What to wear for 1st day of orientation?

[JoshuaC]

I'm not sure what I should wear for my first day of orientation into nursing school. I had planned on just wearing some shorts, tennis shoes, and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up (it is summer outside).

I kind of want to be casual, but I don't know if that's too casual. I don't want to wear kakhi's and a dress shirt though because that seems too formal, but then again I don't know what I should do.

Any advice? What did you do?

Thanks for any help.

[Cerebrum]

I can only speak for my experience... For men it was semi casual... Dress shoes or loafer types, slacks no denim, dress shirt or polo type shirt and a lab coat. Oh yeah school name tag and hospital id if issued. Conservative. Nothing casual at all...

This is just me now....

[Finally2008]

We had all different levels of dress at my orientation. There were only about 4 guys in my group. I don't remember anyone wearing shorts... One wore khakis and a polo type shirt. One wore jeans with a button down shirt. The other two were much more dressed up, with dress pants and a button down shirt. If you feel like being casual, you could probably get away with jeans and the button down shirt (ironed, of course) and tennis shoes. It was so cold in our room, so long pants were a good option. (It was about 90 degrees outside the day of our orientation, too!) Good luck!

[danh3190]

I bet it depends on the particular school's culture. When I actually asked the assistant director of my school (2 yr hospital diploma program) what people wear to class, she said I was overdressed (Dockers, short sleeve button-down shirt, leather shoes) for class but appropriately dressed for clinical-prep. When I mentioned that I'm going to miss wearing shorts, Tshirt, and sandals everyday, she said that I could wear them!!!

Be that as it may, I still intend to go with the Dockers and button down shirt at least for the first week till I get a better feeling for the culture of the school.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

Well, I had my first day just yesterday. 3 guys out of 70 total students..(2 year associates program at comm college) One wore button down with jeans, I wore polo shirt with jeans, other guy wore nice looking tshirt with jeans. I'm all for looking professional, but if tshirts look nice why can't we wear them? Clinical we don't have a choice, have to wear khaki when researching, have to wear uniform when doing actual work there....

[MQ Edna]

10-4 good buddy on the shorts and t shirt. Admitted I'm going to wear a pair of golf shorts and a tshirt with a polo horse emblem... and a pair of nike running shoes (new). I wouldn't overcook the bird and go in there looking like you just robbed the cK outlet, but I would make sure that I looked like a smart college student. Trust me on this one. If you look like you're better dressed than the average student, but like you're not trying to "fit the part," you'll be fine. Don't look too casual, either.