NurseWeek: Fashion forward: Get ready for a bright new world of hospital attire

Fashion forward
Get ready for a bright new world of hospital attire
By Diane Sussman
August 7, 2000

A New York fashion designer has revamped the traditional hospital gown with more colors and prints.

Photo: Hackensack University Medical Center


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New York. Paris. Milan. Hackensack, N.J? Well, maybe not for the latest runway fashions or street wear, but for the latest in patient wear, then yes, Hackensack. More specifically, Hackensack University Medical Center, which signed on New York fashion designer Cynthia Rowley to revamp the universally reviled hospital gown.

Beginning this fall, patients at the New Jersey hospital will be swathed in Rowley’s designs, which emphasize softness, flattering lines, cheerful prints and, in some cases, bona fide zippers and buttons. Gone, too, is the unisex look, replaced by drawstring pants with matching robes for men and V-necked and scoop-necked gowns for women. Borrowing a bit from hip-hop styles, children have the option of three-quarter length pants. Not just cute, the clothes can withstand repeated washing and hard use.

The clothes are a departure for the chichi designer, who took on the project because it was for a good cause, and because "Cynthia believes what you wear on the outside influences how you feel on the inside," said Rowley spokeswoman Celeste Miller.

It’s doubtful many patients would argue with that sentiment, particularly while walking down the hallway trying to keep their IV upright and backside covered. "All patients had some kind of complaint: They couldn’t keep the back closed; they couldn’t tie the ties; men didn’t have pants to wear," said Denyse Addison, RN, nurse manager of the mother-baby unit at Hackensack. The new designs also "took into consideration our needs as nurses."

The designs are garnering early praise in maternity wards, where – yes, it’s true – gowns have been redesigned to open easily in the front for breast-feeding. "It really turned out to be wonderful," Addison said. "I don’t know why it took so long to think of this."

Nurses haven’t been entirely left out of the wardrobe revision, but so far the new designs have been aimed more at reducing the risk of infection than in giving nurses more sartorial pizzazz. At the University of California, Davis, for example, researchers in the textiles and cotton division have been working on treating cottons with chlorine, on the theory that the treated clothes would destroy bacteria and some viruses on contact. In September, HealthShield Technologies in Westport, Conn., joined with synthetic fabrics maker Foss Manufacturing Company Inc. in Hampton, N.H., to create fabrics with a silver-based antimicrobial agent embedded in the fibers.

Both technologies attempt to address the growing concern over bacterial contamination in clothing. A study at the University of Arizona yielded evidence that 10 percent to 20 percent of fabrics coming out of a washing machine are contaminated with E. coli, salmonella or hepatitis A.

Foss and HealthShield are weeks away from testing their garments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said Stephen Foss, president of Foss. Nurses and patients in the bone marrow transplant units will be the first to test the clothes.

If the fabrics get a thumbs-up, the company may expand the line to pillowcases, curtains and drapes – all potential reservoirs for bacteria. Researchers at Shriners Hospital for Children and the Department of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine found that staphylococci and enterococci survived for at least a day on a variety of microorganism-inoculated clothing, scrubs, towels, polyester privacy drapes and polypropylene splash aprons. Only meticulous infection control procedures and disinfection can limit the spread of these bacteria, researchers said. The study was published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

This research doesn’t necessarily lead to innovative uniform styles for nurses, but prints and colored scrubs engender a better patient-nurse relationship, said 80 percent of the 600 nurses surveyed by Brand-Aid Consulting in Wrentham, Mass., for Work ‘n Gear. Leeway to choose their own style of uniform has a positive effect on how 85 percent feel about their job, the study revealed, and 66 percent say wearing colorful uniforms makes them feel better about their patients.

The information confirms the anecdotal and focus group findings of Landau Uniforms, one of the largest manufacturers of nursing uniforms in the country, and the company making the antimicrobial garments for HealthShield. "We’re always hearing two things,"said Nat Landau, company president. "First, you have patients who say that maybe things have gotten too informal and they’d like to see more uniformity. And second, you have the people buying the garments who would like more choice. It’s a tightrope walk."

Even if nurses never have the option of faux fur or sequined smocks, the future is unlikely to be monochromatic or drab. The Work ‘n Gear survey revealed that 75 percent of nurses no longer wear white and even stethoscopes come in teal, purple and frosted blue. "You would be flat-out amazed at what’s available these days," Landau said. "There are probably 50 colors and about 250 prints. We’re not exactly a fashion industry, but we aren’t standing still."