As I was blowdrying my hair for the first time this week (my schedule has sucked!) and noticed how different I looked in regular people clothes I began to contemplate the pros and cons of scrubs.

If you do not work in the hospital you may not realize the unwritten rules about scrubs so if you are at all interested I will enlighten you. There is quite a difference between nurse's scrubs and doctor's scrubs. Being a female physician this is a particularly crappy rule. Nurses can wear any scrubs they want. They purchase their own so they are different colors and are generally very cute. They fit properly and have cut flare leg cuts. Now if you are a physician you might be forced to turn in your badge if you are caught wearing such scrubs. Physicians, rather, are expected to wear the plain color scrubs that the hospital provides. Unfortunately for me, Huntsville Hospital's chosen color is a awful forest green. They are not long enough for me so I wear a size too big to compensate. The result is not very flattering. And who can handle wearing the same awful color every day? I try to make up for it by wearing different zip-ups over my scrub tops however this mostly results in patients and families thinking that I am a physical therapist or similar and doesnt exactly exude the "I am a professional and I will deliver your baby and everything will be fine" vibe that I would like.

Now this morning when I was drenched first in amniotic fluid, I was quite happy to be able to change scrubs and have the lovely laundry personel wash them for me instead of suffering through the day with dirty clothing. I wore those scrubs for about 30 minutes until I delivered a baby and got blood on my second pair and then changed them again. So, one advantage for nasty colored hospital provided scrubs is that you can change them as often as you please and not even have to wash them....not all bad!

Also, I have to say there is something wonderful about not having to think at all about what you will wear. I simply grab a pair from the pile, throw them on and out the door I go. If you wash them yourself they do get a softness to them that makes the bearable to sleep in.

However, if I would have known that I could never wear the cute, bright-colored, fitted scubs that you typically think of then I may have seriously considered being a nurse. I dread how many pictures there are of me holding little newborns in my awful forest green scrubs. Does that make me vain?

Unfortunately, I have to now change back into those beautiful scrubs and head back to work. Yet another young woman with no prenatal care has shown up in labor....gotta love being on call!