What's your dress code at work?

[Nola009]

Are you "color-coded" like we are at my job or can any staff member wear whatever scrubs they want? At my job, we nurses must wear ceil blue while others, depending on their department, wear maroon, navy, dark green, light green, or royal blue. The idea is that other workers and the patients and visitors can easily recognize what each person does --- even from far away. I'm sure there's truth to that, but still.

[WhoniverseNurse]

Hunter Green for all RN's; Navy for LPN's; Gray for Techs, CNA's, EMT's, Paramedics; Maroon for Lab; Purple for Respiratory; Black for X-Ray. I don't mind, I guess. Eliminates the need to decide, "What am I going to where today?"

[T-Bird78]

One place I worked was color-coded with RN's in navy blue, LPN's in teal, MA's in sky blue, lab techs in maroon, environmenal in green. Only problem was I was the first LPN they hired so they didn't have any scrubs for me, so I had to buy my own! The hospital I did my clinical leadership in had nurses in blue except L&D and mother/baby. They were in a unique purple color and their ID badge had that same purple stripe with a different color background. When a laboring mom was admitted they were told not to give their baby to anyone unless they had that color of scrubs and the color ID badge. The hospital laundered those scrubs and you didn't leave the facility with them and the locker room was locked and keypad entry only. I really liked that extra safety precaution!

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Black for peds?? That stinks. I think the only time I've seen peds nurses NOT wearing fun prints was in the PACU when my kids were having dental surgery. Oh, and Burn (and possibly NICU, can't remember offhand) where I work wear the hospital-laundered scrubs for infection prevention.

The MAs who give my kids their vaxes always have fun scrubs on, and it's usually a nice distraction for my kids old enough to notice but young enough to be scared.

Nurses, clinical engineering and OT/PT wear black. Aides wear teal, X-ray wears navy, housekeeping wears gray and secretaries wear black and yellow.

We we look like a flock of crows at meetings. Peds and NICU tried to petition to wear black pants and colored tops, but no go. And the ones of us that wear hospital laundered ones hate them, fit terrible, wrinkled and faded.

No no tshirts or long sleeves, all black scrub jackets.

[psychnursie]

all the rn's wear black where I work, we all hate it lol

[1beautifulmess]

I work on a residential treatment program that is in a hospital. It's apart of the Mental Health area so we don't wear scrubs unless we want to. I wear street clothes and scrubs equally about half the time. The only caveat is that we can't wear heels. Because we're in a hospital, we have to be prepared to pulled to help elsewhere if needed.

[DVorahRN, BSN, RN]

All clinical staff may choose whatever scrubs they like (well, OR has their own hospital-supplied and laundered scrubs). Specific coloured polo shirts with the department and hospital logo are supplied to the non-clinical staff. Our CNO did a research study some years back to determine if it made sense to transition to colour-coded scrubs and concluded that it didn't matter that much to the patients and visitors and that it was despised by the staff.

[greenerpastures]

I'd love to see the EBP that shows color coding helps. We have a color coding system where I work. I introduce myself to patients, tell them I'm their nurse, with my name. It's also written on a white board in their room with NURSE-greenerpastures. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a different patient's (not my group) room to answer a call light, introduced myself as "Hi, I'm greenerpastures, I'm one of the nurses here, can I help you?", and had them say "I was waiting for a nurse" and just stare at me. They don't say "my nurse", just a nurse. NOW - if this theory of color coding worked - the patient should know that I AM a nurse based on my blue scrubs. NAs wear a completely different color scheme that isn't anywhere close to my color, as does RRT.

*

I think color coding is good in theory, but only if you provide pts/family/etc with some kind of chart in their room that tells WHAT THE COLORS MEAN! Otherwise, they are too stressed/sick/AMS to notice/care most of the time. I think color coding is more so the employees know departments.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

At my health system the color codes are as follows:

RN ceil blue, LPN chocolate (mostly in clinics), NA/MHA/MA burgandy, RT black, housekeeping olive green, pharmacy and radiology navy, nurse extern white.

I really don't understand why we have a color code because house keeping wears ceil blue OR scrubs half the time anyway.

[mama.RN]

Can wear whatever I want.

[MedChica]

I just started but:

At one facility:

- Nurses wear maroon.

- RN supv wear black.

- CNAs wear teal.

At another facility:

- Nurses were light blue.

- CNAs wear navy.

I like it, to be honest. I'd be happy to wear whites if they didn't 'dirty up' so quickly.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

I work in home health. Nurses can wear scrubs or street clothes. No blue jeans, capris, shorts, tank tops, high heels, excessive cleavage, or open-toed shoes.

[Coralbell]

I work from home full time doing UR/QA, wear whatever I want.

"Twilight follows the brightest day, And every cat in the twilight's gray,

Every possible cat."