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.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

I'm in a multi-specialty clinic, each department sets its own dress code. All staff (regardless of licensure/duties) wear navy, white or steel gray bottoms, anything goes on top. They like us to wear a lab jacket or vest as well. Our reception staff wear business casual, but I think most departments have their reception staff wear scrubs as well.

[JanieRN15]

RN's have to wear navy blue tops and bottoms and can only wear white undershirts or white lab coats. I have a whole closet full of fun colorful scrubs that I can no longer wear

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

We are color coded and my facility has been for 3 or 4 years. The hospital owns the tops which have the logo on them and we change when we get to work (we are not allowed to take them home). We are given a stipend to buy bottoms (enough for 4 pair) and we can buy any brand we like, as long as they are the deep blue. I am a new nurse, but I have been told that we get the stipend annually. I love that we don't have to launder our own tops!

Not being used to anything else as a nurse, I love the color coding. We can easily tell who everyone is, which makes life easy. There is a chart in every patient room and every treatment room so that the patients can also tell who's who.

[sharpeimom]

RNs wore either navy or tan Docker style pants with either white, tan or navy long or short sleeved polo shirts. The shirts were wore like cast iron and were embroidered with sharpeimom, MSN RN and the hospital's name. Last names were optional. I used my maiden name long after I was married. My maiden name was very well known in the area since I had a grandfather who was a dentist, a great grandpa who had been a judge, an uncle who had been a physician, and several lawyers, including my grandma, two cousins, and both parents. Since I looked so much like my dad's side of the family, it seemed silly not to have my last name on it too. There were two other RNs with my first name and it just simplified things a lot.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I work out of a home office and wear anything I like, which is especially nice when the weather is extreme, either hot or cold, or I haven't got a clean Red Sox tee shirt. * When I go out and visit clients I wear a classic expensive Italian wool business suit, moderate heels, and carry a professional-looking leather bag for my files and iPad . * It's a head-spinner for my friends who have seen me in both. :)

Tank tops and cut-offs are cheaper than uniforms, but I might make up for it in nylons and dry-cleaning. Maybe not.

* I notice that AN has appended links to commercial sites that I did not include and do not endorse. I'm not too thrilled about this.

[1hotnurse08]

I just started working at a hospital and the nurses have to wear all white( tops/bottoms) including the jacket/ lab coat... Enough said!! I have never worked anywhere where I had to wear all white with no other option!! They are suppose to be changing this dress code but that could possibly take months to a year before it goes into effect!

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

I don't get how this is something that helps patients/family know who's who. It would take me some time to remember what each color means and that's with working there and being there almost every day, I don't really see how patients or family would be likely to understand the color coding system while they are there.

That's what we thought at the last facility I worked at. Where I am now, we have cards below our badges (under) that have our credentials on them. Nursing RN, Docs:MD, Techs:PCA's, etc. That helps people know how is who.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

No color-coding at any my jobs: I can wear scrubs or street clothes (business informal/casual). If I'm on the unit, I have to wear closed-toe shoes. Only ay one location can I wear jeans.

[Guest805836]

In France, in most facilities, floor nurses wear white. I'm so envious of your guys colored or even printed scrubs !

In my hospital, nurses : white

nurses aide : white with blue collar

pediatric nurses aide : white with pink color

housekeeping : white with light green collar

radiology techs ; white and pine green collar

OR : light blue scrubs

All scrubs are supplied by and laundered by the employer, never seen a hospital or clinic that does otherwise. Except for when I was doing temp work, either you got these awful plasticky non-woven single use scrubs given to you in the unit (usually green or blue) or you brought your own.

[ItDepends]

My hospital requires RNs to wear Olive Green, Housekeeping wears chocolate brown on top, black bottoms, RT and PT wear Gray on top and black or gray bottoms. HUAs wear khaki on top, khaki or black on bottom. We don't have CNAs. MDs, NPs and dietary wear business casual with a lab coat.

Our parent hospital is about to go from nurses choice to Navy. I wish they would let us change to Navy also, the green fades out badly.

[SassyTachyRN]

School nursing: wear scrubs or casual clothes (aka "teacher clothes"). Fridays are jeans days. I usually wear scrubs all week and jeans on Friday with a lab coat. I get a yearly "uniform allowance."

When I worked in the hospital we weren't color coded at first, but eventually went to it. Nurses wore navy, techs wore tan, housekeeping red, respiratory gray, radiology teal, and nutrition black. Peds wore whatever they wanted. L&d, mom/baby, picu, nicu, periop wore hospital issued scrubs. Admin wore business professional and that included nurse managers.

[ixchel]

I actually really like color coding, as a nurse and a patient. All of the hospitals here have nurses in navy blue and I felt a total surge of excitement when I finally "earned my navy blues". I also think we all look very professional.