OTTAWA — A new dress code for the Ottawa Hospital is infuriating nurses, who will be forbidden to wear scrubs and uniforms with cartoon characters or other drawings on them.

“It’s a terrible policy,” says a nurse, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity out of concern for his job. “The hospital is very unhappy and morale is very low now because of it.”

The policy was developed and implemented by the hospital’s human resources and executive teams. Both the nurses and hospital executives say the dress code coincides with the hospital’s new “service excellence” plan.

“They’re trying to make us a top workplace, and in doing so they’ve pissed off every nurse in the hospital,” says the nurse. “I can’t really see how shoving a policy down the throat of your primary caregivers is going to make you a best employer.”

The new dress code is aimed at making nurses easier for patients to spot, says Ginette Rodger, the hospital’s chief nursing executive and senior vice-president for professional practice.

“These changes have been made based on the hospital’s image, and the patient’s need to identify who is working for them,” says Rodger, “Very often, (patients) see a lot of people and they don’t know who they are and what they do.”

For those unhappy with the changes, the biggest complaint surrounds wearing lab coats. The new lab coats must clearly state a health practitioner’s title, and have to be worn at all times when they’re outside their usual units. They don’t have to be worn when working with patients as they can pose an infection hazard.

“What the patients say is that they want their professionals to be well identified and that they look professional,” says Rodger.

Still, the nurse warns “a lot of patients suffer from ‘white coat syndrome’” — meaning they get anxious when they’re surrounded by people in medical uniforms. “They don’t like it. A friendly uniform being replaced by a staunch lab coat is not necessary.”

The nurse says his union — Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4000, which represents registered practical nurses and a raft of support staff at the Ottawa Hospital’s several campuses — can’t do anything until the policy is enacted and a member is disciplined for violating it.

The union representing the hospital’s registered nurses objects as well.

“We want to dress in colours and prints because it’s cheerful for our patients,” says Frances Smith, a representative from the Ontario Nurses Association Local 83.

Ottawa Citizen