Can't tell the players...

[xoxoxoBruce]

One of the local hospitals belonging to the PENN (UofP) Medical System uses this color system for scrubs. At first I thought it would be a logistical nightmare but thinking about it the sorting is probably easier. Let each department sort their own, and easily pick out the places that need extra sterilization.

[sexobon]

It's typically done by some healthcare administrator to justify their gravy position of going shopping for uniforms and the perks they'll get in return for steering the purchasing contract to a particular vendor.

They sell the idea to their bosses by saying it will make the employees that patients need to see easier for the patients to identify (e.g. a nurse for medications) so they won't be bothering other employees who don't want to be distracted. But then, they turn around and sometimes put males and females doing the same job in different color uniforms anyway.

It's a bunch of hooey. I've seen progressive skilled nursing units that did away with uniforms entirely. They wanted patients to see their employees as individuals, not uniformed corporate drones, to establish better healthcare worker to patient relationships which get reflected in customer satisfaction surveys. I've even seen a dinosaur of a director of nursing, who claimed uniforms were a necessary mark of professionalism, dismissed. "It's not the uniform that makes the man; but, the man that makes the uniform." where uniforms are necessary.

Reusable scrubs, wherever used, should all be processed to the same high standard of cleaning. Harmful microorganisms can be brought in from outside the healthcare facility by anyone who works there, not just patients and visitors. If they want to tell employees apart by occupation, they can wear different colored ID badges. If they want to make it easier to sort the laundry, they can use colored uniform fixtures (e.g. patch, button) which can be changed to accommodate staffing changes.

The military healthcare system manages to accomplish these things without making their employees look like a bunch of Skittles; so, how hard can it be?

[xoxoxoBruce]

The military healthcare system manages to accomplish these things without making their employees look like a bunch of Skittles; so, how hard can it be?

I assume you're excluding the VA in that appraisal of "accomplishing".

Of course this information is provided in the pre-admittance booklet which I didn't read till after discharge. The "Navy Blue Scrubs" the RN and LPNs wore, looked more like tailored uniforms than scrubs. Very sharp, very attractive, and didn't seem to be restrictive. Every single nurse I met, day, night, weekday, and weekend, were absolute angels without exception.

I sent them long stem pink and red roses, a week later.

Sitting with my friend who drove me, the anesthesiologist, big guy, very hairy, burst in, fired off questions and instructions like a machine gun then zoomed out again.
I said, "Trapper John", and she almost fell off her chair.

[sexobon]

The purpose of scrubs has changed due to pop culture. I remember when scrubs were exclusively for working in environments where contamination from body fluids and tissues were an infection control issue. Wearing them was restricted to certain units/wards. There were actually signs posted at the exits that said no scrubs beyond that point. Civilian healthcare facility administrations would take disciplinary action against offending employees. In the military, it was an Article 15 offense.

But then popular medical television shows and movies took artistic license by showing doctors and nurses running around all over the place in scrubs because they looked cool. People started doing it IRL and it branched out to ancillary healthcare occupations as everyone wanted to jump on the coolness bandwagon. Scrubs essentially morphed into symbolic uniforms.

Civilian healthcare facilities couldn't stop it. They weren't about to fire everyone and go out of business; so, they capitulated. They transitioned to disposable garments worn over the scrubs for those who were actually exposed to body fluids and tissues. The military took longer; but, it has many service members who received their healthcare training as civilians before joining. There are still fewer ancillary healthcare personnel running around in scrubs though.

[Undertoad]

Also, during that same period of change, we all kind of realized that if we are going to work indoors our entire goddamn lives, it would be better in some kind of breathable cotton that everybody likes.

~ asexual solid color t-shirts? count me in, should have learned bio instead of comp sci. oh wait that's my uniform now ~