Do Nurses Buy Their Own Scrubs or Not?

Do nurses buy their own scrubs

In short, this is something that can depend on what hospital you’re working at.

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Do nurses buy their own scrubs?

Some hospitals provide scrubs for their nurses, but some others will pay the nurses to get their own scrubs.

You have to look into the rules of what the hospital has and put them into perspective for the people working there.

For example, the hospital probably wouldn’t be okay with you advertising certain drugs, doctors, or hospitals.

Hospitals will want you to wear the same colored scrubs most of the time.

Blue seems to be the most common color of scrubs for nurses to wear and is generally seen as the standard, even overseas in Europe.

You can also get away with wearing turquoise or purple if that’s what you want to wear.

Other colors like red, black, and yellow are too bold and most hospitals won’t allow you to wear them.

See also: Can Nurses Wear Any Color Scrubs?

If the nurses mess up their scrubs too many times, they may require the nurse to purchase their own scrubs. The hospitals have to provide for all of their nurses, so that is what’s reasonable.

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Do Nurses Buy Their Own Scrubs or Not

Do Nurses Have to Buy Their Own Scrubs?

Usually, the hospital is going to buy scrubs, but sometimes, the hospital can pay for the scrubs depending on how much money they have in their budget.

This mostly depends on the kind of place that the hospital is located in.

If the hospital doesn’t have enough money, they will usually require scrubs to be bought by the nurses themselves.

It’s a bit of an inconvenience for the nurses who don’t have that much money, to spend money on something that is required for them to do their job.

See also: Do Nurses Make Good Money?

It’s not a perfect system, but that’s what they have to do to look professional.

At a hospital in a much wealthier area, they live in areas that provide them with funds to constantly buy scrubs.

Finding the means to give their nurses scrubs to do their job isn’t something they have to think about very often.

In fact, it’s very often that those hospitals have a disposable quantity of scrubs that don’t worry about shortages.

In some cases, the hospital will directly communicate with producers of scrubs so that they can get whatever clothes they need for the nurses.

This can also apply to many doctors as well.

See also:

Do American Nurses Buy Their Own Scrubs?

American nurses buy a lot of their scrubs, but that can also depend on the hospitals themselves.

Usually, this isn’t something that makes or breaks a person’s decision to work there, but it is an inconvenience.

It is something that can be obnoxious for those without as much money, but generally, you won’t have to buy that many scrubs in your career.

Most hospitals in America are going to be fine with paying for scrubs every now and then when aren’t suitable to wear anymore.

The nurses might not be satisfied with the level of quality in their scrubs, so they may get a brand that's higher quality.

Generally, the stipends that nurses get from their hospitals are going to be more than enough to get them scrubs for their first few couples of months.

Doctors are almost always provided their own coats and scrubs by the hospital itself because of their position.

For infection control, the hospital isn’t going to let the nurse have too many scrubs at once.

Generally, they can only pick a few uniforms of scrubs to use as they work throughout the coming months. A cheap pair of scrubs may be provided to a nurse, but they can usually buy their own if they want to.

See also: Best Scrubs for Thick Thighs

Do Nurses Wash Their Own Scrubs?

Being a doctor or a nurse has the purpose of taking care of whatever ailments their patients are going through.

Naturally, a hospital is going to expect that the people who work there put effort into maintaining proper hygiene.

Scrubs are like any other kind of clothes, where they eventually develop stains and need to be washed.

They aren’t like suits to the point where they need to be dry-cleaned, but usually putting them in your washer will do the trick.

If you want to go the extra step, you can iron out any wrinkles that develop over time.

Every job has this standard to some extent, and it just so happens that doing this serves a different function in the medical industry.

A hospital is liable for a lot of damages if a patient gets sick because a nurse decided not to wash their scrubs for a long time.

There is also the function of their clothes needed to look clean for the workplace.

If their clothes aren’t clean, the workers and patients aren’t going to respect the hospital as much.

See also: Best Scrubs for Tall Women

Conclusion: Do Nurses Buy Their Own Scrubs?

Scrubs are a big part of what sets the medical industry apart from other kinds of industries.

Many businesses, even in Asia and South America wear suits so that they look presentable.

When someone is providing a good or a service, they need to look presentable so that the people who work there and the customers take them seriously.

Because of this societal standard, many of the more wealthy hospitals are going to provide scrubs for their nurses.

Doing this ensures consistency of the standards that they have to hold up.

In more unfortunate circumstances, you will have to buy your own scrubs, because the hospital cannot provide them for you.

You may also just want to be more comfortable and the ones that the hospital gave you aren’t that comfortable.

Depending on who manages your hospital, you may be able to wear other variations of colors other than blue, but typically, blue is the standard.

This can vary from country to country based on the culture and what is expected of them.

In a place like China, they usually don’t wear blue scrubs and have certain anxieties related to the fourth floor of the hospital.

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About Ida Koivisto, BSN, RN, PHN

Ida is both a registered nurse and public health nurse. Her passion is to provide as much valuable information about nursing to the world as possible. In her spare time from work and blogging, Ida loves to work out at the gym and spend time with relatives.