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.
(1) I've never done whip-its while at work. They don't last any longer than about 30 seconds either. So that isn't very germane to my professionalism. But it's fun to talk about nonetheless.
(2) I am not saying it's a hard and fast rule that every nurse should be beautiful or handsome. But at least try. I've always believed that no matter how much natural beauty anyone has, they can always be "done up" to look pretty good in a certain light.
Off the cuff: As an ICU (or any flavor) nurse, your ability to think clearly and rationally is paramount. "Whip-its" whilst being a wicked awesomely (dumb) thing that perhaps teenagers and/or college kids may engage in to make a splash at parties, (and seriously, college kids who may be reading, just say no) it speaks to an issue of addiction, whether a "high" lasts 30 seconds or 30 minutes or 3 hours. That crap is akin to huffing. Which is not particularly good for one's brain,
With that being said, how one looks in real life is a reflection of many things, or nothing. How one looks as a nurse is such a complete non-issue. In nursing, one gets sweaty, has all sorts of whatevers floating around, and one if the most important things--one's hair getting into any sort of orifice is just nasty.
OP, you really need to take a step back and look at your priorities. As I see nurses who are done up like they are in the club as nurses with some self esteem issues to work through. And that is the LAST thing you want patients/families to think when you are an ICU (or any) nurse.
It seems that you have a significant amount of growing up to do. Hopefully that is not reflected in your nursing practice.
Some people mentioned how they don't think they are attractive for whatever reason (and yes, I have pretty crappy self-esteem when it comes to my own looks, too) but I wanted to say that when I picture you all in my mind's eye, y'all are very striking and clever and intelligent and awesome.
My mental image of you may be skewed by your various avatars (fun fact - I don't look like a star! Lol) which is kinda fun.
But to me so many of you are an important part of my social world, as it were even though we are largely anonymous. I love being able to come and learn and chat and laugh.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
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."
OP are you trolling us???? Because you can't be serious. "Hair down and flowing" lol nope If I had my hair down and flowing one of my psychotic patients would grab it and pull it out of my head. Not to mention I come into contact with a lot of bodily fluids that I don't want in my hair.
I wear clean, wrinkle free scrubs but I like to have the ability to move comfortably when I assisting in a physical hold to give and IM, same with the shoes I choose not to have my feet dying at the end of the night. I wear very light, natural makeup because I am very pale and hate when people ask me if I'm sick without it lol.
I'm at work to take care of people and keep them safe not pick up a boyfriend or be ogled at lol.
You're watching too many tv shows. This is real life. Plus like someone else says make up melts off, rubs off etc
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
I 'd like to get a objective for a moment. As Nurses we are trained to be objective- to report the facts.
RNdynamics has expressed an opinion which is not consensual and has a right to express that opinion.
RNdynamics has a 53% "liked" rating. Dr. Wayne Dyer, a noted motivational speaker whose book, Your Erroneous Zones, has sold over 35 million copies, has said that if you please 50% of the people, you are doing a good job.
Hence, though we may not agree with RNdynamics' opinion, we can deduce that RNdynamics is doing a good job!
I support RNdynamics' right to express an opinion and have bestowed a "like" for, if no other reason, spurring a stimulating conversation!
After reading all of these replies to the original posting I am disgusted at how judgmental the majority of you guys are. I am seriously SO sick of the attitude nurses have.
The OP just asked for an opinion on why it is that nurses seem to dress down compared to other professions. The answer is because we are skilled health care professionals, we aren't judged on our appearance. It's a perk of the job that we don't have to wear make up, do our hair or nails, ect to be accepted. We all have our days we are exhausted working our 5th 12 hour shift in one week no one is really worried about being done up. But that doesn't mean you can't wear makeup when you feel like it. I see so many of you saying "omg always must wear your hair up" and "nothing unnatural on your nails".
Ok firstly I'm a RN not a nun. I have nights I wear my shoulder length hair down and if I have to put it up to clean a patient or change a dressing or do a bedside procedure I do so. I don't keep it up all the time bc my scalp is sensitive and it gives me a headache. Wearing it loose doesn't work bc my hair is fine and it falls out. Sometimes I wear no make up and sometimes I wear foundation, eye makeup, blush, and a highlighter. As far as nails go I paint the **** out of my natural nails with every glitter/gel polish I want and I don't really care bc there's never a time where I'm not wearing gloves while I'm touching a patient. Either way it doesn't make me any less capable of taking care of my patients [emoji136]ðŸ¼[emoji168][emoji140]ðŸ»[emoji182] and if you are wearing make up that's "melting off" your face then stop buying the ****** foundation sold at Walgreens and you won't have that problem anymore
After reading all of these replies to the original posting I am disgusted at how judgmental the majority of you guys are. I am seriously SO sick of the attitude nurses have.
The OP just asked for an opinion on why it is that nurses seem to dress down compared to other professions. The answer is because we are skilled health care professionals, we aren't judged on our appearance. It's a perk of the job that we don't have to wear make up, do our hair or nails, ect to be accepted. We all have our days we are exhausted working our 5th 12 hour shift in one week no one is really worried about being done up. But that doesn't mean you can't wear makeup when you feel like it. I see so many of you saying "omg always must wear your hair up" and "nothing unnatural on your nails".
Ok firstly I'm a RN not a nun. I have nights I wear my shoulder length hair down and if I have to put it up to clean a patient or change a dressing or do a bedside procedure I do so. I don't keep it up all the time bc my scalp is sensitive and it gives me a headache. Wearing it loose doesn't work bc my hair is fine and it falls out. Sometimes I wear no make up and sometimes I wear foundation, eye makeup, blush, and a highlighter. As far as nails go I paint the **** out of my natural nails with every glitter/gel polish I want and I don't really care bc there's never a time where I'm not wearing gloves while I'm touching a patient. Either way it doesn't make me any less capable of taking care of my patients [emoji136]ðŸ¼[emoji168][emoji140]ðŸ»[emoji182] and if you are wearing make up that's "melting off" your face then stop buying the ****** foundation sold at Walgreens and you won't have that problem anymore
That's great. I have a mani fetish as well. You do what you want to feel good. We all should!
The problem is, the OP is talking about how others dress.
There's the judgment, and it's not coming from us.
Davey Do
10,666 Posts
Well, we tried!