Dress Code for Aged Care Workers | Infectious Clothing

61% of employees are more productive when employers require a dress code. While this is true for all workers, care workers will not only feel more engaged while wearing a uniform, but the right scrub uniform can benefit clients living at the facility.

Did you know your employee uniforms can provide better care for ageing Australians? Scrub uniform colours can improve visibility and entice different emotional and physical responses. Your employee uniforms should have specific colour schemes but should also be comfortable and stylish for your care workers.

Here’s why employee uniforms can benefit care workers and some advice when choosing and cleaning your scrub uniforms.

Stylish and Comfortable Scrub Uniforms for Care Workers

Employee uniforms offer a sense of belonging. Employees better engage with your brand, promoting team spirit and improved culture. This not only helps your team stay productive, but they also interact more with clients.

The right employment uniforms are not only comfortable but also stylish. Your employees will love wearing their scrub uniforms, especially if wearing a uniform helps their clients.

Shows You Value Employees

Well-made scrub uniforms tell your staff that they’re all on the same team. They can better perform their duties, engage with clients, and will work better with other team members.

But you don’t want to provide your team with just any uniform. You’ll want to give them a chic scrub uniform to wear that’s stylish, comfortable and functional.

Your team will feel great wearing a high-quality and attractive uniform that is easy to clean and care for. By providing top-quality scrubs will show that you value your employees.

Comfort

With any work uniform, the priority is comfort. Your team spend long hours on their feet, helping care for the many clients at your facility. This is why a comfortable scrub uniform is the key to energised and engaged staff members.

Practical scrub uniforms are sleek and are easy to move around in. They’re also made of durable fabrics that won’t rip and tear easily. Pockets make life easy as well for carrying essentials. High-quality scrub uniforms impress your clients as well as your staff. This simple notion shows that you care about your brand image and your employees will feel pride.

Stylish

Employers should spend time creating and planning their employee’s uniforms. While quality and comfort are key, you’ll also want to provide uniforms that are attractive.

Stylish scrub uniforms have a lasting impression on your staff. Specific colours help make scrub uniforms pop and will also help your clients with vision issues. Your staff will feel better by wearing attractive scrub uniforms, boosting their engagement.

Colour

Colour impacts your scrub uniforms at work because your clients will use colour to identify care workers. Coloured scrub uniforms also benefit certain clients, such as those with weak vision. Specific colours and colour schemes also make your scrub uniforms more attractive and may also tie in with your branding.

Here’s how scrub uniform colours can benefit clients.

Impacts Clients Positively

Colour impacts people in different ways, both physically and emotionally. Certain colours make us feel happy, relaxed, and even hungry. In addition, colour also impacts different cultural blueprints and biological upbringings.

This is why coloured scrub uniforms can entice your clients. The right colours can promote socialisation, improved vision, and can encourage clients to eat. Dishes and utensils with contrasting colours can also make the dining process easier for your clients. Certain colours can also inspire creativity, helping your clients have fun.

While colour has many benefits, it’s essential that your scrub uniform colour schemes reflect personal wishes. This includes religious and spiritual preferences as well as cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

Improves Weak Vision

Many clients have weakened vision and they’re unable to tell different people and objects apart. Some common age-related vision problems include spatial disorientation, issues with depth perception, reduced ability to perceive contrasts, and altered colour perception.

Identifying certain colours can help strengthen their vision and better identify your staff.

Benefits Your Dementia Clients

Various colours improve the quality of life for many clients with dementia.

Many vision problems are linked to dementia. These include macular degeneration, cataracts, colour-blindness, diabetes retinopathy, and glaucoma. Serious symptoms of these ailments include loss of vision (as well as central or peripheral vision) and blurry vision.

All dementia-informed care workers try to implement wellness and reablement for clients. Fortunately, scrub uniform colours offer many benefits. Colour can enhance their visibility. They will better identify care workers and can receive the necessary attention.

Colour also offers emotional and physical benefits, especially for older Australians with dementia. Blue can calm clients and even lowers blood pressure. Blue furniture such as couches and bedding can keep clients relaxed while comfortable.

Red is also a dementia-friendly colour. This colour alone can improve brain activity in dementia clients. Red also grabs their attention, helping better recognize care workers.

