I find the words “men’s fashion” in nursing rather intriguing. I’m a T-shirt-and-jeans kind of guy, so “fashion” isn’t something I generally pay much attention to. That said, as a so-called “male nurse,” I’ve found there hasn’t been much to choose from in the way of scrubs and shoes for men.
Over the last few years or so, men’s scrubs have come a long way. There now are many different solid colors and a few “masculine” prints available. But whenever I need new shoes for work, I go to the nurse uniform store hoping they’ll have more than one style of men’s shoes to choose from. It never happens. I’m beginning to believe that the “Big White Boat Shoe” is the only style of men’s nursing shoe in existence—and it makes you look like the Good Humor Man! The good thing for male nurses is that professional-looking, clean sneakers are now acceptable to wear.
Here are a few things that I think make male and female nurses look good as well as professional:
First, I feel solid colors are more acceptable for men. There are some really busy print scrub tops that I think can be distracting sometimes. However, on the peds floors, cute prints are totally acceptable because of their fun nature.
Many hospitals are trying to bring back the clean white scrubs look for their nurses. I believe this is an attempt to project that clean image that many laypeople identify nurses with. While I agree in principle with what this look says, as a nurse I feel it’s just not what I would call “street savvy.” All nurses who wear clean whites to work know that it’s just a matter of time before some type of body fluid gets on them. Yes, we all do our best “gowning up” to avoid this, but it inevitably happens. Then those clean whites aren’t projecting that “clean” image, if you know what I mean!
Another thing is: If you’re a guy, don’t mix and match your scrubs. If you’re wearing a blue top, wear the blue pants to match. Sports logo themed scrubs are good conversation pieces, and they offer men something different than just the solid scrubs.
Many nurses now have tattoos, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you do, try your best to cover them up while you’re at work. Also, big hanging necklaces or earrings are more appropriate outside the workplace. Again, a professional image is what we’re trying to project, and unfortunately, people make snap judgments on how you look. Sad but true.
Outside the hospital, dress however you want. When you go to work, dress appropriately and professionally so you can project that strong, confident appearance that nurses should be identified with.
It’s unfortunate to hear that the clothing options for the guys is limited- I guess I’ve never really paid that much attention to the men’s options when I have been scrub shopping.
I agree with the recommendation to be professional looking- that’s why I work in peds, so I can still wear all the fun prints. Something else to remember, some hospitals allow you to wear a t-shirt top, could be a benefit for a man’s wardrobe if he stocked up on tshirts that have the hospital logo or something about nursing. And agreed, definitely no dangly jewelry for work- it both looks ridiculous and is quite unprofessional and can also be dangerous if a patient got a hold of it and tugged.
By Nancy Love, LPN on October 6, 2009 at 10:16 am
Jim, I agree on many accounts about our wardrobe choices. I choose to stay with the solid colors, and do like to wear my team logo’s on ‘game day’. I think you hit the nail on the head – maintaining a professional appearance at all times is a must.
By Sean Dent on October 7, 2009 at 9:12 am
Aloha from Hawaii!
One of the nurses who was a guest speaker at the local university here mentioned that in order to help other staff, families, and patients in being able to immediately identify and discern nurses from nursing assistants, housekeeping, and so on, some associations/organizations are pushing for a policy that would allow ONLY licensed nurses to wear WHITE SCRUB PANTS and would prohibit other staff/associates from wearing white scrub pants.
My first inclination was to reject the idea, however, when looking at it from a patient or patient family perspective, especially if patients are slightly or are very confused, it might be a reasonable solution or expectation and would certainly leave no doubt when trying to locate who the nurses are.
By Carol Jensen on October 23, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I am a male home health aide in Connecticut. I find that star trek has better male uniforms then we have for scrubs. dont get me wrong i like the two piece scrubs just not the colors and what not that males have. i have seen more then one style of male shoes, so you may not be looking in the correct places. crocs has shoes with out holes for medical personal.
i dont like the scrubs with only one best pocket and all the spots scrubs i have seen are that style. Dickies has some multi-color male scrubs but are still the one best pocket style and not the style with the pockets shown by the waist on both sides in front. not sure what they call that. seems like women have funner choises with scrubs when if they dont want cartoon pints. men get the short straw it seems.
RSVP,
-sean-
By sean beckerer on November 28, 2009 at 3:54 pm
thank god i’m not the only one……. some others understand, men like verity too. i’m a massage tharapy student and it hard finding something other then just solid. boring…. please help!!!!!!!!!1
By samuel copeland on December 14, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I don’t agree about not mixing solid color scrubs. It add’s a bite of variety. I use bottom colors that you would normally find in regular pants; khaki, brown, olive etc. then pair the tops up with a solid color “shirt”. The Cheeroke style 4000 works good for this. To me they are about as close as you can get to a real pair of pants. BOB
By BOB on December 18, 2009 at 3:04 am