If you were to ask anyone that visits a hospital, what is one thing that they remember during their visit? You are going to her things like the wait, no kidding considering the fact that the average wait for emergency rooms across the country is over four hours. Someone is bound to tell you the nurses and when you think of nurses, scrubs are bound to come to the fore front of your mind.
Quick Navigation
Some History
Scrubs have become the most recognizable uniform for nurses across the world. However it was not always that way, in fact until the late 1970’s and early 1980’s nurses traditional wore white dresses for females and white shirt and pants for males. While I was unable to ascertain as to why there was a shift from the white uniforms to scrubs. Some sources state the shift occurred due to the fact that doctors traditional wear white coats and scrubs were a quick way to tell the difference. There are other thoughts that state scrubs offered a way for nurses to express themselves. Some believe that the white uniforms were just not feasible in the medical field. Whatever the reason for the shift, scrubs have become the mainstay for nurses.
Colors
Some hospitals have more recently made a shift, to a color coding system. The system works by assigning nurses working in various departments all wear the same color of scrubs. For example all the nurses working in surgery wear green scrubs and nurses working on a medical surgical floor wear blue scrubs. You can see how this system makes it extremely easy for patients and their families to identify members of the nursing staff working in each area.
The nurses that in know and work with though, don’t really like the color coding system. They prefer being able to express themselves through the scrubs that they wear. These scrub tops range from the bright, to the extremely bright. Some have characters on them, while others are simply monochromatic. Sometimes the scrub tops match the bottoms while at times they do not. When nurses work with pediatrics in particular the scrubs tend to be bright and colorful which is fitting in that area of nursing.
Shoes
Regardless of the system that a nurse works in there is as a way for them to express themselves, their shoes. Nurses can use their shoes to express their personalities to their co-workers and the patients that they care for. Even if they work in a hospital facility that uses the color coding system, the nurses are free to pick their own shoes. These shoes can be running shoes designed for comfort or even nursing clogs designed for easy clean up situations.
While the reason for the shift from the more tradition white nurse’s uniform to the now easily recognizable modern day scrubs may remain unknown it has become a fact in the medical field. Personally I like the ability to be able to pick my own scrubs. I could not imagine having to wear white to work every day.