Comments on: Color-coded care?

By: LoveANurse

LoveANurse — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:34:15 +0000

No matter what colour health care workers wear, people are STILL going to ask/think we’re all nurses. So why bother colour code? Plus, we have NAME TAGS with our titles for a reason. We are in 2012 now. Let us have a choice! As long as you’re neat and professional looking, who cares what colour we wear. I just got my BSN (I’m 24 years old, and my closet is FILLED with new scrubs in: purples, greens, pinks, yellows, prints, ect…. and I’m stuck wearing dull blue day in-day out ’cause of annoying family members who can’t read name tags or ask. On top of that, my boss calls me other co-workers names often because we ALL LOOK THE SAME!

Let’s not resort back to the olden days, people. White scrubs? Please. Heck, why not bring the nursing caps back too. *Rolls eyes

We ALL have to wear white shoes/socks, nude underwear and undershirts. PLEASE do not take our choice of scrubs away. It took years to get prints and colours in.

Stand up to choice!

By: Sean Dent

Sean Dent — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:53:15 +0000

@ Sherri I agree that we all should be aware and perform our given responsibilities, but unfortunately I can’t agree with your statement about the gender. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

By: Sherri

Sherri — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:32:39 +0000

I’m an ultrasound tech in a large hospital that was once all color-coded, then changed to allowing us to wear what we chose and now has all nurses in ceil blue, clerks in red and black, housekeeping in navy, etc. and is now choosing a color for the radiology department. The fact of the matter is if you are a woman walking into a patient’s room and you are in scrubs, you are a nurse. If you are a man, you are a doctor. Not one of our patients has ever been able to figure out which color belongs to what group. It’s as someone else mentioned, do your job and that’s all people really want.

By: Sean Dent

Sean Dent — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:15:21 +0000

@ Gail All very valid points, and a lot of nurses would agree with your thoughts. I guess it really depends on the facility, but it seems that the majority rules no matter where we work.
One’s interpretation is one’s reality.

By: Gail

Gail — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:39:58 +0000

We are now looking at this color coded scrub issueat work, with much controversy. How does it improve patient satisfaction? Working in the ER, I will guarantee you that the person who is in.. 1.)C.A. and we save, or the person who is in resp. failure, or any other magnitude of EMERGENCY situations do not give a damn about what we are wearing, just the results. 2.) The children and mentally challenged LOVE our kid friendly scrubs. 3.) How well does charcoal work out on whites or light scrubs? 4.) When you have a complaint or compliment it is MUCH easier to figure out whom we are talking about.
Yes , if we are in a business setting we would have to buy our own suits… BUT we buy what we want to wear. If the hospital wants to go 1 color then buy that color for us. I will not put a dime into it. When it gets stained for whatever reason, yep I will wear that too. Janet, I 100% agree with you!
I can bet that if you TALK to your pt and keep them INFORMED the PRESS-GANEY will improve. We ranked 99% without the scrubs. Now, it has dropped significantly since the proposed implementation of taking away our AUTONOMY.

By: Sean Dent

Sean Dent — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:05:23 +0000

@ Janet I don’t think a lot of nurses would argue with that thought.

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:56:21 +0000

I am totally oppossed to the one color uniforms. I was around for the all white garbage. To this day I don’t even own white underwear. It is just another way to take away any control over any choice we may have. I will spend less mone as i will only buy 2 and wear them until they fall apart. I introduce my self, wear a name tag that clearly says RN and write my name and CNA name on a board. Belief me the pt that want dilaudid always remember my name both in the hospital and if I see them in the store later. It is total bull.

By: Sean Dent

Sean Dent — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:38:45 +0000

Wow! Thank you everyone for all your wonderful comments and thoughts. I too strongly agree with how you introduce yourself and provide your care will define you as a nurse – not your scrubs color.
I think we could find a healthy & happy balance to provide the best experience for our patients, without pasting yet another policy or stigma to it. I guess it’s a battle with the already existing stigma of the all-white uniform that causes such a snag in this equation.
Thank you all once again for your wonderful comments.

By: Patient Survey

Patient Survey — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:04:34 +0000

Good post, we BTW use patientsurvey.com for keeping a tab on patient feedback. Works out well. Makes the staff also think twice about how they treat patients. Plus, all staff wears a name tag just to make sure they know patients can see who the person is.

Also, this is helping out to let go staff who are not doing a great job. What better way to document something that is provided to you by patients themselves.

Regards

By: Chanda Kim

Chanda Kim — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:03:56 +0000

I’m all for uniforms that colour code. I totally understand that feeling of not knowing who the heck you are dealing with because everyone is wearing scrubs. I think the facility should chose the colour nurses wear and not head to white. I think we all know white is incredibly impractical. Many of the hospitals in my area do colour coded uniforms for disciplines and I think it makes everything look very proffesional. I mean I hate being in the hospital ER being looked at by a nurse wearing Winne the Pooh scrubs. Sorry but you come at wearing those and my first reaction is “Whoah dont you belong in the nursery?”: not, “Ok here is a competent nurse” Let’s be honest first impressions matter, and I also think that this is a more relevant matter for hospitals and short stay facilities, I work in a LTC facility where I know every patient by face, name and preference and they know me. I can understand it though when you are in a hospital and the staff is nearly never the same for your stay. I would like to be able to go, “oh that lady is wearing blue therefore she is nurse so I can ask her this…” instead of grabbing the first person in srubs and asking for my pain meds and fnding out she is housekeeping.
While I totally agree with introducing yourself well I also have noticed while I was a student that patients are less likely to be communicative when they are feeling unsure as to who is who. Because I was a student in a colour coded uniform (green and white!) they able to identify me easily. Lets be honest, there are days when my mind is so on other things I could have a 5 minute conversation with a person and still not remember their name. Lets think about how stressful a stay in a hospital is and what is on our patients mind. Also just because you introduce yourself does not mean you will always be visable to your patient. It’s not like we have mastered the ability to be everywhere at the same time. For some people it is simply comforting to know that every person in blue scrubs are nurses so you know that if you cannot find YOUR nurse you can at least identify and locate A nurse.
I’m not advocating to go back to white but I am simply sharing a different outlook, many of the comments here are fousing on how WE feel about the issue, lets take a moment to remember our focus is on the patients. Sometimes it’s just about being able to identify everyone around you. Think about it this way too, all the patients in a hospital wear the same gown, do you think they like that much? But in the back of your mind you see that gown and you are like “patient”.
One last point, make a point of getting involved if your facility is considering going colour coded. Mine is considering and we asked if the different disciplines could submit a few colour suggestions we would like, we were told that was a great idea and were offered a dozen colours to narrow down to 3 for nursing. The whole staff took a vote and we decided on a colour we could all live with (Pewter grey!) and Fridays are our “casual day” where we can wear anything. Honestly a unifrom isnt the end of the world, I think almost all of us have had a job where one was necessary, it’s all in how you approach it. Look at yourself in the mirror and say “I rock this unifrom..it’s me that makes it look good” and you will have a better day guarenteed!