Updating the Nurse's Bedside Manner

The currenttendency for nurses to be on a first name basis with their patients and to wear less professonal clothing provides new metaphors for interpreting nurses' work status. We argue that this prevailing social informality in communications and dress perpetuates themes that diminish the professional image of nurses, masks the cognitive nature of their work, threatens nurses' therapeutic effectiveness, and continues to reinforce the hierarchical relationship between nurses and physicians. Strategies are presented to help nurse educators, administrators, and clinicians transform nurses' work environments into clinical settings that enhance their professional presentation.