University of Utah Medical Center implements new dress code

nursebrandie28, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2010

I HATE UNIFORM requirements~~!!

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2010

The list of "no" items is astonishing. That means that some nimrod somehwere actually wore sequins to work!

mammac5 · Mar 19, 2010

I'll be interested to read others' responses to this article. As a nursing student who has been a hospital patient in the recent past, I will attest to the fact that it's hard to tell who is an aide, who is a housekeeper, who is lab tech, who is a RN, etc. As a patient you're in one room almost all of the time you're inpatient, people in various colors/patterns of scrubs come in and out of your room to do different things and (in my case) you're looped out with necessary pain meds! You lose track of time and have no sense of when shift changes happen, who is coming on, etc. So I can see how this would be great from a patient point-of-view. If all registered nurses are wearing white tops, I can feel a little more comfort in telling that man in my room wearing a white top all about my most recent bowel movement. Probably not helpful for me to tell the dietary aide about my poo, though.

From a future-nurse POV I can see why this can be seen as limiting one's creative expression in dress. But you know, I can wear my thong, loud patterns, and dangly earrings on my own time. When I'm representing my employer, I need to do so in the manner he/she/they choose appropriate as long as it does not cause danger to myself or others.

However...why doesn't this apply in some way to docs and med students? Patients can have a hard time telling who is a "real" doctor and who is a resident and who is a med student. Hmmm...

netglow, ASN, RN · Mar 19, 2010

During the last year or so, the major networks in my area all have gone to specifics on scrubs. Uniforms at one major hosp network even has logo patches.

RNs are distinguished from CNAs UAPs etc. which, is a good thing for all involved.

Lisa, MA · Mar 19, 2010

I personally like this. When I was in school, way back when, we had to wear all white with white hose, our white cap, white nursing shoes and a light blue or navy cardigan. In my first 10 years of working for the practice I was with, the same uniform applied sans the cap.

I think in the hospital and care facility setting, LPNs and RNs should wear all white. Aides and PCA's should wear a single colored scrub. Custodians/housekeeping a different color scrub. It will definitely help establish who is who.

DogWmn · Mar 19, 2010

I think in the hospital and care facility setting, LPNs and RNs should wear all white. Aides and PCA's should wear a single colored scrub. Custodians/housekeeping a different color scrub. It will definitely help establish who is who.

Ugh, only if YOU will clean my white scrubs;). I worked "back in the day" in all white, and I HATED IT, keeping a white uni presentable is very difficult.

I don't mind color coded scrubs but NO white.

Penguin67 · Mar 19, 2010

If they want to decrease confusion over who is in scrubs, then only allow *nurses* to wear scrubs. It's not that hard to see that *other* employees in the hospital are now wearing scrubs and that causes the confusion.

Utah's dress code has the nurse assistants wearing the same colors as the RNs. So, I can see potential for some more confusion there.

I, too, don't understand why MDs and residents can still wear whatever they want. I see the potential for more confusion there, as well. (You can tell a resident from an attending by the length of their white jacket. Med students and residents wear the short hip length white jackets, and when you graduate to be an attending, the length of the jacket goes to about the knees. But I'd still like someone to tell MDs to stop wearing neckties and spreading infection with them, and that it is unprofessional to show up to do rounds in bluejeans and a polo shirt.)

I spent a week in the hospital with my mom post surgery, and didnt' let the color of the scrubs make me confused as to who was providing her care. (To tell the truth, it was a week prior to the 2006 Superbowl, and everyone was wearing Steeler jerseys to work anyway.) I ASKED who people were if they didnt' identify themselves, and then there was no confusion.

Arghh. I was happy to see us moving out of the all white category, so I am not at all happy to see color restrictions on certain groups in the hospital.

Thanks for allowing me to vent. I feel better now!

DoGoodThenGo · Mar 19, 2010

Think what we are seeing is a sort of moderation after the "everything goes" sort of attitude which prevailed after nurses , were liberated from whites and jumped into scrubs and less formal attire.

Just as with casual Friday's and or the more relaxed dress in offices that went on during the late 1990's and 2000's, there has been a feeling that things went a bit too far, and needed to be tightened up.

While one has not seen sequins, have seen belly shirts, scrubs that looked like PJ's that had looked as if they had not only been slept in, but slept in for several nights and not laundered. As for male staff, well quite honestly one does not need to see the outlines of which side they keep their tackle.

Heavy make-up and perfume never had a place in hospitals,more so for those directly involved in patient care. Long painted fingernails, real or fake are not only dangerous but make proper handwashing nearly impossible, yet have seen those as well, even on neonatal, and maternity/baby nurses.

Have also never understood why all and sundry in a hospital needed to wear scrubs. Ward clerks, janitors, housekeeping, medical record clerks, and so forth either wore uniforms or their own street clothing.

Patients and their familes need some way to know who is doing what in a hospital, especially when it involves care. Far too often a patient has been sexually abused, infant removed from maternity, or some other horrible thing done and all anyone can say is "a person dressed as a nurse".

True back in the day whites and caps were easily enough to get one's hands on, but at least a strange "nurse" roaming around one's floor would attract some attention, if not a query as to whom she was and what she was about.

After allowing floor nurses into scrubs, many hospitals are going back to restricting scrubs to OR and unit nurses, or at least putting certain staff into white scrubs.

Just for the record, for the most part nursing assistants always wore the same white uniforms as nurses, it was only the fact that NAs did not have pins (well not school issued ones anyway), and caps that one could tell who they were.

juliaann · Mar 19, 2010

I like that my hospital's jobs are differentiated between by scrub color. Nurses wear navy, CNAs wear khaki, RT wears maroon, Lab/Phlebotomy is royal blue, Radiography/Sonography is teal, surgery/docs/housekeepers all wear the ceil hospital-issue scrubs, and sometimes docs will wear a non-assigned color, like black or orange scrubs - or business casual and a lab coat.

It works well for us, and the patients catch on quick who they should ask for what.

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2010

I am completely for color-coding scrubs. In the hospital where I volunteer it's a free-for-all and I can never tell who's a nurse or who's a tech or who's a CNA or even food service (except to squint for a badge)! It's ridiculous. Additionally, I don't think it's cute at all that a nurse is wearing a Dora the Explorer scrub top in an adult med-surg unit (my small hospital does not even have a peds!) ... Now, in a peds unit I am all for nurses wearing the character tops and all, but not in the adult setting.

:igtsyt:

Oh, and PLEASE stay away from the BROWN and YELLOW, they are NOT pleasing colors for hospital scrubs at ALL! :no:

mammac5 · Mar 19, 2010

ALSO: Who decided that prisoners should wear scrubs?! Every time I see one of those crime documentaries on television I'm shocked to see the "bad guys" wearing scrubs! Navy, orange, tan...whatever happened to those nice striped uniforms they used to wear?

I fully agree about the cutesy character scrubs outside of the pediatric setting. It seems childish and unprofessional to me to see staff on an adult med/surg floor or in geriatric long-term care wearing Tweety Bird or Hello Kitty.

We are professionals who are trying (as a profession) to be taken seriously by all the rest of the medical establishment. Betty Boop or Harley Davidson scrubs are not going to get us there.