Uniforms and dress codes

[inkedRN]

I currently work in med/surg (although I will be moving to the ED in a week ). The hospital I work at has a committee looking into requiring their med/surg RNs to wear "uniforms". Essentially they will tell us what color scrubs to wear, but we will be required to buy and launder our own scrubs, so my thinking is it's really a dress code and not a uniform. Their reasoning for doing this is the claim that MDs can't tell between the RNs and the Techs and the RNs don't look "professional" enough.

Personally I think it's a terrible idea, as do many of the other RNs and techs, but we're pretty much being over ruled by a handful of older RNs and bigwigs. If a MD wants to know if I am an RN they are free to ask me at any time. Additionally, while they have said they will not provide us with scrubs, nor will they give us an allowance to buy them, the currently provide our L&D and OR RNs with scrubs which seems kind of unfair.

So my questions are;

1) Does your hospital require a uniform or dress code and if so, what color, type, etc

2) Do they purchase and launder your scrubs

3) How do you feel about it

TIA

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

When I first started in the NICU, I was given 2 sets of scrubs and a scrub jacket. Every year for about the next 10 years, I was given 2 sets of scrubs. Then, as a cost saving measure, they decided that we could by our own scrubs, solid colors only, and with some color restrictions.

The next change was white pants only! As well made as most scrub pants are, you could see panties, boxers, even peri-pads. You can never convince me that white pants are "professional"! Eventually, common sense prevailed, and in the white pants went away in the interest of staff retention.

Unfortunately, some people just don't get it. Too tight pants and shirts. Tops that show everything when you bend over, butt-cracks or boobies. One hospital here recently gave full-time staff 3 sets of color coded scrubs and P/T were given 2 sets. I think that the pendulum will swing the other way and go to mandatory colors for us, but I can't imagine that they'll pay for scrubs!

[GOMER42]

We have a dress code with the different colored scrubs differentiating roles and I love it. It makes it fast and easy to find who you need.

[spider11]

All of our nurses are required to wear Navy scrubs. I personally hate it. Patients think anyone in scrubs is a nurse. We do wear name tags that say who and what we are, but it still doesn't matter. Scrubs=nurse

[Blackheartednurse]

I dont mind dress codes at all--I think that it really does help to distinguish one healthcare professional from another...At my future place of employment I have a choice of wearing all navy scrubs or white scrubs or basically something mixed between those colors,lucky for me I love navy and I think combined with white it looks very elegant..My bigger concern is comfort,I love comfortable soft-material scrubs,I dont care too much about colors although I dont like rainbow colors or something extravagant.

[MissBrahmsRN]

no offense or anything but people are stupid. when my daughter was little with long blonde hair & dressed in lavender from head to toe person after person would compliment me on my "handsome son." same thing happened with my son when he was a toddler, dressed in Spiderman outfit "oh my goodness your little girl is so cute!"

the RNs here all have been wearing navy blue for 3 years (along with the big dark "RN" letters) and patients STILL have no freaking clue who is who. medications, disorientation from being in hospital, disrupted routine these contribute to the problem. personally i feel that RNs have worked for years to be professionals and as such, should be allowed to wear the scrubs they choose. lawyers wear suits all the time but at least they can very color, style, tie colors, etc. would a lawyer be more professional if they looked exactly like every other lawyer in the courtroom? staff morale has gone down dramatically since the inception & patients have asked "what's with the funeral home look?" "that color is depressing me" "why can't you dress happy??" "are you a security guard" is one that patients ask all the time, "are you a security guard, have i done anything wrong?" i think the techs & support staff should have color coded scrubs but the RNs should be treated like professional adults and allowed to wear the color they choose.

as it is, the RNs here are doing what they can to not feel like a cadet review, i see tons of funky loud earrings, wild socks with shorter scrub pants, cool brooches, etc. however the management is onto them and as of today 1-1-10 people are only allowed gold or simple stud/hoop earrings, white, black or blue socks, black shoes only. the OR RNs dress alike but they get their scrubs for free & they are allowed to wear the crazy hats...

as for whites, the whites were & are still stupid. white shows everything, get dingy quickly so will need to be replaced way more often...

[EDjunkie]

i am so happy that the hospital that i work at allows the employees to wear whatever they want. after having to wear royal (smurf) blue scrubs throughout nursing school, i'm glad that i'm allowed to be creative and express myself through the scrubs i wear to work. it's nice to be allowed to not have to look the same as everyone else.

i'm seriously consider holding a class-wide smurf scrub burning after graduation. i absolutely hate the color blue now because of this. lol

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

when i worked in Ireland I had to buy my own uniforms and launder them but we got tax relief on them. Most hospital I was ever in in the UK or Ireland still had tunic tops or tunic dresses for the ward nurses scrubs are only for units such as ED, ICU, PICU, CCU, OR where infection control is a big issue.

In NSW, Australia I got a uniform allowance in my wages every fortnight as I was working agency and did not have the state yes STATE uniform which is supplied free. All RN's wear ceil blue blouses (3 design choices or a polo shirt) and navy shorts, skirt or pants, EN's wear royal blue blouses, NUMs red PCA'a wear red, ward clerks navy with a purple stripe, kitchen green etc. So as an agency nurse it was very easy to distinguish who you needed.

most of the private hospitals followed a very similar colour coding as the public hospitals.

Since coming to Melbourne I have got a post in a hospital without a uniform, but the NUM frowns on scrubs as she feels it does not appear professional. So blouses or collared T shirts and skirts or pants for everyone. I miss just having to pull on my uniform and go to work. It was so durable and long lasting.

[Plagueis]

I work in LTC, and while we are required to wear scrubs, there is no specific colors/patterns that we have to abide by.

My last employer gave us a uniform allowance, but my current one doesn't, and that seems to be how it is in LTC, based on what my fellow nurses have told me. Plus, I couldn't imagine a nursing home offering to wash the scrubs of its employees.

I really don't have a problem paying for my own scrubs. I shop around for the best deals. For instance, I have found new scrub tops as low as $4 to $6. I do spend more for pants, since I wear a size tall, but that's rarely over $20 a pair.

[sicushells, RN]

We wear navy blue scrubs. The hospital does not offer us an allowance, but roughly once a year we're given a scrub top with the hospital name on it as a present. The hospital does not launder them for us.

In this economy I'm really surprised how many people are expecting the hospital to provide or launder scrubs for the staff. OR and L&D nurses do get OR scrubs, but that's for sanitation purposes (I doubt it's evidence-based, but it's "what we do", so you know it's what we'll always do). Also, I don't know about your laundry services, but our laundry sends us "clean" sheets with blood/puke/rips all the time. I'd hate to see what they'd do to my scrubs.

[Bubbles_RN]

Our hospital is talking about it, and quite honestly I'd love it.

Having been on the other side of the bed as both a pt, and a family member, it is quite annoying to ask every single person coming in your room who they are and what they do. I worked damn hard to become a nurse, and I want people to know that my role at work.

[vivacious1healer]

We are required to wear a facility issued uniform. The allowance is given to us twice a year for 3 tops and 3 bottoms. When I started the job, we were given 9 pieces! I hate the scrub bottoms though....the smalls are too narrow in the hips, and when I try on the mediums, I am drowning in all the extra material. I usually buy my own scrubs at a local uniform shop that costs no more than $10-12 a piece.

We do launder our own uniforms. I can't imagine the facility ever doing that for anyone other than OR or LD.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Whites head to toe for nurses, teal tops and whites for CNAs, cranberry tops and whites for dietary.

I prefer whites. Everyone knows who I am immediately.