Scrubs are the short sleeved shirts and pants or gowns worn by nurses, surgeons, and any other operating room personnel when “scrubbing in” for surgery, worn under sterile surgical gowns.
The wearing of scrubs has been extended outside of surgery in many hospitals. Scrubs are now worn by any hospital personnel in any clean environment, for cleanliness and hygiene issues, and are worn under lab coats.
Grey’s Anatomy
All staff at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital have a standardized set of scrubs that is usually worn by the staff, if some form of formal wear is not worn. Different colors in scrubs indicate which department and/or rank they are:
- Surgical attendings/fellows wear navy scrubs
- Surgical interns and residents wear light blue scrubs
- ER residents wear brown scrubs
- Psychiatry residents wear beige scrubs
- Nursing staff generally wear green scrubs
- Scrub nurses generally wear the same light blue scrubs as surgical interns and residents
- Dermatology residents wear peach scrubs
- Diagnostic staff (e.g., pathologists, radiologists, techs, etc.) wear gray scrubs
- OB/GYN attendings and residents wear purple or light pink scrubs
- Oncology residents and nurses in the oncology outpatient clinic wear red scrubs
- Infectious disease staff wear yellow scrubs
- Clinic staff wear turquoise scrubs
The standard scrub caps are light blue fabric scrub caps as worn by residents, and attendings have navy blue scrub caps although some have personalized scrub caps. Paper/plastic scrub caps are available as well, including hair nets available to non-medical personnel in the OR (more frequently the case in caesarean sections where the partner is present).
Private Practice
All staff at St. Ambrose have scrubs, and all medical staff on the show have been shown to wear purple scrubs, and the nursing staff appears to wear blue scrubs.
The female staff at Oceanside Wellness Group also have their own pink/purple scrubs, which are worn by both doctors and nurses. Dell has blue scrubs (similar to that of St. Ambrose nursing staff) as part of his conditions of working at the center and Pete has his own set of black scrubs. Most staff have their own personalized scrub caps.
Notes and Trivia
- Visitors to Seattle Grace Hospital who perform surgeries or are present in the O.R. wear attending scrubs. However, Colin Marlow wore black scrubs, and Erica Hahn wore red scrubs when she was still employed by Seattle Presbyterian Hospital.
- Personalized scrub caps can be enlarged and shaped to be more of a hair net to accommodate extra hair, as in the case of Margaret Campbell.
- Mark Sloan was the only main character attending without a personalized scrub cap. This was later modeled by his protégé, Jackson Avery, who is the only other main character to have completed residency as of season nine not to have a personalized scrub cap.
- In A Hard Day’s Night, Bailey wore a personalized scrub cap, but in every subsequent surgery until she finished her residency, she wore the plain light blue caps.
- In Grey’s Anatomy, although surgical attendings wear navy scrubs, OB/GYN attendings still wear pink scrubs.
- Addison, though she was the OB/GYN head, most likely wore navy scrubs because she’s also the neonatal head, practicing neonatal surgeries.
- Perinatologists and maternal-fetal medicine fellows do not wear pink scrubs, as they practice fetal surgeries and wear navy scrubs.
- Some OB/GYN attendings opt to wear navy scrubs.
- In Grey’s Anatomy, no attending anesthesiologists have been shown to wear personalized scrub caps
- In Grey’s Anatomy, Some hospitals use other colors for scrubs
- Seattle Presbyterian Hospital uses red scrubs
- Mercy West Medical Center used orange or gray scrubs
- Mayo Clinic and Tufts Medical Center use dark green scrubs.
- Dillard Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, and Bauer Army Medical Center used blue-green scrubs.
- Columbia University Medical Center used turquoise scrubs.
blog by Julez for Styles Rebel Radio
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