I liked the suggestion of labeling uniforms, but not dictating what color or cut the scrubs are. It could even be done pretty cheaply if someone knows how to screen-print.

I think that they shouldn't be standardized because I think it is a morale issue as well. I have also seen some scrubs embroidered. They were really nice.

EMTs, the police departments, the fire departments and jails are all standardized. Why not us?

It is my conclusion after discussing this issue with a number of individuals, that the majority of administrative decisions to standardize uniforms are a direct result of a minority of nurses choosing to wear inappropriate apparel (or sincerely not having the judgement to know what they are wearing is inappropriate) for a professional environment.

So the result is that EVERYONE suffers the consequences of the poor judgement (or bad taste) of a few people. Just like in gradeschool, the ones that caused the problem generally are not bothered by the consequences while the vast majority of people that were doing the right thing all along end up feeling penalized for something they didn't take part in causing. Now that's just life, nobody ever said it was gonna be fair.

Winding down my thoughts on this issue (I promise) is the fact that some treatment facilities foster an environment that is more conducive to NON-Standardized uniform apparel. I work in a 100 bed acute psychiatric hospital that serves all ages. I would argue that this setting may be one in where it may not be most therapeutic to wear standardized uniforms related to the unintended stimuli caused by such a statement of uniformity. On the other side of the coin, I don't necessarily think that Medical Centers and General Hospitals should necessarily require that their nurses wear the old "Clara Barton"(if that's where it originated) traditional whites. We are in the 21st century and there is a strong case that Identification Badges worn in plain sight (not hanging from the bottom of a scrub top) are adequate identification so that a patient or family member can know who they are talking to and what discipline that person represents.

My final thoughts:

1) Nurses are responsible individuals, they should be allowed to prove that they can wear the color they choose on any given day as long as the attire is appropriate for the professional environment and that an ID BADGE IS MANDATORY AND TO BE WORN IN PLAIN VIEW.

2) If a nurse shows poor judgement or inappropriate taste in their attire......DON'T PUNISH EVERYONE. If a nurse can be scrutinized for timeliness and accuracy, then certainly they can be managed to dress appropriately by guideline. It's 2008 for goodness sake, if a nurse can manage a patient with a tube from every orifice of the patient's body competently, then certainly they can be trusted to choose what they wear .....within reason.

3) Not every clinical setting can be held to the same liberality of dress code...........GET OVER IT.

I agree to an extent about your statement hjoel johnson and I agree 100% that a uniform has never been appropriate attire for psych.facilities.I truly think this is more for patient recognition of the nurses than I do for inappropriate attire(I have seeen that,too) I just think a lot of patients are wanting to see a Nurse back in White. Only my opinion ,though

When i first started in the hospital in 1986, we were required to wear white.White top, white pants, white shoes, white white white.It made me want to puke!I t was hard to keep clothes from staining,from becoming dingy(i am a stain magnet).I remeber my stupid nursing shoes that i would get that white stuff in a bottle to dab on my shoes, to bring them back to life.Luckily, for my floor around 1992 oe 1003, i kept pushing for floors to be able to wear scrubs.Finally , after countless hours of speaking w/ other co workers, and petitions, we  formed a comittee and voila, we were able to choose A design for scrubs.A uniform scrub color/patteren for our floor.Eventually it changed and we were able to wear whatever scrubs we wanted.At that time tho, EVERYONE wore white.Lab wore white,Housekeeping wore white,Dietary wore white.That kinda defeats the argument, we have to wear white so the pt  knows we are nurses.To them, anyone who walked in wearing white was a nurse.That was silly, it didnt matter, everyone was in white.I dont feel it should matter what we wear, as long as we keep our id and title badges on.We have big plastic badge under a smaller badge that sames our name, that says R.N. in huge letters.No mistaking that.My mother, who was also an awesome nurse and i would always have this discussion, she felt nurses should wear white,as i totally disagreed.Maybe it was a generation thing??She was only 18 yrs older than me tho :)Thats my take on the whole thing.

