While we were arguing; We disappeared

[Yep, Me]

Remember in the 70’s when we were arguing among ourselves about:

ADN vs BSN entry to practice? Caps or not? Whites: skirts or pants? White dresses? White polo shirts? Any color tops? White scrubs? Any color scrubs? Only nurses can wear white warm up jackets? Do I have to wear this cap? All floor nursing staff can wear scrubs?
Now we are unrecognizable to the general population.

But another bigger threat is raising its ugly head: Facility/employer mandated scrub colors per floor/department for everyone on duty!

Yes, every one from the RN supervisor to the CNA, ward clerk, etc wears the same colored scrub set. No patient or family can tell who is an RN & who is a respiratory tech or transportation or radiology!

Is this to “disguise the actual staffing ratio or RNs per patient?

Patients are in the hospital less than 4 days & ill don’t have the resources to learn what department wears what color scrubs!

Looking back: I think we shot ourselves in the foot.

How do you tell who is an RN in your facility?

Or can you tell?

["nursy", RN]

My last facility we were mandated to introduce ourselves whenever we walked into the room so that the patient/family would know who we were.

[Yep, Me]

What I am saying is this: _anyone_ used to be able to walk onto the floor & immediately recognize who the nurses were, without reading a badge or seeing “RN” in big letters.

if you were to walk on your floor & glance around, how do you count how many RNs there are? How do families know who the RN is, at a glance?

i worked an unnamed facility, & they were very open about “everyone wears the same colors, so the patients will think all the staff as nurses”.

[Nunya, BSN]

11 minutes ago, Yep, Me said:

What I am saying is this: _anyone_ used to be able to walk onto the floor & immediately recognize who the nurses were, without reading a badge or seeing “RN” in big letters.

if you were to walk on your floor & glance around, how do you count how many RNs there are? How do families know who the RN is, at a glance?

i worked an unnamed facility, & they were very open about “everyone wears the same colors, so the patients will think all the staff as nurses”.

???

[PeakRN]

In our hospital different care groups have different color scrubs. Nurses have a distinctly different color scrub than any other group. All infant and pediatric care areas have a different scrub top than non-pediatric/infant nurses.

[PeakRN]

5 hours ago, caliotter3 said:

The last time I was hospitalized, I noticed that the nurse who gave me crappy attention made sure her badge was turned around and she noticed me straining trying to see it too. The nursing assistants apparently had no need to position their badges turned around.

I've known many nurses in other systems who do exactly that, or use stickers to cover their name, et cetera. It is very poor practice and no system should be allowing that.

We mandate that our badge must be visible at all times, and we have badges on both sides so that if you flip it around you still get the exact same thing. Intentionally hiding your badge would not be taken lightly and result in some very serious HR related interventions.

[BlueShoes12, BSN, RN]

I work on a unit that doesn't have a specific dress code other than "scrubs." My badge has a big blue placard on it that says "RN" on it, even though it likes to turn itself around about every 30 seconds (not intentional, I swear!). Families and patients seem to understand the "RN" badge pretty well. We also make sure to introduce ourselves and our role the first time that we walk into a room.

What's more confusing is some floor units at our hospital have color-coded scrubs for the NAs and RNs - but it's not a hospital-wide policy. Some specialty units such as OR, PACU and OB/NICU wear special hospital-supplied scrubs as well.

[Quota, BSN, RN]

On 11/7/2019 at 7:29 AM, Elaine M said:

I don't think you should have to look at a piece of paper to differentiate between 8 different jobs (by your count). There was all sorts of info posted in my Mom's hospital room last week but it was across the room on just an 8x10 piece of paper, even I couldn't read it. I worked at a place where the staff had a piece of plastic under the hospital ID that was longer and in big letters it had RN, Tech, etc.

My iPad won’t use the quote feature correctly for some reason since the update so this is the best I can do.

The sign in the room room is not the ONLY identification for the different jobs. All employees have badges they must wear and they state their role. The color coded scrubs/uniforms are the easiest to see though. Pretty much everyone is supposed to introduce themselves as well.

[Guest219794]

Quote

"My last facility we were mandated to introduce ourselves whenever we walked into the room so that the patient/family would know who we were."

It's a little embarrassing that a facility had to mandate basic professionalism. My mom was an oncology PT shortly before I started nursing school. If somebody walked into her room a without a proper introduction, I would ask "Who are you and why are you here?" On occasion, it would be a student, or something I deemed not important, and I would dismiss them. "Now's not a good time."

They seemed a bit intimidated and surprised when I asked the very simple question "Who are you, and why are you here?".

It was a great lesson for me, and part of the reason that when I walk into a room, I basically say "Hi, my name is hhern, and I am here to *******" It takes exactly no extra time, and is both basic courtesy and professionalism.

As far as badges go- any facility that cares about badges provides one for each side. Simple and effective.

[JKL33]

On 11/7/2019 at 6:31 PM, Yep, Me said:

“Everyone wears the same colors, so the patients will think all the staff as nurses”.

Well quit that place.

And your post is about uniforms! I'll bet that is the absolute least of their problems.

On 11/8/2019 at 6:30 AM, hherrn said:

They seemed a bit intimidated and surprised when I asked the very simple question "Who are you, and why are you here?".

Ha. I took what I thought was a slightly more polite tack one time when an NP walked into an office visit, put her hand on my leg and started chatting as if we were long-lost BFFs..I smiled and said, "Have we met before?" Apparently that was wrong; she threw a temper tantrum and asked me if I wanted help or not. ?

[beekee]

On 11/6/2019 at 9:35 PM, Yep, Me said:

How do you tell who is an RN in your facility?

We have color coded scrubs. However, as best I can tell, if you are a man, you are the doctor and if you are a woman, you are the nurse. At least that’s what the patients think.

[maire, ASN, RN]

Our scrubs aren't color-coded. What differentiates us is the "badge buddies." With our name badges, we all wear additional green badges that read "RN" or "PCT" or even "DOCTOR." When the badges flip over (as the often do), you can't tell who is who. Docs wear white coats, but so do dieticians. Nurses have their stethoscopes but so do the physical therapists. It's kinda a clusterfrick.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

On 11/7/2019 at 5:46 AM, gere7404 said:

We have big green RN badges for our nurses

The hospital I worked for also had this.

On 11/7/2019 at 2:25 PM, caliotter3 said:

The last time I was hospitalized, I noticed that the nurse who gave me crappy attention made sure her badge was turned around and she noticed me straining trying to see it too. The nursing assistants apparently had no need to position their badges turned around.

When I worked acute care, we had 2 badges so no matter which way they were flipped, our name, face etc still showed.

The hospital I was most recently a patient at also has the two badges: it does make it easier when they can't flip their name over. The hospitalist are also supposed to wear badges and half the time they either don't or they are flipped over. Fortunately, I typically only deal with pulmonary and I know all those guys.