Sure, maybe some days you’d rather wear a crisp shirt and tailored trousers to work, but we’re guessing that most of the time, you love your scrubs. Despite (or maybe because of?!) their comfort and easy wearability, though, scrubs can lead to some…err…interesting fashion moments! We asked our Facebook fans for the worst scrubs fashion blunders they’ve ever seen—check out their cringe-worthy, hilarious responses below! (Special thanks to the brave souls who were willing to call out their own fashion blunders in the name of honesty!)
1. I am a correctional nurse in a county jail. Our inmate workers earn their “keep” by working in the jail. They wear gray scrubs while they clean, and always have their standard-issue brown T-shirts underneath. This week, when I dressed for an overnight shift and was half-asleep, I dressed to match my cute gray/brown shoes. So—you guessed it—I went to work dressed like an inmate worker, even down to the brown shirt! Very confusing for the entire staff, especially the guards who monitor the security cameras! They nearly had me tackled for walking into secure areas where needles and meds are kept!
—Kennetha Ferguson Klein
2. Cuffed scrub pants with long white socks OVER the pants.
—Pamela Becker
3. Top of scrub pants rolled down with pink thong and muffin top hanging out…give me a break! Unroll the top… it’s a hospital, not a nightclub.
—Stephanie Jones Morgan
4. A surgeon who was in his late 60s thought highly of himself and his body. He wore tight hospital scrubs, which were often threadbare from being used too much, under which he wore VERY small underwear that had designs on them. Often they were polka dot patterns. Needless to say, it was hard to have a serious conversation with him once you knew what kind of underwear he was wearing that day!
—Molly Settle Roddy
5. Okay, I will tell on myself…. All of my curves are up top; I have no hips and a tiny bum. Drawstring-only scrub pants are NOT my friend, as I have nothing to hold them up! Soooooo, I was in a room doing postmortem care with a doc and two CNAs (inpatient oncology). I was charge, so I had a pager, floor phone and, of course, cargo pockets full of flushes. And then I reached up to draw the window shade… ¦and my pants did not go with me. They hit the floor. I was standing in my scrub top and skivvies! Everyone was laughing (besides me and the expired patient). It was so embarrassing! I always have a cami under my scrub top to avoid my pet peeve: butt crack and undies showing each time a nurse bends or squats. Bonus points if it’s a thong/muffin-top/butt-crack combo! I am glad that has NEVER been me!
—Mandy Jacobs
6. We have a surgeon who wears what I call “scrub-eralls.” I think he had someone make them for him. Literally, scrubs turned into overalls—they’re all he wears. Nice guy, weird scrubs!
—Elizabeth Beazley
7. Years ago, one of my coworkers wore white pointy-toed high heels and a white uniform dress (not a scrub). Good thing she only lived a couple of blocks from the hospital so she could go home on her lunch break and change her shoes…I have no idea what she was thinking!
—Andrea Wolfe Grajales
8. A classmate in nursing school decided to go retro and wear an old-fashioned white nurse’s dress. She forgot to include a slip and the instructor was not happy….
—Lydia Paul
9. Working on a psych unit, I split my jeans completely in half. To add insult to injury, I didn’t even realize it because we were in the middle of a crisis. It goes without saying I wanted to die when I realized why the kids kept saying, “Nice behind, Nurse Shawna” or “I love your jeans.” The whole staff was so frantically busy we didn’t even realize, but all the patients did. I walked around with a sweater tied around my waist the rest of the day! They declined my “resignation on the grounds of nudity” and amazingly, I worked there, in love with that job, for another 10 years.
—Shawna McMenamin
10. Not a blunder, but a necessity when, for some reason, the laundry doesn’t deliver scrub tops and pants: Surgeons walking down the halls in their scrub DRESSES is a sight to behold. The guys were really good-natured about it and we all had a good laugh.
—Catherine Finklea
What’s the funniest scrubs fashion blunder you’ve ever seen?
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