Scrub color - big ego or justified ?
I am a nursing student in my final year , basically done with all clinicals and already started integrating in hospitals in paid nursing student positions.
I landed a job in the biggest hospital in my area , the one i want to work at after i finish my degree as a nursing student job.
Today was my first day at the job , i went in with blue scrubs because that's what they told me that nursing staff/student nurses wear.
The day went fine , at the end of the day , the head nurse at my unit said that although it's fine that i wore blue scrubs today , the hospital decided that starting this week all student nurses must wear purple scrubs which is the color for nurse assistants (in my country nursing assistants do not require a degree/license , they basically do the hard labor such as moving patients, ADL , giving food to the patients , washing patients , cleaning beds)
I was confused because my position and worker tag says "nursing student" , and that's the position i signed up for , the comment about scrubs color left a bad taste in my mouth so after my shift i went to the HR lady that helped me through the interviewing and onboarding process ,
She confirmed that while nursing student working in a paid postion must start wearing purple starting this week.
Now i didn't argue or anything but my disappointment was very clear
I already completed 3 years of university studies including 10 clinical rounds , and already work at a different hospital job all while wearing nursing scrubs , i know it's just a color but i feel that making me wear nursing assistant scrubs does not match my role or my training, my next shift will be in a few days but now i am reconsidering this job.
Am i justified about feeling bitter about this or am i overreacting , how would you act if you were in my position ?
I want to be clear that this isn't meant as criticism of nursing assistants. I have a lot of respect for what they do, and I know they're an essential part of the healthcare team. My concern isn't about their role—it's that I expected my uniform to reflect my role as a student nurse after spending years in nursing school. I'm asking about professional identity and how hospitals distinguish different roles, not because I think one job is more important than another.
Posted Jul 30, 2026, 2:18 PM UTC