Uniform Closet

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.

One of my duties is to maintain the uniform closet here in the clinic. We get a lot of donated uniforms and it can get to be overwhelming just storing all of them! I just had our volunteer coordinator ask about possibly doing a uniform sale with the excess. Has anyone else done this?

Also, does anyone have tips for keeping the uniforms organized??? I have a big cabinet right now, but try as I may, it is very difficult to keep the sizes labeled and separated for easy access when a student comes in. I seemed to have missed the "uniform closet organization" class in nursing school. ?

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Our school does a uniform sale at the end of each school year. Our high schoolers run it as a fundraiser for a school trip they take.

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.
4 minutes ago, BiscuitRN said:

Our school does a uniform sale at the end of each school year. Our high schoolers run it as a fundraiser for a school trip they take.

Are these uniforms that have been donated by the parents throughout the year? Just wondering if parents would be upset that we are selling something they donated. Have you run into anything like that?

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Specializes in school nursing.

I had trouble keeping them organized last year, so this year I gave up. We are HS and sometimes I have office aides come and fold them up after a herd of non-compliant dress code kids come in. This is the absolute bane of my nursing career.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

One of the best days of my school nurse life was the day I made the decision that the clinic was too crowded for the storage of more than underwear and pants for the preK who had accidents and the 8th graders who had a different kind of accident. Dress code clothing went into a literal closet away from the clinic and "any willing and available staff" could assist a student to access.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine, Women's Health,School Nursing.

The clothing room attached to my office is my living nightmare. I get it all organized then parents will come in and tear it apart. I attached a picture so you can see how I have it set up (dont mind how disheveled it looks-friday 2 moms came in and pulled everything out and I did not realize it until after they left so now I have to go in and refold it and put it back). But one set of shelves is for girls and the other set for boys. Then each size I have a spot marked for shorts and pants. I have a separate shelving system for shirts. We live in a very low socioeconomic area and a lot of families come in with several children and are unable to afford uniforms so my office is where they are sent. Until recently it was come in at free will but I put my foot down after Friday (caught parents going through drawers) and from now on they are only allowed to come in for clothing between 8-830AM.

It still does not look 'neat' enough for my organizing OCD but it works and it makes the job of putting donations away and finding clothes quickly effortless.

clothing.jpg
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Specializes in School Nursing, Pediatrics.

My school doesn't wear uniforms, but why does this fall to the nurse?? That is insane to me! And I wouldn't do it!

Do you have a PTO? Maybe they can run the sale and the uniforms.

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Specializes in School nursing.

I also maintain the uniform closet. It is my least favorite part of my job and I dislike everything about it because I often get sent students out of uniform when I am busy dealing with an actual health issue.

Storage is right outside my office in the hall. I bought this to better organize this year: https://www.amazon.com/KOUSI-Portable-Organizer-Bookshelf-Transparent/dp/B07PJXXL67/

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