Color Them Cool

Nurse Margret Gow can still see the uniform she wore while training in Germany many years ago: “The dress was gray, and I wore a starched white apron and a starched white cap.”

Her co-worker Donna Hawkins, a nurse at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, remembers wearing white--and only white--during her first years on the job.

Those were their caterpillar days.

Since then the duo--and many of their colleagues--have metamorphosed into butterflies. Or, more accurately, to flowers, frogs and dinosaurs.

On a recent weekday, Gow wears vivid purple pants and a coordinating top with bouquets to work her shift at the ambulatory care unit at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. She saves her whimsical flying-pigs shirt--pink potbellied critters with rainbow wings--for Fridays.

Hawkins, partial to the influence of the tropics after an island vacation, has on her bright jade pants with a Hawaiian print top and coordinating jacket.

When patients see the colorful uniforms, “they don’t feel like they’re in a hospital setting,” says Hawkins, who says the slightly higher cost of the more colorful uniforms is worth the payoff.

“Probably 90% of our nurses wear uniforms that aren’t primarily white,” says hospital spokesman Ted Braun. “As long as they look professional, the hospital approves of the colorful uniforms.”

At Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, nurse Melissa Viramontes-Luke also leans to jazzy attire--such as the teal top and animal print jacket she wore on a recent shift. “In the last two or three years,” she says, “nearly everyone’s gone to colors.”

Her colleague Sue Martinez was wearing her happy frogs top, but draws from a collection of about a dozen other bright tunics decorated with dinosaurs, multicultural kids, ducks smiling down on a bassinet.

“It’s very rare that I see any nurse in all white,” says David Davis, assistant to the vice president of patient care services at Childrens Hospital.

To meet demand, a handful of uniform companies produces the new duds in an ever-expanding range of fashion options. S.C.R.U.B.S., based in Santee, Calif., offers tops, pants, dresses and jackets in safari prints, weathered denim and funny bunny designs.

There’s a party animal line with sunglass-wearing Dalmatian pups and designs for Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

And for totally cool coordinated types, there are matching hair accessories, surgical caps, belts, neckties and earrings.

“Industry-wide, about 50% [of uniform sales] are white, and the balance, colors and prints,” estimates Michael Singer, CEO of Cherokee Uniforms in Pacoima. “Five years ago, probably 75% of sales were white uniforms.”

While some traditionalists still balk, the switch to more colorful, casual uniforms is generally viewed positively by both patients and nurses, according to a survey published last year in the journal Nursing Standard. Patients and nurses in two hospital wards provided feedback on the effect of nontraditional uniforms.

“The results showed that the patients felt casual clothes helped remove a ‘them and us’ distinction and enhanced nurse/patient relationships,” the researchers wrote.

One possible exception is the ER, where some experts say nurses should wear traditional attire to be readily identifiable. In most other hospital departments, though, nontraditional uniforms are commonplace and get rave reviews.

“I think they are cute and colorful,” says Bridgett Briggs, 12, of Montrose, a recent patient at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and no fashion slouch herself.

Leonard Michaels, 74, gave his nod of approval to Hawkins’ Hawaiian look during a recent outpatient visit. “I think it’s attractive, away from the customary white.”

And letters from satisfied customers have convinced manufacturers they can turn a profit and make a difference.

One of the most poignant was written by Marybeth Michaelson, a nurse at Children’s Hospital Boston, to S.C.R.U.B.S. She was helping to treat a 16-month-old trauma patient who was not responsive.

“All of a sudden, he opened his eyes and started to moo,” she recalls. The trauma team was perplexed and concerned until the neurosurgeon pointed to Michaelson’s cosmic-cow top. Soon, the whole trauma team was mooing and laughing in unison.