Nurses with tattoos and its Impact on Patient Care and Client's Confidence

Nurses with tattoos and its Impact on Patient Care and Client's Confidence

Introduction

Nurses have a very important role to play in ensuring speedy recovery and good health of the patients. Therefore, it is essential that the nurses are efficient and dedicated to their work. However, it is important to note that the highly advanced and well-trained nurses are not enough to ensure patients' safety, security and satisfaction. Hence, there are various nursing ethics, codes and regulations that the nurses must follow in order to maintain not just the hospital decorum but to maintain the overall standards of the profession of nursing. There are number of areas that can be included in maintaining the ethics or standards of nursing. These include refraining from using abusive language with the patients, cooperating with them whenever they needs help or attention and maintaining the disciplinary codes of the particular health facility that the nurse is working at. However, one of the relatively recent aspects regarding the discipline is the nurses with tattoos in the hospitals.

Discussion

Every organization in United States of America has the right to regulate the appearance of their employees. Consequently, the hospital or clinical facilities in USA also have the authority to monitor the physical appearance of the medical staff including the nurses. Nurses with tattoos in hospitals cannot to be forced to quit. However, majority of the hospitals that have nurses with tattoos ask the nurses to cover them with a cloth or by wearing a full sleeves uniform. This is simply because to make sure that the patients do not feel awkward or uncomfortable.

A survey was conducted in the year 2012 that included a sample of 150 adult hospitalized patients who were asked their opinion regarding the nurses without or with tattoos and/or body piercings. The results concluded that the nurses with visible body piercings and/or tattoos were not regarded by patients as more confident, caring, reliable, attentive, professional, cooperative, efficient, approachable or even hygienic as compared to the non-pierced or non-tattooed nurses (Westerfield et all, 2012).

The critics of allowing nurses to have tattoos do not claim that such nurses, male or female, are not capable of providing effective treatment to the patients. However, the claim is simply from the patients perspectives (Thomas et all, 2010). According to the critics, it will not be surprising if any of the patient ...