Want to Look Professional? Scrubs are the Answer!

Ordinarily, I agree with the opinions of the Center for Nursing Advocacy, (CNA) the watchdog group that keeps an eye on how nurses are portrayed in the media and takes to task the perpetrators of the infractions by rallying nurses to join in letter writing campaigns of protest.

In this week’s CNA newsletter, however, there is a campaign with which I’m not in total agreement. Perhaps it’s not so much a matter of disagreeing as it is bafflement on my part. The newsletter ran a story, that later in the article was described as an inflated rumor, of a clinic in Spain that insisted its nurses wear miniskirts at work or have their pay docked. It turns out that the clinic’s edict was that its nurses wear traditional uniforms with skirts of modest length, not minis.

The CNA newsletter expressed an opinion that read, in part, "But, this would still force female nurses into regressive outfits that suggest they are not modern professionals." WHAT? Have I been living under a rock? True, my days of hospital nursing ended many years ago but I’m a news junkie who reads two newspapers per day, magazines of all kinds, watches a variety of news programs, and am in frequent contact with friends who are working RNs. I should’ve known before now that the uniform I wore for all those years marked me as something less than a professional—and an archaic one, at that. Am I the last to know?

So, let me get this straight. By dressing in pajamas—OK, scrubs—I will present a more professional image? I agree that scrubs are more comfortable and they would make jumping onto the bed, straddling the patient and doing chest compressions before the crash cart arrives a lot easier—but indicative of professionalism? I don’t think so. I was recently hospitalized for surgery and I have not a single complaint about my care, but, based on what they were wearing, I couldn’t tell the nursing staff from housekeeping.

Bottom line? I don’t get it. I am not suggesting stripping nurses of their scrubs and putting them in white uniforms with (oh, the horror!) skirts of modest length. I just want to understand how a traditional uniform would diminish my professional image in the eyes of others. Enlighten me, please.