Communication Across Cultures: What Nurses Wear

COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURES

Communication Across Cultures

What Nurses Wear

It might be strange to think that just a few decades ago professional women with college degrees were expected to show up for work wearing nipped-waist dresses, frilly aprons, and white linen caps. For more than 100 years, variations on this theme signified a woman trained in the medical profession. “The nurse’s cap,” writes nursing historian Christina Bates (2012), “is one of the most evocative garments ever associated with an occupational group” (p. 22). Well into the twentieth century, nurses’ uniforms separated the nurses from the doctors—and coincidentally the ladies from the men—in the health care field. But they also served as important signifiers. Prior to the opening of the first nurses’ colleges in the 1830s, nursing was left largely to religious orders and untrained mothers, wives, and sisters. The adoption of a uniform—however odd it may seem today—served to provide some status to the young women who emerged from these nursing schools, separating them from the women who went before them (Bates, 2012).

Today such ensembles are limited, for the most part, to sexy Halloween costumes, but most nurses still wear a uniform of sorts: usually a simple pair of hospital scrubs in any of a number of colors or prints. In contrast to the nurse uniforms of yore, these simple and practical ensembles are for the most part gender-neutral. But even these seemingly nondescript items convey meaning. Research shows that the choice of color or print of scrubs can have an impact on patients’ perceptions about a nurse’s competence. Among adult patients who were asked to comment on a variety of nursing uniforms, white scrubs were perceived as indicative of higher levels of professionalism, attentiveness, reliability, empathy, and six other traits than were colored or print scrubs. But among children and adolescents, there was little if any discernable difference in the way they perceived different uniforms for nursing professionals (Albert, Wocial, Meyer, Na, & Trochelman, 2008).

Of course, uniforms are not limited to the nursing profession. Police officers, sports teams, military and paramilitary organizations, and of course many schools have dress requirements that are much more strict than those that govern what today’s nurses wear to work. By dressing in uniform, members of these groups convey messages about who they are, what their role is, and to which group they belong.

Think About This

  1. Do you think that nurses’ uniforms became less gendered as more men entered this traditionally female profession, or do you think men began to think more seriously about the field as the old frilly uniforms gave way to more androgynous scrubs?

    Question

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    Do you think that nurses’ uniforms became less gendered as more men entered this traditionally female profession, or do you think men began to think more seriously about the field as the old frilly uniforms gave way to more androgynous scrubs?
  2. Why do you think the color of nurses’ uniforms had such an impact on adults’ perceptions? Why might it have had less of an impact on younger patients? Do you think that those younger patients’ perceptions will change as they age?

    Question

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    Why do you think the color of nurses’ uniforms had such an impact on adults’ perceptions? Why might it have had less of an impact on younger patients? Do you think that those younger patients’ perceptions will change as they age?
  3. Consider the traditional nurse’s uniform in a few different contexts. How is it that a uniform that indicated professional prestige 100 or even 50 years ago now seems so blatantly sexist?

    Question

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    Consider the traditional nurse’s uniform in a few different contexts. How is it that a uniform that indicated professional prestige 100 or even 50 years ago now seems so blatantly sexist?
  4. The traditional nurse’s uniform sent a very concrete message about the woman wearing it in terms of her job and her qualifications. What message, if any, do modern scrubs send? Is the meaning of scrubs concrete or abstract?

    Question

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    The traditional nurse’s uniform sent a very concrete message about the woman wearing it in terms of her job and her qualifications. What message, if any, do modern scrubs send? Is the meaning of scrubs concrete or abstract?