What is your unit's Uniform Policy

BirthingBabies · Jun 6, 2006

We can wear anything except solid black and solid red (top and bottom) and we wear them into the facililty.

texas-rn-fnp · Jun 13, 2006

We can wear anything except solid black and solid red (top and bottom) and we wear them into the facililty.

Solid black is depressing. The red/black combo could probably be confused with gang colors or something.

Military L&D always provides hospital scrubs to change in to.

Every civilian place I have moonlighted at I have had to wear my own scrubs in to work but had scrubs I could change in to if needed (such as becoming soiled during shift)

MIA-RN1, RN · Jun 15, 2006

L&D wear blue surgical scrubs. They can't be worn home and have to be laundered @ the hospital.

Postpartum wears lavender pants and matching print shirt, or lavender shirt, or white shirt. We supply them, we wear them in.

We are supposed to change our shoes when we get to work but I don't think anyone does.

OBNurseryRN2006 · Jun 15, 2006

We recently changed our policy due to the hospital out sourcing their laundry - used to be we wore hospital laundered scrubs, changed when we got to work, had to wear shoes that were left at hospital, not worn outside. Now that the hospital has outsourced it's laundry services, the company won't wash the scrubs we previously had and will only deliver one kind and color of scrub to the hospital ( for all OR, OB, etc.) which is the yucky jade grean unisex scrubs w/ only 1 chest pocket. So as a unit we decided to wear and launder our own scrubs, but management still insists we carry in our scrubs and change there - which seems kinda silly - and not everyone is complying with that rule. And it does stink if you have a messy delivery and get mec/blood on them, but we just keep spray and wash and plastic bags in our locker room to take care of stains - and if we get desperate we can always were those OR scrubs. I'm not sure how safe it is to take home mec/blood stained clothes to wash in your personal washer - luckily haven't had to do that yet.

OBNurseryRN2006 :lol2:

mitchsmom · Jun 15, 2006

We can wear the hospital's scrubs or wear our own (which must be a certain color for our unit).

allnurses Guide · Jun 15, 2006

Our hospital's OB unit went from wearing hospital scrubs that they had to change into there, to wearing solid lavender OR solid light green scrubs that they could wear into work. Now I'm honestly not sure what they are doing; some of them I still see wearing the lavender scrubs and some of them I see wearing some other solid color. I guess they are just about allowed any color scrubs they want as long as they are solid; I never see them wearing prints.

Kate RN · Jun 15, 2006

In our hospital the OB unit uses provided scrubs that are laundered by the facility. So in that department it is easy to tell who is a nurse.

In other units we wear our own scrubs and in whatever color we like. btw I have seen some black scrubs that looked very professional and I liked it.

It is difficult for pateints to know who is who as the other departments are also wearing whatever color scrubs they like- housekeeping, radiology, lab, even kitchen folks. Maintenance and volunteers are color coded. and the surgery folks wear provided scrubs so they are too.

We talked about "color coding a couple of years ago and that was not well recieved. It was not the battle we needed to fight at the time- I was on the Practice Board- so it was dropped.

Now I am reading "Nursing- Against the Odds" by Suzanne Gordon. She criticizes Nursing for not Looking professional in our pajamas, and that we do not stand out as nurses because of what I describe above. I am not done with the book yet- but again I am wondering where we should be going with our "uniform" as a profession.

What are all of you thinking??

mitchsmom · Jun 16, 2006

Now I am reading "Nursing- Against the Odds" by Suzanne Gordon. She criticizes Nursing for not Looking professional in our pajamas, and that we do not stand out as nurses because of what I describe above. I am not done with the book yet- but again I am wondering where we should be going with our "uniform" as a profession.
What are all of you thinking??

I think it's true that a lot of scrubs don't look super tidy, but then again the job isn't super tidy either. Manolo Blahniks and suits probably wouldn't work too well :) There will always be a few people who look plain sloppy, but that's always the case anywhere. Nurses work hard, long hours... part of me says let 'em be comfortable at least, part is not sure because there probably is a reasonable middle ground.

By the way, has anyone ever said that MD's look unprofessional in their scrubs? I think there's more to the issue than clothes. And maybe, if anything, nurses dress codes are a sign of backward progress and submission/lack of power.

As far as clients are concerned, I don't think anyone cares as long as you are a good nurse and you can be identified. Being able to tell who is who is a pain - I can say that from personal experience when my husband was in the hospital for 8 days... I couldn't tell anyone apart, and no, name tags don't do it- half the time they are backwards plus you can't read them from a distance.

There was an article in one of my local papers with quotes from one of the local hospital CEO's, which stated in part that the nurses should or would be wearing white to look professional and that they should have more family friendly schedules (i.e. not 12 hour shifts)... it didn't say if in fact that hospital is going to implement those things, but it sounded like it!

lalang · Jun 17, 2006

Here in hospital where I am working, Nurses use royal blue scrub, wear cap and mask,white socks and white shoes, (clogs) no jewelry. we loundry our own scrubs, we maintain sterility of the area. Thats a policy in the unit where i belong. :coollook:

danaheil · Jun 17, 2006

I don't think that colorcoding departments (i.e blue for nursing, green for housekeeping, ect) or even colorcoding based on speciality (purple for L&D, red for cardiac, ect) is a bad idea. However, white is not a feasable color for anyone that has patient contact. Every stain would show. In order to keep your uniform looking professional, you would need to buy uniforms practically all the time.

Retired R.N. · Jun 17, 2006

I don't think that colorcoding departments (i.e blue for nursing, green for housekeeping, ect) or even colorcoding based on speciality (purple for L&D, red for cardiac, ect) is a bad idea. However, white is not a feasable color for anyone that has patient contact. Every stain would show. In order to keep your uniform looking professional, you would need to buy uniforms practically all the time.

Nurses survived for many years while wearing white, and we didn't have to buy new uniforms all that often. Almost everyone kept a spare uniform at work, and we were able to rinse out stains almost immediately and stash the dirty uniform to take home with us or drop off at a commercial laundry at the end of our shift. The white uniforms made from cotton fabric were designed to be bleached and washed in hot water.