9 replies to this topic

[munich]

The hospital where I work is instituting a new dress code . All nurses are required to wear the same color scrubs. Is this happening at other hospitals ?

[ranchwife]

so far, our little critical access hospital (with all it's 9 beds and 2 trauma rooms) has not felt compelled to institute a "dress code", however....several years ago I worked at a larger hospital here in Montana and they, too had dress codes.....lab personnel wore evergreen....housekeeping ("environmental sciences") wore navy......ER nurses wore wine......CCU nurses wore grey or black and the nurses on med/surg wore Khaki, white, royal or caribbean!!! This was about the only way that the patients and families could tell who was nursing staff and who was housekeeping and so on and so forth!!

[angiegirl42rn]

I work at facility in WV. We were given a dress code a couple of years ago. We were told this was a nationwide trend that helps patients recognize who their nurse is. Well this is fine, except for the fact that all nurses, RN's and LPN's can wear only white or a very specific shade of "corporate green". If you work in surgery or LDR(which I do), then you can wear the hospital scrubs. These are also green. This dress code is very specific. You can wear a white t-shirt under your uniform top. You may not wear a t-shirt under just a uniform jacket unless the jacket is buttoned. Anyway, this is a nursing dress code. We had dietary, pharmacy, x-ray, housekeeping, etc wearing the designated green. Dietary is now biege, housekeeping navy blue, and secretarial staff is maroon. We still have many other departments who continue to wear the desigated green. This is not an effective policy if it isn't hospitalwide. The majority of the nursing staff hates this dress code. Green.....Green.....Green.....day in....day out.....The icing on the cake is that the other two local hospitals have not instituted this "nationwide trend". I want to wear my pretty, cheerful scrubs. My patients know I am their nurse because I introduce myself and wear my required work ID. This is a very frustrating situation.

Nurse Angie in WV

[NurseChat]

Whatever happened to individuality? Perhaps there are other ways to express the individuality, like different colour shoes or accessories?

[AndreaP]

Our hospital has not yet instigated the dress code thing although it has been threatened :0)

they for one have not becuase it is required by law, here at least, that they provide the uniform and possible the cleaning for it..and frankly i believe our institution is way to cheap for that.

They instead have instigated name tag differences. The nursing staff is absolutely required to wear their badge which has our clock in code our bg code and our intellidot codes on it. It has a big fat poster sized picture of us and underneath our name. then to the left of the badge it has in HUGE letters RN...and your certain certs are placed in smaller size in a strip under your name. also under your name for all other staff is the name of your position and your department. We of course have the pink stripe on the badge that designates us "baby safe" for L&D and pediatrics.

When we were threatened with going to a dress code it was going to be that we were going to go back to wearing the all white uniform. scary!!!

[pascoagian]

dress codes?! i currently work in a facility that allows knee length shorts memorail day-labor day .during that period effective last week we can where diff color crocks (klogs)only ,otherwise its the standard white shoe! it seems silly clothing is determined by dates and NOT weather! when i first graduated which was only '99'my second interview was at a facility that required white nursing caps,and still does to this day!!may sound silly,but i crossed them off my list immediately,seems like someone just wants to have their finger on you! nationwide systems only work NATIONWIDE,and this color coding uniform business is not at all hopsitals in RI !

[Tari]

As much as I do enjoy wearing different types of scrubs, I do believe in dress codes, with except of nurses caps...which are old fashioned, chauvanistic, and loaded with germs.

A well-dressed nurse, frankly, gets *MORE RESPECT* than an unkempt nurse. And to the person who made the comment of "individuality"...unfortunately, many nurses, if left to their own choices of wardrobe, don't make the best decisions...my jaw has dropped to the floor on more than one occasion with some of the choices I have seen....for example...underwear that can been seen through the pants, sneakers that are in disrepair, sneakers/shoes that are colored (our somewhat of a dress code still calls for white shoes), lowcut shirts or T-shirts, long earrings, long hair that is not pulled back, long/fake/painted nails, plastered on makeup, too much perfume, shirts that are a bit too short baring a bit of belly, open toed shoes, etc., I think you get the picture.

A hospital I used to work for did as someone else mentioned, a different color for each dept., and a patient quickly learned who was who....all the nurses wore white, and as much as I am not much of a fan of that color, it was nice to know who was who. Nurses are professionals and if they want to be treated as such, they need to dress the part.

Terri

[Fran]

Three years ago our facility finally agreed to allow us to wear colors either solids or prints as long as they did not have animals, bugs, angels, or scenes on them. Reasoning being animals, bugs, and scenes might scare confused patients and angels might offend the athesist. Now personally since I work in a catholic hospital I think the atheist should realize we do have a belief system and the patients seemed to love the animals and prints that weren't flowers and geometrics. I think the big issue is I would must rather see a nurse in scrubs rather than dingy whites stained with betadine blood and ink. I agree the main think we are suppose to be professionals and we should look the part. I try always to press my uniforms and make sure my shoes are descent. I hope others still feel this way. THANK GOODNESS FOR INDIVIDUALITY!!!!!

[NawlinsGirl]

HI FRAN,

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. AS LONG AS OUR ATTIRE IS APPROPRIATE I THINK WE SHOULD HAVE THE CHOICE OF WHAT WE WEAR.. LETS HEAR MORE COMMENTS ON THIS ISSUE...

NAWLINSGIRL

[Bluemoon]

In england there is a standard dress code for all staff nurses which is used in all NHS hospitals on all wards. All qualified nurses wear blue, healthcare assistant were grey. I think that it is wonderful that nurses in the states get to choose there own uniforms or wear scrubs because the uniforms in england are very restrictive. Scrubs in england are only used in theatres or intensive care.