERSONAL lives.

And a word of wise, don't go into nursing thinking that you can save them all. You simply can't, and if you go Thinking you can, then you might get broken and bitter. There are some who can't be saved or don't want to be saved. All we can do is do what we can, educate and hope for the best.

And on a last note: remember what professionalism is. Acting professional in your profession. We are not in a professional setting. And who's definition of professionalism is it. Why am I being held by your unrealistic standards of professionalism. Does this mean that a teacher shouldn't go out to the bars on their day off simply because they're supposed to be professionals? What about the police officer who goes shopping for video games on their days off. There needs to be a clear line between on duty and off duty, you can't live your job 24/7, or else you're just gonna be burned out.

And just so this post is construed as somewhat constructive, my advice is this: As a student, you should analyze and use your critical thinking before taking action. It will be one of your most valuable skill in nursing.

[littlelimabean01, LPN]

Well said!! You took the words out of my mouth. That is exactly how I dress for work. Clean, hair pulled back, unwrinkled scrubs (I see wrinkled ones often and just shake my head, it is like ever use a dryer?) The only rule I do not follow is I do wear a scented lotion. I am in scrubs which makes me feel uni-sexed so I like to at least smell nice. N/c so far from my patients nor co-workers.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

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

Yes, this. I like the straight line down the front of my pants. Except for jeans. That's just silly.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

...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.

Oh the challenges us curly haired people face!! It's a constant struggle!

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Yes it is! I have dark hair, but I've been finding more white hairs which curl in weird directions. I have no choice but to spend the 8 minutes.

(My hair is long and flowing, NOT work appropriate, so I tie it back.)

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

Point taken, foot-in-mouth and all. Thank you for the reply and honest insight. I'm being serious, I appreciate it.

Thank you joanna73,I do realize it now with your help. I'm a young nursling learning, and sticking it out.

And with this, you have earned my respect, young nursling :) Well done. You are going to be a great nurse.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

.....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!

First off -- paragraphs make a post much more readable. A solid wall of text is very difficult to read.

But on second thought, maybe paragraphs weren't so necessary . . . the lack of them probably made a lot of people skip over this disrespectful post.

You aren't a nurse, GraceAnna. Do not presume to tell nurses how they are supposed to think or feel or how to be professional. For all of your desire to be a nurse someday, assuming that's what led you to post here, you don't have the first clue about actually being a nurse. You don't get it. Where is the kindness, decency and respect? The respect was completely absent from your post, and kindness and decency seemed to give it a pass as well.

[armyicurn]

It seems to me that you are admiring the docs than your colleagues at the bedside. At my facility, we are provided scrubs. Yes, they are wrinkled but I am at the bedside where sheet happens. I told one recent new RN hire when she complained about the scrubs being so wrinkled: You are here to provide care to the sick. You are not here for a fashion show. That's the last time she complained. Those Doc's you are admiring, do they work at the bedside or in the OR? Sounds like they are in family medicine and probably have no callouses in their hands. And this business with the hair down... Do that in my department and we will be in my office talking about it. Hair down has no place at the bedside unless you work behind a desk. You will understand the first time a lunatic pt pulls your hair.