The Importance of Uniforms in Healthcare

One thing that comes to mind when we think of healthcare professionals and frontline workers is usually what they wear – in particular, scrubs. What we may not realise, however, is that besides practicality, there are many other reasons behind the importance of uniforms in healthcare.

Throughout this blog, we will delve deeper into what different roles uniforms play within the healthcare industry.

Hierarchy and Authority

If you pay attention to the staff members the next time you visit a hospital or healthcare facility, you may notice that some staff members are wearing different things. Before you think that they don’t have a uniform (although, they may not!) it might be that they have different dress codes for different roles within the business.

For example, scrubs aren’t worn by everyone in the hospital. Nurses wear scrubs for many reasons, such as:

Comfort – scrubs are extremely light and breathable, meaning that nurses don’t overheat when they are moving around all shift

Hygiene – scrubs are super easy to wash and as a nurse, there is a high chance each shift that you will have something spilt on you

Practicality – a large number of pockets means that nurses can carry around everything they need with them, without having to bring a bag

Wearing scrubs also helps workers and patients discern between who does what in the hospital. If someone isn’t wearing scrubs, there is a good chance that they are either an administrative clerk or a manager of a division. The absence of scrubs communicates that they have a different place in the business.

Easily Identifiable

Scrubs and uniforms help you to stand out. There’s nothing worse than needing to find a worker in a business and they’re wearing casual clothes that don’t help to identify that they work there. Having a uniform, whether it be an administration uniform or scrubs helps make you identifiable to others. If a patient requires a nurse, they know to look for scrubs. Similarly, if a doctor needs to find a nurse to attend to a patient, they are easily able to keep an eye out for someone in scrubs. According to Catholic Health Australia, the nursing workforce is the single largest workforce in Australia, with almost 400,000 nurses registered in 2019. With such a large number of nurses as well as new nurses learning every day, there is a high turnover in hospitals, making it difficult to remember the names of every employee. Wearing scrubs makes it easier to identify your staff members – even with fast turn arounds and new staff members constantly starting.

Professional Identity

Wearing scrubs can help a nurse mentally with their sense of professional identity. Having studied at university for several years, finally being able to pull on a set of scrubs while being acknowledged as a nurse is – for a lot of nurses – their end goal. It proves to them that they have made it in their chosen field and are now able to be identified by their patients and their peers that they are a nurse.

Besides this, other roles in healthcare professions that have different uniforms may give them a sense of identity and purpose in the workplace and help them fit in.

Sense of Belonging and Connection

It was briefly touched on in the above point, but uniforms in healthcare can also help to provide a sense of belonging. Whether it’s as broad as a sense of belonging to their chosen profession and industry (such as a nurse, vet, surgeon, etc) or more in-depth and specific to the exact company they work for, a uniform can help bind and attach someone to their workplace.

Uniforms create a sense of team spirit and cohesion between staff members, as well as making them feel connected to each other. Well-designed, quality uniforms can also give team members the self-confidence they need to meet the strenuous demands of the job.

Self-Image

A nice, neat, professional-looking uniform can give clients faith and trust in your business. Anything that leaves staff members looking dishevelled, messy, or sloppy often leads customers or patients to form negative first impressions in their minds. That is why uniforms in healthcare are so important – because people are trusting you with the health of them, their child, or even their fur child.

A well-presented self-image makes the wearer look confident and competent in their ability. It also gives off a trustworthy vibe and makes the patient more receptive to you.

Role-Specific Design

Our scrubs and healthcare uniforms have one thing in common when they are being designed – YOU!! Our uniforms are tailored to meet all the demands of a job where you are constantly on your feet and need a wide range of movement and practicality.

Whether it is our range of scrubs or our other healthcare-specific uniforms, each piece has been carefully designed to suit both functional and administrative roles by including a wide range of features such as breathable fabric, lots of pockets for storage, easy wash material, high durability and lots of fun colours.

Hygiene

As nurses work with some of the most vulnerable patients, hygiene is a major factor. Many spills can occur throughout the day when working at a hospital – from coffee to blood to vomit – and wearing a set of scrubs that are easy to wash, comfortable and shrink-resistant is important when you need to stay as clean as possible.

Our range of Biz Care scrubs is made so that stains are easy to remove and come out quickly.

Uniforms are important in every workplace. They help identify you to the people around you, whether it be colleagues or customers, whilst still giving you a sense of where you belong in the workplace. Uniforms in healthcare allow for patients to discern between who is who while they may be in their most vulnerable state. It also allows higher-up members (eg. members of the board or management team) to identify between roles of staff members who may not be on their team.