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.
OP, I think this might just be what you've experienced? While doctors are definitely busy, nurses do more physical work. So it's unfair to compare the two. I would be afraid to make myself up in the elaborate way you describe, for fear of ruining it during (one of the many) not-so-clean moments with my patients.
...But I also agree with you, and not in a biased way either. My PCP never fails to dress slovenly. Some sketchy-looking nurses have taken care of me as well. So there you have it - unprofessional doctors, unprofessional nurses. There will always be some out there. I do wish they would get it together.
I'm not sure where you work, but the doctors at the hospital I work at (teaching hospital) are not beautiful and "well oiled" -most of the residents and fellows who work the floor and do consults look similar to the nurses- hair pulled back and minimal makeup. I don't see why I should go all out to get pretty for work when I'm not in the business of beauty- I'm in the business of keeping people alive.
How so? I'm in monitoring too. I have the same set of challenges ahead of me that they do. Recovery is not something you "move on" from. Recovery is lifelong. If you're an addict, you would know that. Dismissing those in recovery for using is a bit inelegant. I mean, do you talk that way to patients?.
This is the most entertaining topic for quite a while.
I love the logic. So, if "dismissing those in recovery for using is a bit inelegant", should we also, for example, encourage sophisticated, intricate shoplifting as more elegant than plain ol' bank robbery? Or propose that watching "intimate videos" with minors is ok as long as it does not involve the actual act since it is inelegant to dismiss pedophiles who are trying hard to do as less harm as possible?
Hair is up for hygienic reasons. Would you like C-Diff covered hair when you're wiping your incontinent patient in the bed? Or have your patient's blood in your hair, or get your hair in your patient's wound? The list goes on.
What's wrong with a nurse having a buzz cut? Perhaps the nurse finds it easier to manage than longer hair, or maybe the nurse likes that particular hair style. Maybe the nurse cut her hair for locks of love, and the hair is slowly growing back. You don't know. Frankly, it's not anyone's concern.
The same goes for the colleague wearing an eye patch. Perhaps the nurse required eye surgery, or got an eye injury. One of the nurses on a unit I had clinicals in had a glass eye. Does that mean she shouldn't nurse, or that she was less professional? She wasn't treated any differently than you or I.
I personally prefer not to wear make up. I rarely wore it even in high school. When I go to work, I don't go in with the hopes my appearance will "awe" or impress someone because I'm wearing products on my face. You're running around for 8 or 12 hours, by the time you're done, the make up is most likely off your face from sweat.
I prefer wearing my hair down, but I save that for when I'm at home and don't need to attend to other's needs. Just because I wear my hair in a "boring ponytail" and don't wear make-up, doesn't mean that I'm any less professional than the next person. My knowledge, quality of care and nursing skills should be more important than how I look.
Also, OP, if you are offended/disturbed by the looks and fashion styles you mentioned, you may want to avoid this place known as Walmart.
Or, better yet, carefully confine yourself to private dermatology or psychotherapy practice within limits of Newberry Street, Boston, MA, or Park Street, NY, NY. Everything else will most inelegantly disturb your connoisseurship with the highest degree of probability.
Oh good grief. Who has the time to make themselves like a beauty queen before work? After 12 hours most of my makeup is gone, my scrubs are well worn, and I look dead tired. I may be sweating if I've been in an isolation room for 45 minutes doing a complicated stage 5 dressing change, or I may be wearing a set of scrubs borrowed from surgery because I was just vomitted on.
My hair is pulled back, sorry if that's too practical and not attractive enough. Should I be packing my bra so I'm more appealing to my male patients? I am also rather short... Maybe I should be taller? Is a nose job necessary?
Beauty is not practical at work. As nurses we prioritize constantly... Beauty isn't high on the list, sorry!
Farawyn
12,646 Posts
With the mention of "well oiled hair"!