Weird/ Dumb Nursing School Rules

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At ********* we weren't allowed to wear flip flops, shorts, or even have facial hair! If I came to clinical with even a little stubble, I would have to shave or go home.

Anyone else have rules in nursing school that you didn't agree with?

Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.
I can totally understand the comfort factor. Some days, it's hard enough just to BE there, let alone dressed accordingly.

It's much, much, much bigger than you, though. It's all about "Brand Image".

Each nursing school, is run by business people. There is legal counsel, marketing, administration, faculty, etc, etc.

The students are the "brand image" of the college.

The students of "XYZ" college come to clinicals looking like denizens of a homeless shelter, that eventually gets back to the hospital management. Then the hospital management start looking at their brand image of being associated with a college that "allows" their students to look so bedraggled. THEN the PTB at the hospital talk to the PTB at the college and say "We don't want a clinical contract with your college at our hospital. Your students are making us look bad by being out on the floors looking like they don't care about their appearance". Where do the students go for clinicals then?

Those clinical contracts between the nursing schools and the local hospitals are not an automatic thing. The hospital has to ALLOW the nursing school to have the nursing students on the floors.

There is a lot of watering down that happens from the board room of the college to the clinical sites. The more strict the instructors on the brand image of the students, the more micromanagement that happens from the top down, in a lot of cases.

All in all, many times it's the HOSPITAL that requires the college to enforce appearance and acceptable behavior of their students, per the terms of the clinical contract. That contract is not a forever thing either. It gets renewed from time to time.

I I think what's being missed here, and not just by who I quoted" is that no one here is talking about being aloud to attend clinical looking frumpy. LECTURE is being discussed. I went to lecture in flip flops, messy hair, yoga pants, whatever. I wanted to be comfortable for my 6-8 hour lecture days in hard seats and having to remain as focused as possible. And much to some people here's surprise, I was a well respected student. I have class and clinical instructor references. And I followed every rule in the clinical dress code to a T when in lab or at a clinical site.

When end at the clinical facility, it is all about appearing orofessional and making the school and hospital look good.

For kecture. Pffft. Be comfortable. If the school doesn't allow comfort and wants business casual or some other weird or dumb rules, then follow them of course. But it doesn't mean you have to be happy about it. There are far more important things then a wrinkled shirt or flip flops in lecture.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.
This whole thing made me chuckle....you work in a hospital you basically wear pajamas to work and the most comfortable shoes you can find and no one gives a rats ass if you have neatly trimmed facial hair while you are saving their life in real life. :up:[/quote

Im glad someone else sees this point. That was actually one of the weird/hard adjustments I had to make when I started clinicals. The feeling that I was wearing my pajamas in public.

Oh and while it is not a rule I have had to provide five copies of my transcipts to my school so far. Wouldn't you think after the first "official" set they could just look them up?

Just wait a it until you start working as a nurse. Wearing "pajamas" to work is fantastic. They are comfy for all the bending an squating. Stretchy for sitting. Easy to wash and care for because they will get dirty sometimes. Easy to move in for all the walkin and sometimes running we do.

Overall just the freedom of movement is great. I buy higher end scrubs that are silky soft and well fitted so they look nicer and also so they are more comfortable. We should all look nice in a scrubs, but at the end of the day, as the other poster stated, we wear pajamas to work and people mostly care that we don't harm then under our care.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Organized Chaos LVN,

Sorry, I threw in the shorts and flip flops for the girls (my legs and feet are too white to want to do that!). But anyway, I think that if its 90 degrees outside, a girl should be able to wear something comfortable (this applies to all students there, not just nursing). I know my wife and other female students who brought this up which is why I am now.

Randy:

In my nursing school (back in the Paleolithic), we were allowed to wear shorts and flip flops in the summer. There were quite a few guys in my class, and most of them sported facial hair.

Some of the guys also had longish hair. One guy crossed the line and his clinical instructor made him pull it back into a teeny tiny pony tail. We ragged on him for it.

So, there you have it.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
What's wrong with at least looking presentable?

Facial hair on a man's face doesn't dangle down?

