My mom was just taken to the ER this week and as we sat watching the ER staff busy and fully functional, the only people I could really relate to were the doctors and not even the clothes I saw!
We actually accidentally asked the cleaner to do the load as she was dressed more professionally than the nurse cap graduation who all wore napkins and gowns; One sister had a particularly interesting sweater with green and smiling faces on it. Nice, but professional? Hamm.
As for scrubs, they can be nice but always look so out of control and over-washed;
The method of sounding the alarm seems to me to be “the art of marrying life” or in this case television! The usual mess of unfamiliar clothes in the emergency department undermined the general nursing skills happening around us.
So I have to suggest that if nurses want to dress up, maybe we should all wear the same easily recognizable uniforms – that’s what uniforms are for. Unity means to be in harmony with each other and to be united. The purpose of the costume is to immediately identify one important group of characters.
Going back, as Rich suggests, each level of nursing would be easily identifiable,
as we were when I started nursing in 1975. Until recently, there was little ambiguity about this. C here’s who’s who. Registered nurses wear white pants and dresses, student nurses wear hats, blue dresses and orange shoes, ENs wear their colors and so on! I didn’t mind all this myself and felt then as now that the dress might have been a hindrance.
A uniform can identify us, but it can also set us apart because a uniform can convey a power and a singularity that can limit the nurse-patient relationship. I believe this kind of hierarchy is one of the reasons why the nurses’ uniform has become a mess of equality. The purpose of the overall uniform selection is to bring us to a more professional and consistent stage, so that the nurse uniforms are so unusual and personal that a highly trained professional nurse of the 21st century would wear a green face suit. Very. …
So why do we wear skirts?
Nursing didn’t always have the professional status it has today – in fact, the uniform reflects our roots in lower class 19th century religions.
Aprons and hats and large chains were the reason nurses used them in the 1960s and 70s. Florence Nightingale did us no favors by keeping us firmly in the army and under medical advice; That is, a maid or a maid’s dress. Please… Don’t go back there!
I haven’t worn a uniform in 20 years and had no problem identifying myself as a nurse
– but maybe that’s because I work in the community. Nursing work in a hospital requires many different aspects because many health professionals work there. But in the community, clients recognize my nurse by how I care for them, not by what I wear; And that’s how I found out who the nurses were on call this week. They were the ones who spoke to my mother gently, helped her politely and efficiently, and explained what the doctor had just said.
I followed what I like to call the “patient-nurse model”. Other healthcare professionals and their patients simply do not have this kind of special care. Our nursing work connects us to basic human needs – that is, to building relationships, no matter how fleeting. This nursing school caps -patient focus allows us to gently care for our patients physically, emotionally and socially. I think it’s definitely nursing, and that’s what we’re known for.
Definitely dress up, but let’s dress in a way that reflects our activities
and doesn’t put obstacles between us and the patients. But most importantly, don’t think for a second that a shirt defines you as a nurse.
Today, when entering a hospital environment, you are likely to see doctors wearing standard hospital gowns. Although they were once worn only by surgeons during operations, they have become the medical uniform of many doctors. In fact, doctors use detergents both in hospitals and in individual clinics. Cleaning suits are designed to identify medical professionals and maintain hygiene.
The purpose of the scrub is to provide public recognition for doctors. Anyone who has ever been in a hospital or owned a television knows that the man who uses the detergent acts like a doctor. Earthquakes are so common.
