What color should a nurse wear?

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Specializes in Cardiac.

I have worked at a hospital for over two years where the staff has always had the choice of wearing one of two colors or mix and matching the two. This including nursing and support staff. Now all of a sudden they want all nurses to wear ONLY white and each support staff will have a designated color. The only problem I have is that nurses should not wear white, any other color except white. I voiced my concerns and was presented with an article that I was told supported the nurses in white. Except the article in my opinion was inconclusive. Has anyone seen any other research into this matter?

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Specializes in SICU, EMS, Home Health, School Nursing.

Where I work, we have a color code for each department. RN's are ceil blue, LPN's are purple, etc. We are allowed to use white as an accent color. I personally wouldn't want to wear all white... white tends to become a prime target for anything that could stain :)

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Thanks. I agree with the color coding for easy recognition. However an overwhelming majority of the staff does not want to go white, yet management doesn't seem to want to hear it. They say the clients want to see there nurses in white and keep refering to the article they handed me. Unfortunately the research in the article shows all the options presented to the clients are all within a small percentage of each other (2-3 percent), including street cloths with a white lab coat. So white does not really win out.

PS The hospital is not paying for the uniforms or laundering.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

CCF wears all white...yuck! Messy! Where I work we can wear either navy pants or white pants and our choice of tops. All other departments have colors, ICU's wear purple, OR wears blue, housekeeping is green, OT/PT is black, etc.

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I have worked at a hospital for over two years where the staff has always had the choice of wearing one of two colors or mix and matching the two. This including nursing and support staff. Now all of a sudden they want all nurses to wear ONLY white and each support staff will have a designated color. The only problem I have is that nurses should not wear white, any other color except white. I voiced my concerns and was presented with an article that I was told supported the nurses in white. Except the article in my opinion was inconclusive. Has anyone seen any other research into this matter?

... People take the time to research something like what color nurses should wear? :chuckle

Now, OK, maybe if they were discussing things like color therapy or the psychological impact of different colors, but.....

Personally I think the only problem with white is that it stains.

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I think you be be allowed to wear any color you want... why limit ourselves to one boring color!??

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When I am on the floor I wear whites, by choice. I find that even the most confused person knows who I am and why I'm there.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

i'm a darn slob and i do not usually ever wear white tops... but i do use white pants for mix and match with my print tops. i do think white is a nice way to identify nurses but for people like me who have the upper shelf syndrome, it's very hard to keep them clean!

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Specializes in Pedi Rehab,Pediatrics, PICU.

Ok so at CCAC our uniforms used to be whit with a navy blue polo shirt. I wanted to kill myself! I absolutely hate wearing white, especially pants. We even were told we had to wear white underwear with our uniform because "it's unprofessional for people to knw what color your undies are." White uniforms get way too dirty way too fast and talk about boring! Since then the unifrm has been changed to navy with white polo shirts. The students liked it much better, but as a senior student, I was stuck in white. The question of uniform color is high on my priority list when looking for a job (after benefits, orientation, etc...).

I wore the uniform uniform in school. Now I want to wear a uniform that is my own style (permitted its appropriate for the unit). P.S. kids LIKE color and cartoons. White id way too sterile and lacking of feeling.

:smiletea2:

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.

I do think most identify white with nurse or doctor.....I do wear white, I also wear every other color under the rainbow! I get a lot of compliments when I wear bright colors (yellow, lime green, orange). I think as long as you are neat & clean....have a name tag on that identifies you as nurse...and you give great care what.....difference does it make? We can wear any color we want where I work...thank goodness! :yeah:

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

No research, but how about a poll? :D

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-polls/whites-colored-scrubs-232698.html

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:wink2: Polls are good. The way it was phrased though made me think significant study had gone into the matter. With like, grants and test subjects and articles and the works LOL! :chuckle

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