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Having patients change into paper scrubs at admissions allows for a thorough belongings search and inventory. Otherwise street clothes (minus belts and ties) are fine.

In my hospital pts. may wear their street clothes if they are not an elopement risk.
You need a doctor's order if they are only to wear scrubs. Some pts. clothes are dirty or tattered and we offer them scrubs while they wash their clothes or we have time to go to the donation closet and find them something else to wear. Some pts. actually like the scrubs and that is what they wear.

We advocate that all patients wear street clothes.  We implement safety measures with what is and is not allowed.  We have extra generic tee shirts, pull over sweatshirts and no string sweat pans or shorts is assorted colors if they do not have something they are allowed to wear, but they are still street clothes and not scrubs.  Getting up and showered and dressed for the day is part of their treatment plan.  We are teaching them to behave like "well" adults and not perpetuating the "sick" role.

I think that the clothing being scrubs or not does not improve safety nearly as much as a fully staffed "presence" on the unit that improved rapport with staff and increased patients' desires to stay safe because of the therapeutic relationships built during their stay.

The whole idea of wearing scrubs reminds me of the classic study decades ago that had to be stopped because the half of the group wearing uniforms became abusive of the half of the group dressed as prisoners.

There have been countless times during my career in psych when I had to talk to my staff to remind them "These are patients, not inmates."

What is needed is staff, and frequent training on how to care safely. 

One of my goals is to minimize to the greatest extent possible hospitalizations of my patients.  Hospitalization is not healthy.  It usually keeps the patients safe though.

​Hello!

The organization that I work for has really been advocating that patients are only asked to change into scrubs for high risk safety reasons. If a patient is not at risk they should be allowed to wear their street clothes. Safety risks would typically be elopement precautions or when patients have attempted to use own clothing to harm self. Sometimes paper scrubs are then considered for use. We do prohibit items with strings for all patients.