Scrubs are great. They are comfortable, have lots of pockets to keep stuff in, and come in fun colors, but have you ever wondered why they are the staple uniform of the healthcare industry? Let’s take a look at some of the ways scrubs are indeed the perfect uniform for every healthcare professional.
- When scrubs are all a single color it’s easy to see stains that may have resulted from possible contaminants or bodily fluids.
- Scrubs can hold up to harsh cleaning and decontamination that street clothes simply cannot. This is important to help keep both healthcare professionals and their patients safe and free from possible cross contamination.
- Scrubs are cleaner in general than regular clothing. In fact many facilities require staff to only don their scrubs when they arrive for their shift and remove them again before leaving to help ensure they are only worn for one shift before being cleaned.
- Scrubs are inexpensive… because let’s face it….some things just don’t come out in the wash. A ruined set of scrubs is almost always cheaper to replace than an entire outfit of street clothes.
- Remember those pockets? They are going to be one of your most important tools in the workplace. Loading up your pockets with supplies you use regularly will help you work more efficiently, and save you running back and forth to the supply cabinet.
- Scrubs identify your profession. Your patients will be naturally more at ease with a healthcare professional that is in scrubs. In their minds scrubs are associated with someone who can and will help them with whatever their issue is. And in some larger institutions scrub colors may be used to identify different departments so that everyone knows what role a professional is playing in an emergency situation like a cardiac code.
So be proud or your uniform and respect it. Your scrubs identify you as a healthcare professional who has dedicated his or her career to the care of others.
