Wear ‘Scrubs’ To Prevent Grubs

Scrub uniforms are attires worn by working nurses, doctors, cleaning staff etc for the purpose of hygiene and identification. A “scrub uniform” is a simpler type of uniform, and is sometimes worn in operating rooms. They exist in many variants but the traditional scrub uniforms have a dress, a cap and an apron. Having been first derived from the clergy’s habit they have now percolated into most of the professions. Scrub uniforms or simply put ‘uniforms’ are now a standard for health workers and those who are involved in the cleaning of roads and tunnels.

One of Florence Nightingale’s students devised the first nurse’s uniform, a blue outfit with a cap so that no hair fell and contaminated patients. In Britain, the national uniform (or simply national) is designed with the advent of National Health Care, and the Newcastle dress. From the 1960s open necks begin to appear. In the 1970s, white disposable paper caps replace cotton ones; in the 1980s, plastic aprons displace the traditional ones and outerwear begins to disappear. From the 1990s, scrubs become popular in Britain, having first appeared in the USA; however, a majority of nurses in Britain continue to wear dresses, as in many other countries. Male nurses wear a white tunic with epaulettes in the color of their grade.

Traditional uniforms remain common in the Third World, but in Western Europe and North America, so-called “scrubs” or tunics have become more popular even so because scrub uniforms are easier to clean than the old nurse uniforms.