Does a Standardized Uniform Style and Color Influence the Professional Status of Registered Nurses?

Purpose:
The purpose of the study is to describe the effect of a standardized uniform style and color on the professional status of registered nurses as perceived by patients and registered nurses.

Background/Significance:
RN professional status and contributions to care are NDNQI indicators of work satisfaction linked to quality and patient safety. Research demonstrates that nonstandard nursing uniforms cause confusion among patients and health care providers and contributes to the inability to identify the professional nurse and their contributions to healthcare care. Indentifying RNs and understanding their contributions and scope of practice is essential to nursing's professional status and patient safety.

Methods:
All RNs and patients from medical and surgical units participated. A mixed methods approach was utilized to identify RN and patient perspectives of professional nursing status and attire. RN representatives from each unit participated in focus groups to explore the variability in RN uniform style and color and its effect on nursing's professional image and status. An online survey examined RN's opinions on what standardized uniform style and color best represents professional nursing. Semi-structured interviews documented patient perspectives on professional nursing status and attire. Measures of central tendency were used to test between group differences in professional status and attire.

Results:
Focus group RNs felt professional status was important but did not feel a standardized uniform style or color singularly defined their professional identity. RNs that completed the professional status survey preferred solid scrubs (72%) to patterned scrubs (8%) and chose a solid color, matching top/bottom (82%). The RNs (71%) selected a navy blue scrub. Although patients felt it was important to identify the RN “as the nurse who knows how to help and take care of me,” 43% could not do so; 21% did not feel identification was important. Uniform color was the patient preferred method for RN identification (50%). Patients preferred solid blue (22%), white (15%); or had no color preference (56%).

Conclusions and Implications for Practice:
Patients and RNs link professional status and quality care to uniform style and color. Standardized uniforms inform RNs and patients of a nurse's professional status, scope of practice, and contributions to care. Awareness of RN professional status and contributions are necessary for patient safety.