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.
You're the same one that talked about doing 'whip its' while being monitored, right?
Yeah. I wouldn't put so much stock in how professional people 'look'.
Oh. My. Gracious. :roflmao: Yeah, methinks someone has bigger things to worry about than our comfy shoes and lack of makeup.
I have to say a word about doctors, though, since their put-togetherness was mentioned in the OP. I work in a teaching hospital, and right now our group of SICU residents are nearly all female. They wear scrubs--not neatly pressed ones, but the ones that come from the hospital's laundry dept. They wear their hair in ponytails or messy buns. Sometimes they wear makeup, sometimes not. Two of them are new moms...I can't imagine really caring about "tryyyyyying to make yourself as attractive as possible" when you have a new baby and are working however many hours a week residents work. Of course they are always showered and anti-perspirized.
And you know what? Their professionalism is impeccable.
I was going to call BS on this as an obvious troll.
But, after reading some of the OPs other posts, not so sure.
If not an outright troll, at least stirring the pot, most likely out of boredom.
OP, though you are pretty far out there, you aren't really so clueless as to think there was something acceptable about this post. Are you? Form fitting clothes and oiled hair? I sincerly doubt your sincerity. but, thanks for the amusement.
If you work at the bedside, hair is supposed to be tied back for infection control.
While I agree that wrinkled scrubs look sloppy, your comment about nurses with buzz cuts is judgmental.
I have known a few nurses who had buzz cuts, some with tattoos, and some who sported nose rings. They were all good nurses, and their attire still met the dress code for that facility. It depends how you present, and where you're working.
Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.
Looking good can work against you too.I have had this issue my entire career and I still am experiencing it and should not be.I do like to look nice and can apply makeup so it looks great.I also happen to have that voluptuous figure type and a pretty face.Both of these factors, for the ignorant translate into that I should be somewhere else and I should be doing something else for a career! Apparently my figure is distracting too, and bothers some people........Really! What does any of that have to do with my ability to get the job done and done well. I certainly can't change my figure and I don't wear form fitting clothes. ...just scrubs. So where I work they like the non-wearing makeup nurses with no breasts or anything that looks female. ..PS I like sparkly earring too and wear small ones so they can't be grabbed and my female pts love them! I do what makes me happy because when I am happy I am a better nurse
I say just be what you are because the main goal here is to help others when they are ill and suffering.
Romanticizing the nursing profession, you are. I too long for the days where I could wear all whites, with my cap , topped with a classy navy cape.
Fact is .. I'm forced to get down and dirty. I can't compare myself to the female docs, who can round in high heels and full makeup.
Agree we need to be as presentable as we can, within the hospital dress code policy. Other college educated professionals are not subject to bodily fluids.
My eyebrows went up at "liberally applied makeup" and "hard soled shoes;" my stomach lurched at "well oiled hair."
Respect for opinion flew out the window at "flowing hair" and "form fitting clothes."
The former is odd. The latter is just so wrong. Wrong, inappropriate and dare I say unprofessional.
My hair isn't even shoulder length and I nearly contaminated my sterile field trying to visualize an oddly located urethra just the other day while placing a foley. Provider hair should definitely not be flowing in patient care.
Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN
5,047 Posts
Oh. My. Gracious.
:roflmao:
Yeah, methinks someone has bigger things to worry about than our comfy shoes and lack of makeup.
I have to say a word about doctors, though, since their put-togetherness was mentioned in the OP. I work in a teaching hospital, and right now our group of SICU residents are nearly all female. They wear scrubs--not neatly pressed ones, but the ones that come from the hospital's laundry dept. They wear their hair in ponytails or messy buns. Sometimes they wear makeup, sometimes not. Two of them are new moms...I can't imagine really caring about "tryyyyyying to make yourself as attractive as possible" when you have a new baby and are working however many hours a week residents work. Of course they are always showered and anti-perspirized.
And you know what? Their professionalism is impeccable.