What do you think?

[mcbrchel]

For school we have to post a couple forums, and so I am asking you, do you find uniforms beneficial in the working environment?

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Do you mean uniforms as in scrubs, opposed to street clothes? Or do you mean a UNIFORM uniform, where everyone wears the same clothing for work?

Scrubs I do believe are beneficial. We are professionals, but we do physical work too, so appreciate the comfort factor. Plus I don't want to get blood or poo all over the clothes I wear to church or to my husband's work functions.

As far as all nurses wearing the same thing, it depends. The old white button-down dress, tights, and nurse's cap...not beneficial AT ALL, for the reasons that scrubs ARE. Well, maybe if you work with confused elders, I can see that look saying "Nurse." I work in trauma so keep coming back to blood and poo; I intentionally wear dark colors just in case. White hides NOTHING. I did have to wear white in nursing school, and have not worn it since.

If a hospital wants to color-coordinate by department, eh it's not a hill I'm willing to die on. Up until now I thought it a good idea to help pt's ID who was who...but that problem is easily solved if everyone clearly introduces themselves. "I'm Here.I.Stand, and I'll be your nurse tonight," etc. Plus, in the color-coded scrubs thread, someone mentioned a study that said that this practice really didn't help the pts ID who was who.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Color coded scrubs -- even with a key posted prominently in every room and handed to the patients on admission -- absolutely do not help the patients to figure out who their nurse is. They still ask the PT and the CNA for narcotics, ask the Pharmacy Tech for juice and ask the NP for a pillow fluff. (OK, that last is something the NP is capable of.) Further, they now have NO idea which nurse is theirs. Used to be they could tell you "My nurse is the gal with the pink and orange scrubs", but now they just say "I dunno." If the problem is that patients can't tell who is nursing staff and who isn't, get everyone else OUT of scrubs. Problem solved.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

The psych staff now have to wear regular clothes and we have a large psych department that spans several floors. The leading joke started by the psych staff is that no one can tell who works there including the patients. In fact, some patients do not believe the staff actually work there now because they do not wear scrubs.