One Patient's View of Nurse Uniforms
During the summer of 1969, when thousands of young people held an outdoor rock concert in New York State, the nature of most nurse uniforms contrasted markedly with the attire worn by the music-loving concert goers. At that time, the majority of nurses white white uniforms. Moreover, one seldom saw a nurse who had chosen to wear pants, instead of a dress.
Five years later, in 1974, a woman who had been hospitalized in 1969 found herself back in the hospital. That same woman noticed that nurse uniforms had undergone a number of marked changes. Before the halfway point of the 1970s, nurses discovered that they could perform the regular duties much easier by wearing pants, instead of a dress. By 1974, a hospital patient saw more nurseries wearing pants, than nurses attired in some type of uniformly designed dress.
By 1974, a hospital patient saw a good deal more color, when a health professional entered the room. By 1974, nurses had chosen to focus on style as well as comfort. They wore pants and tunics in various colors. Some of the colorful tunics even had a simple design.
Some patients expected to the colored uniforms. They found it difficult to locate a nurse, when they could not just look for someone dressed all in white. Yet by 1974, a patient could not really look to just any nurse for help. By 1974, nurses, like doctors, had begun to "specialize."
Still, the color of the nurse uniforms revealed nothing about the nature of the tasks that were to be handled by any one particular nurse. On the other hand, the colorful uniforms did eliminate one concern that had plagued nurses of an earlier era. The colorful pant costumes did not show dirt and stains. Thus nurses worried about less making their uniforms dirty, and they focused more on doing their assigned duties.
In 1974, the visitor to a hospital patient in Houston, Texas observed changes in more than nurse uniforms. She also saw more patients on the lower floor. She would see patients in their bathrobes walk around on the ground floor. Perhaps that was a silent protest against the absence of white uniforms for nurses.
Not every patient realizes that the color and style of a nurse uniform must be secondary to the behavior of the nurse who wears that uniform. A dependable nurse should demonstrate deduction and discipline in everything that he or she does. Few patients would question the attire of a truly dependable nurse.
Source by Mike Stone
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