Bottoms Up

While working as a nursing supervisor at H. C. Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, I had many strange occurrences, BUTT this one was unique. The uniforms for nurses were changing over the years and the fabric became Rayon and nylon. The uniforms became thinner and the fashion of women’s underwear became infused with bright colors and designs as well. The two just didn’t mix well.

A problem arose for management. They wrote a rule that women could no longer wear flowered or brightly patterned underwear that could be visible beneath the white uniforms. Those who did were reminded in none too friendly terms that it was against the rules. They were reprimanded and advised not to do it again.

This policy continued as many uniforms evolved into scrubs. Colored scrubs often disguised the underwear beneath the cloth, but the white ones were a little like Shahade’s veil, muting the colors and patterns rather than covering them. There was a again a push to enforce the old established policy. Most nurses adhered to the policy, but on occasion, in a rush to dress someone would forget and needed to be reminded.

All was well until a male nurse was hired. For several months, through the orientation process and his assignment on a med/surg ward, there were no voiced concerns. Then one evening I was approached by several nurses with a complaint. He wasn’t violating the brightly hued or design of the underwear policy. He just wasn’t wearing any underwear. They wanted me to remind him of the policy and tell him he needed to wear underwear beneath his white scrubs.

I waited for him to come out to the nursing station to be sure. His scrub top was long enough that it hid all of the complaints, but when he bent over to reach for something, it was obvious that he wasn’t wearing drawers. More than a silhouette of his bottom was visible. The length of his top covered his family jewels, so he didn’t present anything obscene.

I was in a quandary. He wasn’t violating the underwear policy, because he wasn’t wearing underwear. I wasn’t sure what I needed to do. I took the chicken’s way out. I told the complaining nurses that I couldn’t enforce the policy, because he wasn’t violating the underwear policy. They needed to voice a complaint to their unit manager who worked the daylight shift where she could approach the upper tier administrators for a ruling.

I never heard whether the nurses passed on the complaint or what decision management made, but the young man moved to another hospital. That was the bottom line and I don’t know if they were faced with the same problem or not.