It's a situation no one wants to be in, but sooner or later most of us are at the mercy of the health care system in a hospital. It's a place we go for help and reassurance.
The reassurance part sometimes gets a bit murky, because patients are never quite sure who to turn to. That's because people who work in hospitals all wear the same "uniform" of colourful, loose-fitting scrubs. The sick, injured or mother in the throes of childbirth really have no way of telling the person who scrubs the floors from the highly trained registered nurse who has the skill to save lives and offer the calming assurance needed in times of stress.
Of course all personnel wear ID cards, so patients and family can scan that information for the RN designation they are searching for. But, does someone in distress, possibly hooked up to apparatus that prevent them from donning their glasses, really have that option?
Historically, nurses were held to a rigid code of dress, including starched hats, white dress-style uniforms, white hose and white shoes. Black and white stripes on the hat designated a nurse's status as a graduate of a nursing program, and even if a patient didn't understand the significance of the stripes, there was no mistaking when they were dealing with a registered nurse.
The hats went out of favour because of infection control issues. As regimentation softened in the modern health care environment, white uniforms gave way to green scrubs and then scrubs of all colours.
Historical regimentation, while useful from the patient's point of view, is really no longer applicable to modern health care delivery, but the complete blurring of the landscape isn't optimum either.
Rather than try to get everyone else to change, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses has launched a Wear White Campaign, part of a national movement, to try to remedy the situation.
In response to SUN members and a public poll, the union voted last November to join the campaign that encourages registered nurses to wear a white scrub top, lab coat or dress shirt to work in order to stand out from other health care workers.
I hope the movement catches on. RNs are a vital link in the health care chain and I think they should be proud to do something that will set them apart from others working in hospitals and other health care facilities.
Wear the white so we know who to turn to when we need you.
