As a patient, I have to say I’d MUCH rather see nurses in white than sporting their “individual expressions” of often-terrible taste. At least I know which staff are the nurses, and am not made to feel any more sick than I already am by looking at splashy combinations of fuchsia, teal and hot pink.

Additionally and personally, I do not ever wish for Nursing to take such huge steps backwards as to force nurses (LPN’s or RN’s) to wear all white dresses, hose, white dress shoes, or the dreaded caps. Not only are all these things impractical for those of us who still get out on the floor and work side-by-side with our CNA’s/Tech’s, they place us squarely back in either the days of being prostitutes hired by the Church to care for the sick or in the Marcus Welby days of Nurses being mere handmaidens to the physician … when in reality, we are their professional and well educated equals in the TEAM of healthcare providers.

I am in agreement with the preceding posters who have pointed out that the majority of patients and family members do not recognize/acknowledge color coordinated uniforms/scrubs. When one is in pain or has an emergency occurring, the last thing on their mind is what color uniform/scrubs the staff were wearing.

Being a woman of child bearing and therefore menstruating years, the thought of trying to keep all stains off of white pants horrifies me. Nothing says unprofessional than a blood stain in a certain location; be it fresh or old. As to others seeing your underwear, my very wise instructors taught us to wear flesh colored underwear under our white pants; and it works well for both thin and thick materials.

As to wearing a white sleeveless frock/vest, or lab jacket – excuse me but not all nurses are skinny mini’s who don’t pour sweat when working on the floor, transferring patients, doing ROM exercises, or cleaning rooms in preparation of new admits when housekeeping is either gone or preoccupied elsewhere. For some of us, adding another layer of uniform is just not a feasible option.

And no, not everyone looks good in white. Personally, with my red hair and skin tone, I look like a sallow faced, death warmed over zombie in white. And I doubt any patient would like that specter leaning over them at any time, day or night.

As to facility mandated color coded uniforms – since I own several weeks worth of scrubs, including tastefully decorated holiday tops; I am all for the switch over to a decent color that looks good on all persons … especially if the facility where to reimburse me for the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on my uniforms and the upkeep of them over the years. Additionally, I further support this move if the facility provides the uniforms to me at no cost … and provides the laundering for said uniforms. I don’t know about any other nurses out there but, I have a family to support and am the only bread winner at this time. I need every penny I can keep in my household to pay for bills, gasoline, and food for a family of 4. The added expense of purchasing additional uniforms just isn’t financially feasible for me.

That’s not to say I don’t find today’s fashion trends in the wearing of uniforms/scrubs disturbing. I find myself fighting the urge to de-pants techs who’s pants legs are so long on them that they wrap under their shoes; or those techs (typically female techs) who wear their scrubs two sizes too big so that they can roll the waist band down to their hips. This kind of “dress behavior” throws all nursing professionals into that distasteful light of “Ladies of the Night” who began our profession. There is absolutely no need to look tacky in your uniform; you have an important job to do and you should always look your best. If your pant legs are to long, buy them shorter or have them hemmed to fit you correctly. If your tops are to tight, buy a larger size for goodness sake! We are here to do a job, not look like we are going out on the town to have a party. Uniforms needs to be loose enough to allow free and full body movements but not so loose as to look like a vagabond. And every facility I have worked at over the last 19 years has had a dress code policy; it is up to the employees to have enough self respect and courtesy to follow that dress code and it is the responsibility of the supervisors to ensure that employees are educated and redirected when they cross the dress code policy.

Should nurses go back to wearing all white dresses, hose, and shoes and the infernal hat? Emphatically NO. Should nurses have well fitted, job appropriate, nice looking and individuality respectful uniforms? Yes. Does a uniform make one automatically professional? No. It is that person’s dedication to their chosen profession, their commitment every day to be the best nurse he/she can be, and to give the most compassionate (“it could be me lying there”) care that they are humanly possible of giving? Yes.

As much as I have enjoyed this debate and listening to the pro-white and pro-choice nurses, maybe we should ban together and tackle the really tough issues facing Nursing today … like nurse-to-patient ratios so that we can give the best possible, competent, and compassionate care we can? To borrow a phrase from one of my nursing instructors, when you are at work and faced with a decision, ask yourself, “What would Flo[rence Nightingale] do?”

Just my tuppence.

But with this being said, for the first time in my life I was asked “Are you a nurse?”. Because they knew that nurses wore dark blue and white combinations, they could not relate the light blue to an LPN and I experienced for the first time doubt that I was a nurse at all.

I feel very sad.