Safety and ‘professionalism’: when should nurses wear uniforms?

Nurses in every area of practice need to balance a professional appearance with infection prevention and control and the ability to build therapeutic nurse-patient relationships. In mental healthcare, the tendency to avoid using uniforms to reduce stigma and barriers between service users and professionals has begun to change, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. RCNi asked trusts about their nursing staff uniform requirements, and looked at what’s changed in the profession in recent years – including nurses’ views on what this means for professionalism, safety and infection prevention and control.