As we all know Nursing Uniform guidelines were really strict about 20 years ago. Nurses were required to wear only white uniforms, white stockings if skirts were worn, white shoes and oh yes those rediculous caps.
Now a days Nurses have much more freedom to wear what ever type of uniform they wish. Yet, as some us know there are those who will routinely push the envelope and where what ever to the point of not looking professional at all.
Then there's the controversy that exists in some facilities of nurses actually being reported to management for the type of underwear that they are or aren't wearing.
I'm glad to see that there's been alot of response to my initial question. After reading many of the responses I can't help but wonder a more serious question. Why is it that nurses have to wear uniforms at all? Why can't nurses simply wear dress clothes if they wish and be well groomed? Or is this uniform requirement just another form of the male dominated health care system trying to "control nurses"?
Our scrubs are provided by the hospital in the OR. The only rule I can think of is no artificial nails and your hair has to be covered by your surgical cap. We can wear whatever shoes we want. Some people do wear their own scrubs, and this is fine.
No rule against piercings either, even facial ones. Seen quite a few techs and some nurses with facial piercings, although these are small. Ditto for tattoos.
I've had to take patients to the unit here and there and doesn't seem to be many restrictions on the floor nurses either. Some wear hair up, some down. Uniforms are whatever the nurse wants to wear, although I know they spoke to an X-Ray tech because she'd wear these belly shirts and was a big girl to boot.
I chuckled when I read that one place doesn't want them to have a black uniform. They'd hate my scrub hat with the skulls all over it too , I think!
I'm glad to see that there's been alot of response to my initial question. After reading many of the responses I can't help but wonder a more serious question. Why is it that nurses have to wear uniforms at all? Why can't nurses simply wear dress clothes if they wish and be well groomed? Or is this uniform requirement just another form of the male dominated health care system trying to "control nurses"?
I don't see it that way at all. I mean, at the hospital I used to work at, everyone wore uniforms, including doctors. I work at a different kind of place now, but still, everyone wears them, from management to aides.
There are times that I do wish I was allowed to wear whatever I want to work, but I see a lot of benefits to wearing uniforms.
For one, frankly, if you don't have a strict dress code, there will always be someone who will abuse that fact and come to work dressed in something incredibly inappropriate. Where I work now, our uniform includes polo shirts (any color, our choice). Seems simple enough, but there are a couple of girls who often show up to work in low cut v neck tops, or tops that are "technically" polo shirts, but have buttons that go down well below their breasts...and they have these unbuttoned to the point that their cleavage is very visible.
I am not a conservative individual by any means and am not personally offended by revealing clothing, but in health care, that's really unprofessional. In addition, I work in a memory care unit and such clothing tends to increase sexual behaviors in a couple of our male residents. Don't get me wrong, I know that most of us know how to dress ourselves appropriately, and if given the opportunity to come to work without uniforms, would dress appropriately. I guess I just think it's better safe than sorry.
I also think uniforms make it easier on the patient. In a hospital, especially, there are so many people in and out of those rooms that it's hard enough to keep track of who's who even WITH uniforms. I imagine it'd be near impossible if everyone were allowed to dress as they pleased. Where I work, everyone wears polos and black, khaki, or navy pants. While this does help both residents and family members identify who works there, I think I would like it better if we wore specific colors of tops for each role because they generally have a hard time telling aides from nurses from administration from therapy. It works well enough though...it's a relatively small unit so there aren't the number of employees running around that you have in a hospital.
Then there's also just the "ick" factor of nursing in general...I don't know about you, but I don't WANT to wear nice clothes to work where I will constantly be surrounded by bodily fluids and who knows what else.
I guess my point is just that no, I don't think uniforms are anyone's way of "controlling" nurses. I think they can be beneficial for several reasons, even if having to wear them can be annoying.
I work in a hospital, all the units have the same dress code for the staff that uses scrubs, except for the OR. We do not have ped or L&D units, we only treat adults.
RNs wear light blue.
CNAs wear navy blue.
Respiratory nurses wear teal.
Housekeeping wears green tops and black pants.
All of the remaining staff wears black or burgundy.
Prints are allowed only on holidays like Christmas, Halloween, ect. :)
Shoes must be white for the nursing staff, the rest wears white or black.
Underwear can be of any kind, as long as it doesn't show, this includes situations like bending over and crouching. T-shirts worn under scrubs are permitted, can be short or long sleeved and of any color, I wear bright pink, red and lilac with my navy scrubs :)
No artificial nails, no perfume, no watches, no dangling jewelry, makeup (if worn) can't make you look like a Sesame Street character. Hair can't cover the face or hang down when bending over.
LOL, one of the CNAs came to work one day with bright blue eyeshadow up to her brows I swear she had so much mascara we were worried it would fall off when she blinked! BTW - she's a beautiful girl and looks lovely with no makeup at all :)
We have to wear Black and White. Can be all black or all white or combo. That's for the RN's. LPN's wear combo of Red and white. Most of the male RN's wear all Black.
LRMC? We did several clinicals there in school and it was nice to be able to tell who was an RN and who was an LPN at a glance, the frog/call light system is nice too, wishing ours had something similar, running around the hall to find another nurse at times is a bit time consuming and irritating lol
Interesting posts. In my part of the country, hospitals are moving back to standardization of uniforms so that patients have at least a fighting chance of differentiating nurses from housekeeping staff.
My organization - and many others - have evidence that many patient complaints about nursing care arise from patients who misidentify the staff and think that everyone in scrubs is a nurse. Or conversely, they say "I haven't seen a nurse all day" because they think everyone is a housekeeper.
There is ample evidence of the power of a 'uniform'. They can elicit 'automatic' responses, including trust, confidence, etc. if the uniform is associated with a trusted profession. Nursing has been rated as the "most trusted" profession in the US for the past 7 years..... despite the fact that our patients can't always identify us. Hmmm - maybe we are benefitting from great housekeeping staff???
I swear she had so much mascara we were worried it would fall off when she blinked! 
BTW - she's a beautiful girl and looks lovely with no makeup at all :)
Truth66
122 Posts
I'm glad to see that there's been alot of response to my initial question. After reading many of the responses I can't help but wonder a more serious question. Why is it that nurses have to wear uniforms at all? Why can't nurses simply wear dress clothes if they wish and be well groomed? Or is this uniform requirement just another form of the male dominated health care system trying to "control nurses"?