I don't want the nursing uniforms to become standardized  I like being able to choose whatever color or pattern I want to whear on a givien day.  I use to work at a nursing home where each title wore a certain color (CNA one color, LVN a different color, and RN a different color and also EVS a different color.  I did not like having to wear the same color or style everyday

I personally like bright colors and print tops. When I worked in the pediatric office, the children responded better to the cartoon tops. It took their focus off what we were doing and what they were there for. Also if we happened to get something on the top while at work the prints helped to camoflage the spot. In the place I work now, Everyone wears a dark green golf shirt with the company name embroidered on it and khaki pants. I miss the pockets of my scrub tops.

I think that if we kept the scrubs within nursing, then we wouldnt have such a problem trying to figure out who is in housekeeping and who is a nurse.  We as LPN's, CNA's, and RN's all have earned our right to wear "medical" scrubs and should be allowed to do so.  I have worked in long-term care & psych and both jobs only licensed nursing staff we able to wear scrubs.  It made it a lot easier to identify people.  In a facility that is larger and has other staff such as X-Ray, Lab, ect.  Maybe those people should be the ones to have specific colors to identify them, since they are not nurses.

Where I work we all wear standardized uniforms.  The rn-royal blue (I love it), the CNA-seal blue, the RT grey/black, surgery-mint green,  transport has polos, housekeeping- different polos,  managers-same royal blue, supervisors-white coats over the royal blue,  ICU-royal blue.  The thing I do not understand is that we never really discuss with the patients what the different colors represent.  The patients seem to catch on however. 

Where I went to school in Hawaii they wore every color, style, and print you can imagine.  I loved never knowing what my friends would come up with next however it was confusing for the patients in retrospect.  It also did not look quite as professional.  In Hawaii it seemed to work, however here in CA I think this approach works.

Another thing that I see here in Doctor offices is the standard print on certian days.  It does look nice and I do wish we could adopt something like that at the hospital.  It would even be worth investing in myself if it came to that..... such as ok you guys can wear a  (???) print today.  We do have a holiday print that we can choose to wear during about three months of the year.  The problem is that we have had the same holiday print for the last three years.......

A few of the nurses found some uniform tops in the same royal blue that had piping on the collar.  They wore those and were promptly issued warnings.... ugh!!!!!   Oh yes and only matching shoes and undertops or white.

We do have our socks!!!!!!  They haven't taken those away... yet....... ;>)

standardized or not......I always go with professional. So if it is the hospitals rule to wear a certain color I do. I will be creative with my wardrobe outside of work, if need be.

In the facility I work in, nobody is allowed to wear bright colors <orange, red, any neons> and no cartoon figures.  Thing is admin give us a uniform allowance once a year, in June..............they changed the regs this past year in July and alot of us enjoyed wearing brights like the ones I listed because it feels summery and we have a tan!  I kjnow, little nitpick there.  If only they made that regulation a month ago, then I would have blown it on more shoes or stuff I could actually wear!  At least our facility gives us a stipend at all, ,so I shouldnt fuss.  Everybody has standardized nametags except the RN's have  a huge "RN" in red as a backdrop to the photo is which gives your name and dept.  I wont throw the brights away..............they change those rules every other year anyhow.

I do not want to go back to the old uniforms.  They were white and uncomfortable.  I enjoy the colors and comfort.  I believe our patients enjoy the colors.  Our hospital has standardized colors in each dept. due to the confusion of  who is a nurse and who is housekeeping.  I do not know if I agree with this but it has cut down on the amount of complaints against nursing staff.  We have to wear identification of who we are and our title.  I would enjoy picking my uniforms but not the case at our hospital and many in our area.

 I do not feel that the old uniforms are appropriate because the little aprons and such that are part of them are not sanitary and the skirts are not practical for involved work like moving patients.  I do feel that there should be standardized uniforms for each job and non-medical personnel should not wear scrubs.  It should not be the patients responsibility to try to figure out who is who, they are there because they are already not feeling well.  They should not have to play a guessing game or try to decipher the information on the tiny little card that is your name tag.  I know that we all want to be able to show our individuality and our personal style, but it is just that personal style not professional style.  You can wear whatever you see fit on your own time.  There are still ways to make it your own though.  Most employers will at least allow you to wear a shirt underneath and if your top is required to be a certain color it might not have to be solid, maybe just the base that color.  I also think that having nurse or RN printed in large letters on your top would be very helpful for quick easy identification especially for patients were don't see so well or new staff members who have not have yet learned who wears each color.

Yes, I think there should be one and common uniform for nurses as it is easy to find them with same uniform.