What do you think about wearing or not wearing uniform in psych field.

[Loray]

Hi to all from Aussie land,

There is a discussion where I work about the pros and cons of wearing uniform. There are mixed ideas and reasons for and against I have not worn uniform for many years and now wear a uniform in my new position. I am interested in what other think.:

confused: best wishes to all Loray

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Our unit is a medical psychiatric unit, and I serve three patient populations: geriatric, addictions, and CMI. I wear scrubs all the time because I get into entirely too many bodily fluids to wear my regular clothes lol. I can see the argument about barriers with patients, but their medical needs are as serious as their psych needs for us.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

On the first psych unit I worked on (adult and chemical dependency), the dress was casual street clothing. The theory was that it would break down the barrier of assumed authority associated with uniforms, and put staff more on the patient's level, making them more willing to interact with staff. On our companion geriatric unit, scrubs or uniforms were the required dress. With this population, many of whom were suffering from advanced dementia, it was decided to make staff readily identifiable by the patients, and it seemed to work in this setting.

On the gero-psych unit where I currently work, we dress in street clothes (scrubs or uniforms can also be worn), and there have been no problems with this.

[PsychoRN]

I have worked in psych for 20 years and have always worn casual street clothes.

[challis]

Hi all,

Where I work, we have a "corporate uniform" supplied free of charge. This consists of mix and match blouses, pants, skirts etc for male and female nursing staff. The wearing of the uniform is optional - you can wear your own clothes if you choose.

I choose to wear the uniform supplied - and yes I am well versed in all of the "authority" figure stuff I was taught when training.

As a collegue fo mine so expensively found out - our hospital will not compensate nurses for their own clothes if they are damaged in any way whilst working. This includes damage arising from having to restrain patients who are violent or patients who deliberately tear nurses clothing or throw substances (including body fluids) at nursing staff. If any part of your uniform is damaged whilst working, it is replaced free of charge....

See ya......

[Frankcah]

Street clothes, to me seems a little casual as they can be interpreted in so many different ways. There are dress codes where I work which is unisex and basically says, no vest tops, denim jeans, shorts "above the Knee" or short skirts.

Smart/casual wear seems to be the norm and there is definitly no uniform! I do though think that it wouldn't make the slightest difference if we wore jeans or shorts to the patients, as long as they don't have the ass ripped out of them!

[Heidi]

I currently work in an inpatient unit that went into uniform 11 months ago. The ward nurses were able to choose from a large range of options, including polo shirts, dress pants and shorts, skirts and cullots and a range of coloured blouses. Initially I to was against the uniform idea due to the authority aspect, but have found this to not be an issue. On any given shift it is uncomoom to see two nurses wearing the same uniform. We have received no negative feedback from clients or family and its already becoming hard to remember the indesisive old days of wearing mufti.

Cheers Craig

[Mkue]

Polo shirts and dress pants sound like a good idea.

[ola alawiye]

Hi the aussies,

I think the issue of wearing uniform or not should be investigated properly because of the different opinions around it. I would suggest that, for the benefit of all concern, a proper research be conducted at defferent settings by independent bodies before a decission is reached on this matter.

I work in elderly care challenging behaviour unit. Sometimes ago a small research was carried out and I can tell you that there are little or no differences from the respond of the patient to staff with or without uniform. However, the result of the research might have been affected by other parameters which may not be present in other areas. Let us have a wider reseach to reach a broader conclusion.

Cheerio!

:mad:

[deadnurse]

When I did psych work both in and out pt I wore street clothes usually a tie dye grateful dead t shirts nand jeans ofr shorts in the summer. The pts were more comfortable and we didn't get any "men in the white coats" jokes either.

I enjoyed that freedom very much. now i work for a pharmaceutical company and its shirt and tie daily but the money's better and stress is very low for the job that i do

Looking back come to think of it I haven't worn a uniform since graduating from nursing school

[SCnurse]

I work in an adult chronic psych unit and employees are allowed to wear "normal" street clothes. Exceptions are: no shorts, no blue jeans (other colors are okay), no open-toed hoses, and no shirts that have writing on them. Alot of our Therapeutic Assistants wear colored scrub sets but most of us RNs wear casual pants & casual shirts such as polos and dockers. I can honestly say the few times that I went to work wearing "nurse" clothes, I did not have as many therapeutic communications as in normal clothing. So to me, clothing seems to make a difference with our adult patients.