If your dementia clients are struggling to eat, red scrub uniforms, plates, and utensils can help increase their appetite.

Tips to Choose the Best Scrub Uniform Colours

Facilities such as residential care, consumer-directed care, and respite care have more scrub uniform colour standards than the average business.

You want to choose scrub uniform colours that represent your facility and match your logo as well as choosing colours your team will love. But your colours should also improve visibility and engagement for your clients.

Here are some important tips when choosing uniform colours.

Emotional Responses and Culture

Colour awakens emotional responses, but this has to do with cultural and social upbringing. Different colours carry different definitions and responses throughout the world. Make sure you research different colours and how they impact various cultures.

Colours That Help Clients

You’ll want to choose colours that are the most helpful. Blue and red are perfect examples — blue can relax clients; but if most of your clients have dementia, red can entice brain activity and attention.

Some colours are also more visible than others. For example, colours in the middle of the spectrum, such as yellow, are more easily identifiable than colours outside of the spectrum. But be wary if your clients are colour-blind because they may see yellow as white.

If you want to choose colours with great visibility and emotional benefits, choose warm colours. Warm colours are stimulating and convey socialization, happiness, and energy. Some great warm colours include coral, peach, and soft apricot.

Too Many Colours Can Be Distracting

If your scrub uniforms will have multiple colours, choose colours in the same palette. Too many colours can distract your clients. This is especially true if the colours you choose are all bright and bold. 

Avoid Colours at the End of the Spectrum

Colours at the end of the spectrum, such as blue and red, look dark to many clients. While some shades of blue and red work great for scrub uniforms, darker variations of these colours won’t be as visible as the lighter and brighter variations.

Know the Colours That Are Easy and Hard to See

Clients have the easiest time seeing colours in the middle of the spectrum. This includes yellow, orange, and green. The most difficult colours for clients are lavender and pastel blues. These colours look like grey to those with vision issues.

Contrast Colours

Contrasting colours help clients identify people and objects. Certain colour contrasts can also improve orientation, navigation, independent, mobility, and involvement.

For best results, choose major colour contrasts. Colours at the middle of the spectrum, such as yellow and green, pair best with colours at the end of the spectrum.

Colour Rendering

Colour rendering is the way a colour looks under a specific light source. Lighting not only impacts colour visibility but also colour contrasts. Colours that are too bright won’t show up as well in the daylight.

The type of light in your facility also impacts the way colour looks. For example, natural daylight alters colours more than artificial light.

How to Prevent Contamination

As a care worker, consumer advocacy is one of your biggest concerns. Your clothes not only spread germs but also retain them. In order to not spread viruses and bacteria to your loved ones, proper scrub uniform maintenance is important.

Do Not Shake Clothes

Many people shake out their clothes before laundering. However, try and get out of this habit. Germs can survive on clothes for several hours. Shaking out clothes can disperse viruses into the air. If you have to shake your clothes, make sure no one is around and wear a cloth mask.

Line Your Laundry Hamper with a Washable or Disposable Bag

Throwing contaminated clothing in the laundry hamper will only spread the virus more. Before placing your clothes in the hamper, place your clothes in either a disposable bag or washable hamper lining first. Hamper liners are recommended before they’re environmentally friendly and are easy to wash.

Separate Potentially Contaminated Clothes from Other Clothes

Washing all dirty clothes together is convenient and saves energy. However, you risk cross-contamination. Even though laundering can kill the COVID-19 virus, we’re still trying to understand how the virus lives on clothes and spreads to others and your surroundings.

Leave Your Work Shoes in a Designated Place

The coronavirus, as well as other germs, can also live on your shoes for a long time. It’s best to leave them in a specific place, ideally away from others. If you can, leave your shoes in your garage or even in your car.

Wash Your Clothes at 60 Degrees Celsius

Experts recommend washing your clothes in warm and hot settings to effectively kill the virus. 60 degrees Celsius is the standard. If your laundry machine doesn’t specify temperatures, wash your scrub uniform in hot water.

Wear the Best Employee Uniforms

Employee uniforms can better engage your care workers and can benefit your clients. If you’re looking for new uniforms and scrubs, we offer clothing for aged care workers.