Should nurses wear white?
I vote for white uniforms ("White Uniforms: Making a Comeback or All Washed up?" Issues in Nursing, February 2006). Patients love them!! They always know who the nurse is: the one in white. White is crisp, clean, and professional looking. We tend to stand up straighter in white than in those loose, comfortable, laid-back scrubs. I'm proud to be a nurse and want my patients to know who and what I am at a glance!!
-ELISABETH G. WILSON, RN
Bossier City, La.
As a man in nursing, I associate the white, starched, crisp uniform with an era when almost all nurses were women, and most wore impractical little caps perched on their heads. Those caps identified nurses too, and some lament their passing. I really hope we're not heading back in that direction because with my male-pattern baldness, I just don't think I can get one of those things to stay on my head.
-JOHN M. COLLIER, RN,C
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Editor's note: We received an outpouring of mail, both pro and con, on the white uniforms controversy. We'll publish more of your letters on this topic next month in a special feature article.
Another MRI precaution
The article "Implanted Device + MRI = Trouble?" (Device Safety, January 2006) was quite thorough. One more question to ask a patient scheduled for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is whether he's ever done any welding. If so, small bits of metal embedded in his eye could cause problems during or after an MRI. An X-ray of his eyes can be done as a precaution.
-CAROL FITZPATRICK, RN, CM
Carlisle, Pa.
Wanted: More instructors
I'm responding to the reader who said she can't find a full-time position in a university nursing school program ("Stand Up for Full-Time Faculty," Letters, January 2006). She's absolutely correct: Nursing students are waiting 2 and 3 years for clinical rotations due to a shortage of instructors. This shortage isn't caused by a lack of applicants. Many nurses are looking for these positions; I know, because I'm one of them.
Universities aren't hiring full-time instructors because they might eventually become tenured. Instead, they hire on a per-semester basis so they don't have to offer health care, benefits, or any guarantee of working more than one semester. Most nurses can't leave a full-time position to take one as uncertain as this.
-CHRISTINE TRISCH, RN, BSN
Caro, Mich.
I don't believe there is so much a shortage of nursing instructors as a shortage of nursing instructor positions. A Google search for nursing instructors reveals very few positions. Where are the nursing instructor want ads in Nursing2006? There are many of us with 20 or 30 years of nursing experience. It's time to utilize the experience within the profession.
-MARY E. MEYERS, RN, MHSA, JD
Gainesville, Fla.