Not if it's neatly trimmed.

I wore jeans and sneakers to class every day. No one thought any less of me through all my nursing career.

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Yes, I see the point. It probably didn't help that the original scrubs I had to buy the tops were unisex and unfitted. The bottoms I ordered in an extra small and still couldn't keep up. Prior to this I had never even owned a pair of sweatpants. Yoga pants were confined to the gym and home. I somehow never noticed I had acquired my grandparents view that you "dressed up" to "go to town". Jeans were as casual as I would wear outside my home. They have grown on me since then and my school changed to better scrubs after my first semester.

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Specializes in Family Practice, Mental Health.
I I think what's being missed here, and not just by who I quoted" is that no one here is talking about being aloud to attend clinical looking frumpy. LECTURE is being discussed. I went to lecture in flip flops, messy hair, yoga pants, whatever. I wanted to be comfortable for my 6-8 hour lecture days in hard seats and having to remain as focused as possible. And much to some people here's surprise, I was a well respected student. I have class and clinical instructor references. And I followed every rule in the clinical dress code to a T when in lab or at a clinical site.

When end at the clinical facility, it is all about appearing orofessional and making the school and hospital look good.

For kecture. Pffft. Be comfortable. If the school doesn't allow comfort and wants business casual or some other weird or dumb rules, then follow them of course. But it doesn't mean you have to be happy about it. There are far more important things then a wrinkled shirt or flip flops in lecture.

The OP stated in the 1st post about facial stubble in clinicals and the potential to be sent home in such a state. It was to this scenario that I replied.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Underwear color. We were forced to wear all-white scrubs with white underwear to prevent colors/patterns on our butts from showing through. Then, a new clinical instructor later docked us all points for not wearing nude-colored underwear, because the visible panty-lines of our mandatory white underwear was too "deliberately provocative" for the hospital setting...y'know, when we were just following the program rules :banghead:

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Underwear color. We were forced to wear all-white scrubs with white underwear to prevent colors/patterns on our butts from showing through. Then, a new clinical instructor later docked us all points for not wearing nude-colored underwear, because the visible panty-lines of our mandatory white underwear was too "deliberately provocative" for the hospital setting...y'know, when we were just following the program rules :banghead:

It never dawned on them the simple solution of colored scrub pants.

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Underwear color. We were forced to wear all-white scrubs with white underwear to prevent colors/patterns on our butts from showing through. Then, a new clinical instructor later docked us all points for not wearing nude-colored underwear, because the visible panty-lines of our mandatory white underwear was too "deliberately provocative" for the hospital setting...y'know, when we were just following the program rules :banghead:

If they're truly worried about students looking provocative, they would NOT have an all white uniform. I will never understand the all white uniforms.

ETA: I would have a very serious issue with a school telling me what color underwear I could wear. And I would have a serious problem with them staring at my butt long enough to know if my white underwear was detectable. I mean that just isn't ethical.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

Purple-Roses: my school said there would be panty checks to make sure we were wearing the correct undies!

I never experienced a panty check in school, but that fear made me buy special school undies! [emoji23][emoji41]

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.
The OP stated in the 1st post about facial stubble in clinicals and the potential to be sent home in such a state. It was to this scenario that I replied.

Oops. I stand corrected. I think because so many posters delved into what is appropriate dress for or not, i forgot about the facial hair comment in the OP. I am neither here nor there with an opinion on facial hair in clinical. If its neatly trimmed then sure, but I can see why some programs may just want to nix facial hair in loo of students pushing it as to what is considered neatly trimmed.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.
Underwear color. We were forced to wear all-white scrubs with white underwear to prevent colors/patterns on our butts from showing through. Then, a new clinical instructor later docked us all points for not wearing nude-colored underwear, because the visible panty-lines of our mandatory white underwear was too "deliberately provocative" for the hospital setting...y'know, when we were just following the program rules :banghead:

I won't lie, I do kind of wish there was a general panty rule in the work place lol. I have seen a few nurses with light colored scrubs and patterned panties showing through. It like when someone has someones fly is down and you debate whether or not you should say something. :woot:

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