A study of the attitude of nursing students toward personal appearance in clinical training

Abstract

In a nursing department of a medical college in Prefecture A, the Tokai region, Japan, students are instructed not to dye their hair brown but to have natural black hair shorter than shoulder length, and also not to wear earrings, necklaces, and rings when entering clinical training. These guiding principles on personal appearance for all nursing students are outlined in the education policy of these schools.
Teaching hospitals also have dress codes, but these are mostly left to personal awareness and commonsense.
A previous study on appearance demonstrated that patients, family, and the general public have different acceptance levels of personal appearance.
This study reports the results of a questionnaire survey that was conducted in 4th grade nursing students who finished clinical training to determine the image and acceptance level of personal appearance, in particular, of hair style, hair color, makeup, and accessories, and personal ideas about appearance during clinical nursing training. The collection rate was
90.6%.