You see, nursing has an image problem with the public....they can't see you! We've all heard patients speak of "the nurse who took my blood, the nurse who cleaned my room, the nurse who took me to Radiology." Everyone in the hospital is in scrubs, and patients are not savvy enough to keep the players straight. I too have fallen victim to their confusion. As a young female doc, I am often asked dietary questions should I visit the hospital sans long white coat and shoulder draped stethoscope....my uniform.

Nursing has an image problem with doctors as well. We doctors, moaning about overload of patient demands, don't see the qualified professionals eager to accept responsibility right beside us. Sandy believes that physicians would respond differently to nurses in uniform of power rather than in rumpled attire. "I would quit my job if they made me wear something like that", opines Sandy, "and those cartoon character jackets: no wonder they have no authority."

It's not about having the skill or the training. We know that you're qualified. Ms. Dumont explains, "A uniform doesn't make you good. A uniform gives you respect." Sandy shares an example from the aviation profession. Although Southwest Airlines has loosened uniform standards for its flight personnel, you still don't see the pilots in cut-off shorts. "When we need to trust you with our lives or our families, we'd like you to look professional." Or trust you with our patients' lives. Help your docs know that you are a medical authority and to be respected.

But what about your loss of personal freedom? Sandy believes that the benefits to the profession will outweigh the costs. Sandy explains that some costumes have become ennobled and convey personal qualities, attributes and virtues. Nurses have "given up their camaraderie, given up their credibility, their 'bonding by means of cloth.' Why do you believe that your personal freedom outweighs the right of the patient to have trust in you? And you've chosen to look silly in the doctor's eyes. You're the only thing between their patients and death, and you're covered in cartoons."

I debated this very subject over dinner recently with a group of nurses attending a Nursing Recruitment and Retention seminar in New Orleans. One of the nurses shared a story. She recounted having taken her shoebox of receipts to her tax preparer, and was surprises to find her orderly, starched gentleman out for the day. She was offered a replacement. "This guy was rumpled and disordered; and I packed up my receipts and scooted away", she ruefully acknowledged. "My patients don't have that option." They had been aware of the functionality of their attire at the hospital, but not the impact of the image. We all wear uniforms, from the Accountant to the Orkin Man to the Admiral.

So how can you commandeer the power of uniform for your profession? Start out locally. If your hospital won't do it, develop your own uniform of power for your unit. Select identical solid well-tailored scrubs in a bold, strong color, a starched white lab coat, and display nursing pins and honors. Insist on a name bade with your last name and degrees; refuse the belittling but friendly 'Suzie RN' badge. Patients are not your friends, they are your duty.

Move the initiative nationally, as it grows from unit to unit, from hospital to hospital. Post it on online nursing bulletins, discuss it at regional and national conventions. Work with uniform manufacturers to design a powerful classy new image to reflect the nurses of today. Nurses give up their power and authority as a profession when not dressed uniformly.

Chuck the cartoon jackets unless you're in Pediatrics. If you wish doctors to treat you as a colleague in healthcare; society to acknowledge you as authorities; and to be paid as your profession deserves, insist upon the image of a professional.

Source: Passionate HealthCare
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