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.
All of my fancy makeup, exquisitely coiffed hair, and perfectly groomed nostril hairs goes to waste when I spend 60% of my day behind an N-95 mask. But hey, at least my eyes are on point!
A place where the people taking care of you appear greater than human, larger than life, infallible figures
Have to stop you right there. That would not only be a blatant lie but a dangerous, creepy goal. We're NOT infallible. And, no, patients should not be directed towards considering us such, even if it's just for aesthetic sake. Patients should not just inherently agree with us and pedestal us like that. We are out of the age of healthcare coercion and "we know best", for good reason.
Also, I see zero reason to doll myself for coming in contact with human bodily fluids and being on my feet 12 hrs. I'm in direct patient care, and I enjoy what I do--the good, bad, and ugly. I see no reason to put on airs.
A lot of your complaints sounds petty and childish. I for one kinda dont want my hair "flowing" when I'm hands deep in human feces. And, uh, maybe brush up on your perception because I seriously doubt someone wears an eye patch to look like a pirate. She may have a medical condition, but it's none of your concern anyhow. And who cares about her haircut, it's not 1920. Women can do whatever they want with their hair.
It's a very insecure and juvenile practice to spend your time looking around for people and things to judge. You might think it's good to dress up, feel free to do so. Take a book to work or something, and leave others alone.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Student Doctor Network (I think). It's a forum for hopeful physicians. I've not really visited but I understand they are often in a rude and nurse bashing mood. Odd, since most physicians I've encountered have been very respectful. Med school and residency must be awfully humbling for some of them.
Anyway, some of their members enjoy coming here to cause trouble.
Actually, I've made several friends over there, and most of the people who post there treat me with respect.
I had to wear a "pirate patch" to work multiple times last year because of recurrent corneal erosion syndrome affecting my eye... I would wake up every few days with a brand spankin' new corneal abrasion that just kept trying to heal and reopening despite multiple debridements, bandage lens applications, drops, oral medications, supplements, dietary changes, sleep goggles, you name it. It SUCKED. I was missing so much work for appointments with my corneal specialist that I had to do something in order to be able to show up... the patch allowed me to get myself to work and function without having to stop every three seconds of my day to pat dry my eye that was pouring tears thanks to super ridiculous dryness from the medicated drops and photosensitivity. The eye would still be uncomfortable, but at least I could somewhat function with the patch. It was not a fashion statement, and plenty of people gave me weird sidelong glances, but you know what...? I was present, accounted for, and able to care for my patients. Thankfully my eye is now chilled out (although I still have to use gel drops multiple times a day and sleep with nighttime ointment every night) but I still refuse to wear most makeup (any powder on my face or near my eye, or mascara or eye makeup, makes my eye flare up again), pull my hair back from my face (so that my bangs don't poke me in the eye at work), wear safety goggles when in a super dry environment (for example, when caring for a suspected ebola patient earlier this year while wearing a PAPR) or anywhere I might get a splash of anything even remotely irritating in my eye, and otherwise "dress down." My scrubs are (well maybe not always ironed but) presentable and neat, I keep up my personal hygiene, and I think it's ridiculous to judge nurses who are often hands deep in god knows what for not appearing more professional. When I'm an NP, and I work in an office and have less "hard labor" on my job description, I may dress up a little more, but my basic standards are perfectly acceptable and won't be changing a bit.
I had to wear a "pirate patch" to work multiple times last year because of recurrent corneal erosion syndrome affecting my eye... I would wake up every few days with a brand spankin' new corneal abrasion that just kept trying to heal and reopening despite multiple debridements, bandage lens applications, drops, oral medications, supplements, dietary changes, sleep goggles, you name it. It SUCKED. I was missing so much work for appointments with my corneal specialist that I had to do something in order to be able to show up... the patch allowed me to get myself to work and function without having to stop every three seconds of my day to pat dry my eye that was pouring tears thanks to super ridiculous dryness from the medicated drops and photosensitivity. The eye would still be uncomfortable, but at least I could somewhat function with the patch. It was not a fashion statement, and plenty of people gave me weird sidelong glances, but you know what...? I was present, accounted for, and able to care for my patients. Thankfully my eye is now chilled out (although I still have to use gel drops multiple times a day and sleep with nighttime ointment every night) but I still refuse to wear most makeup (any powder on my face or near my eye, or mascara or eye makeup, makes my eye flare up again), pull my hair back from my face (so that my bangs don't poke me in the eye at work), wear safety goggles when in a super dry environment (for example, when caring for a suspected ebola patient earlier this year while wearing a PAPR) or anywhere I might get a splash of anything even remotely irritating in my eye, and otherwise "dress down." My scrubs are (well maybe not always ironed but) presentable and neat, I keep up my personal hygiene, and I think it's ridiculous to judge nurses who are often hands deep in god knows what for not appearing more professional. When I'm an NP, and I work in an office and have less "hard labor" on my job description, I may dress up a little more, but my basic standards are perfectly acceptable and won't be changing a bit.
Very glad your eye is doing better - that ordeal sounded awful.
Can you imagine if the expectation were that nurses call in for not looking good enough?
"Ummm, I *feel* fine, but my hair is all frizzy and my eyebrow waxing was botched.
So I won't be coming in today. I'm in need of a deep conditioning mask and I have to shop for an eyebrow pencil. I'll be in tomorrow if I look better."
I know this is an old post, but after reading it, I laughed so hard thinking of how you must have been torn quite a new something or other after posting this. Honestly, I can't tell if this is real, or a flame bait posted by a net troll. If this is a real post by an actual nurse, you are in need of a really, really dirty day, where your patient throw up a surprise vomit on your pretty shoes and your long shiny hair gets stuck in an infected wound while you are turning a patient who, woops..is that diarrhea under there? Damn. I have to change these scrubs again! You must be young. I hope you are pretty. You are definitely confused about what we do, and your role as a nurse. If you work in an area where you can keep it sexy and fresh all day, great! But I worked in surgery, and I was there for many reasons, none of which was to exhibit a fashion statement or entice people to look dreamily into my smokey, made up eyes. I wish. Save all that gorgeous you want to display for your nights off, and hit the town. When I'm a patient, I want my nurses to be smart, work hard, and put my needs and safety first. Clean is a must. Keep your flowing hair extensions and fake nails out of my wounds and away from my meds please princess. Tell me you are not a nurse. Please. Regardless, I enjoyed your post, and I hope it all works out for you.
NutmeggeRN, BSN
2 Articles; 4,743 Posts
'Cause Far is a style maven!!