Return to Professional Hospital Attire

That's interesting; a newly introduced dress code for The Ottawa Hospital is making nurses very unhappy.

This is seen as interfering with their free choice of what they may or may not wear in a hospital setting while discharging their professional duties. They warn, through their union heads, that this imposition of institutional wear will impact on their satisfaction with how they look, and by default, impact further on the manner in which they discharge their professional duties.

They will be unhappy, they claim, and as a result, the patients will suffer the consequences. Now isn't that truly peculiar?! It was once an inviolable rule that nurses wore very specific professional uniforms while working in a hospital, discharging their very important patient-specific duties, down to a silly little cap perched on their heads.

Now, nurses and orderlies seem to wear whatever strikes their fancy, and the patient admitted to hospital is bewildered at the sea of disparate outfits. Casual clothing, even amusing prints on scrubs look slovenly. Anything but professional.

The wearing of casual clothing by health professionals seems to defeat the purpose; easy identification by patients is confused, the appearance of hygienic, practical and attractive garments on health professionals imbue the patient with a comforting sense of reliance on their professionalism.

If they are garbed casually, and sloppily, that sense of confidence is shattered.

If health professionals have pride in their profession, the uniform should be recognized as a symbol of the profession, and worn with pride. The enacting of a the proposed new dress code - in fact, reverting to tradition - will result in low morale, the nurses' union warns. "I can't really see how shoving a policy down the throat of your primary caregivers is going to make you a best employer", railed one nurse.

The social formality of wearing clothing peculiar to a profession, or signifying what the profession is meant to convey, the assurance of professionalism at the very least, respect for the patient, another, where the hapless patient (who wants to be in a hospital, to begin with?) cannot identify nurses, and no identifying insignia is commonly worn, just adds to the confusion of illness and being in a situation where one is dependent on others.

Quality of care is improved just because patients feel more confident in those looking after them because they appear more professional. If nurses insist they be viewed as professionals despite dressing in an unprofessional manner it makes sense for a new dress code to be imposed, because in this instance, the administration realizes and identifies a problem and seeks to rectify it.

Whites and dress code conformity send a definite message, of assumed competence and regard for hygiene along with respect for the patient.