Patricia L. Raymond MD, FACP, FACG, Rx For Sanity

 

Nursing Image = Nursing Power

By Dr. Patricia Raymond

Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Nursing over the last century has held varied images, including celestial caregiver, tailored and powerful military nurse, and even Hollywood sexpot, as seen on Michael Zwerdling RN's www.NursingPostcard.com. And the media continues to belittle and cheapen the image of your profession, an assault ably defended by Sandra Summers MSN, MPH, RN, and Executive Director of the Center for Nursing Advocacy (www.NursingAdvocacy.org). But what were y'all thinking when you ditched The Cap and put on the scrubs?

Sandy Dumont is an image consultant (www.TheImage Architect.com), with more than 25 years experience directing the image of executives for Fortune-500 companies. And she thinks it's time to resuscitate nursing uniforms.

"White denotes extraordinary cleanliness and sanitation," Sandy said. "I'd choose an easy-care modern fabric, like a wash-and-wear soft polyester/cotton blend.

It would be tailored to enhance the figure, with both skirt and pant versions, and an informal as well as formal top portion, possibly with epaulets. This would give the new nursing uniform power and authority, and epaulet insignias could denote rank or station in the hospital."

Don't worry. Sandy says The Cap should stay gone. They're simply unrealistic given the physical exertion of your profession.

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.

As Sandy 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 personal, 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 become ennobled, conveying personal qualities, attributes, and virtues.

"Nurses have given up their camaraderie, given up their credibility, their 'bonding by means of cloth,' " she said. "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 surprised 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 acknowledged ruefully. "My patients don't have that option."

These nurses 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 badge 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; help it grows from unit to unit, from hospital to hospital. Post it on online nursing bulletin boards, 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 colleagues in healthcare, society to acknowledge you as authorities and to be paid as your profession deserves, insist upon the image of a professional. Nattily attired Patricia Raymond MD FACP FACG is a Virginia gastroenterologist, and writes and speaks on helping physicians and nurses to play nicely in the sandbox of medicine. Her books, "Don't Jettison Medicine" and the cult comedy classic "Colonoscopy: It'll Crack u Up" are available at http://www.rxforsanity.com/ or Amazon.com.