All Your Scrubs

During the 19^th Century, nursing was a common duty of many women and they generally wore a servant’s uniform with a white cap and apron covering a long print dress. By 1880, Florence Nightingale’s work had turned nursing into a more reputable occupation and nurses began to wear distinct nursing apparel to identify their profession.

History played a role in the development of nursing apparel.  With the onset of the First World War, functionality became more important to nurses than appearance.  Nursing uniforms lost their bulkiness.  In the interest of convenience, shorter sleeves and shorter skirts became more prominent. Over the years, nursing apparel underwent many changes. As hospitals grew, the pace became much faster and laundering of the uniforms became an issue.  Nursing apparel became more comfortable and it was important that these uniforms were wash and wear.  Scrubs began to appear for hospital nurses during the late 1970s.  This trend started with male nurses but quickly spread to the entire nursing staff.  Today, most hospital staff members wear scrubs at all times to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

There is very little differentiation between nurses, doctors, staff, etc. Many hospitals require a specific color or style of scrubs.  In others, the color or style may depend on the department within the hospital. 

Nursing apparel has come a long way over the years.  Today, nurses scrubs are available in a wide variety of styles, colors, and fabrics.  However, in today’s medical community, the most important considerations for scrubs are comfort, fashionable styles, and ease of upkeep.

Hospital scrubs are the shirts and trousers or gowns worn by nurses, surgeons, and other operating room personnel when scrubbing in for surgery.  The wearing of scrubs has been extended outside of surgery in many hospitals.  Hospital scrubs are now worn by any hospital personnel in any clean environment.

The spread of MRSA has increased the necessity and use of scrubs.  They have also been mandated in some American prisons as a prison uniform. 

These days many nurses work 10 or 12-hour shifts. And, if they work in an emergency room, they may never get a break on a busy night. After being on their feet for so many hours a day most nurses know the importance of a high-quality supportive shoe. Nurses need shoes with traction as well as support. Many times hospital floors and operating rooms are slick with blood or spilled medicine. No one wants to slip and fall on a hospital floor, and nurses understand the danger of coming into contact with the bodily fluids of sick patients.

Traditional nursing shoes for women have been sober and simple. High heels are never recommended due to the discomfort they can inflict on the feet. Modern nursing shoes are much the same except for they can be found in a variety of attractive colors and styles. But the bottom line remains the same in nursing shoe design–comfort and practicality.

Nursing apparel has changed a lot throughout history. The first nurses’ uniforms were derived from the design of a nun’s habit. This is because before the 19th century nuns took care of all sick people. So it made sense to the people of that time that nurses would dress like nuns.

The uniform stayed much the same until the 1940s when the color of the outfit changed to blue. At this time hospitals were free to determine what their nurses wore. Nurses’ caps were common during this time. In the 1960s open necks began to appear in some nurse clothing. Disposable caps replaced cloth nursing caps in the 1970s and in the 1980s plastic aprons took the place of cloth aprons. In the 1990s nurses began wearing scrubs. Today most every nurse you see will be wearing scrubs.