HUMAN RESOURCES POLICY Subject EMPLOYEE RELATIONS Title 1 of 5 Revision of 03/01/2010 Effective Date 01/14/2014 Removal Date: I. PURPOSE: Northwestern Memorial s mission of Patients First supports the philosophy that all patients and visitors should be able to easily identify NMH employees, physicians, and volunteers as authorized representatives of Northwestern Memorial. This is accomplished by assuring a consistent standard of appearance and demeanor among all NMH staff which supports not only Patients First, but is also in compliance with all infection control and safety standards. This dress code provides a basis for clarity and consistency in dress code among all employees, not just caregivers. II. III. PERSONS AFFECTED: This policy applies to all regular and temporary, full-time and part-time employees and casual employees of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, exclusive of any subsidiaries, affiliates, or operating units that have enacted separate policies as approved by Northwestern Memorial Hospital for the subjects covered herein. It also includes volunteers. POLICY: A. General Guidelines 1. Each staff member is required to report to work and any work-related activity including training, at his/her designated starting time wearing appropriate attire. 2. The NMH identification badge is considered part of the required dress and must be worn so that the name is visible at all times. 3. Any staff member whose clothing or appearance is considered inappropriate will be informed of such by his/her manager or designee and may result in being sent home (without pay) to change into proper attire if the situation cannot be corrected at work. Repeated inappropriate appearance may result in disciplinary action. B. Dress Guidelines 1. NMH scrub apparel is considered a uniform and is allowed to be worn by authorized employees only in designated areas. See General Administration 01.0012 Scrub Attire for guidelines. 2. Uniforms or clothing appearing to be uniforms must be pre-approved by department managers. 3. Clothing should be clean and neat. 4. Clothing should be of a type and fabric that is appropriate for a professional healthcare setting. 5. Hosiery and socks must be worn at all times by direct caregivers (those staff members that provide hands on care at any time). Non-direct caregivers do not have to wear hosiery or socks as long as they look professional in their attire. 6. Clothing should not create a safety hazard. 7. See below for examples of appropriate and inappropriate dress.
2 of 5 Appropriate Dress: Suits Dress slacks Casual dress pants (dockers, chinos, khakis, etc.) Skirts and dress culottes Casual dresses Dress shirts/blouses (collared, jewel neck, etc.) and sports shirts Sweaters/vests Sports coats, blazers Dress and casual shoes (loafers, bucks, docksiders, low-heeled shoes, etc.) Inappropriate Dress: Any jean or jean-styled pants (denim jeans, blue jeans, white jeans, color fashion jeans, etc.) Leggings, stretch pants T-shirts not worn as undergarments Sleeveless or spaghetti strap shirts, blouses or tops without a jacket Blouses, shirts and sweaters which do not cover the shoulders, back or stomach Shorts/mini-skirts Work out wear (sweatshirts, sweatpants, jogging suits, etc.) Denim, sheer, spandex, or low cut garments Open-toed shoes or sandals, or tennis shoes Shoes in which the style or height interferes with job performance or safety (e.g. heels should not be higher than 3 inches) Clothes with slogans, graphics, sayings (except the NMH approved logo), or offensive wording Clothing which is faded or torn, or gives an unkempt appearance Hats C. Hair and Personal Grooming Guidelines 1. Personal grooming and hygiene are key elements of a professional image. 2. Beards and mustaches must be neatly groomed. 3. Fingernails should be trimmed, clean and neat, and should not interfere with job performance. 4. Direct Patient Caregivers (those staff members that provide hands-on care at any time) are prohibited from wearing artificial nails, including acrylic, silk wraps or nail tips. Natural nails must be short and maintained in good condition. If polish is worn, clear nail polish that is not chipped or visibly worn is preferred in order to inspect the nails visually and assure that proper cleaning under the nails has occurred. 5. Artificial nails and nail decorations are prohibited for all Food Service employees. D. Accessory Guidelines 1. Fragrances (cologne/perfume) should be subtle. 2. Accessories should be simple and conservative.
3 of 5 3. Jewelry worn in pierced body parts (other than ears) may not be visible or detectable. 4. NMH Service pins and Patients First pins may be worn, but should not puncture the identification badge. E. Wearing of Buttons or Insignia 1. The wearing of buttons, badges, decals or other insignia (other than buttons, badges, decals or insignia approved by Northwestern Memorial Hospital or bearing the approved NMH logo) is prohibited in patient care areas. The wearing of buttons or other insignia that contain inflammatory, obscene or other similarly inappropriate content or that adversely affect patient care is also prohibited. F. NM Apparel Program 1. This unique program was developed and designed to identify caregivers from the patient s perspective. The NMH Apparel Program simplifies caregiver identification by distinguishing caregiver groups based upon the color of the clothing that the caregiver wears. The color of the apparel will signal the type of job that the caregiver performs. 2. Nurses wear blue and/or white as their identifying colors. White is the only approved color that may be worn under nursing uniforms. Technical support staff wear teal and nonnursing licensed clinical personnel wear green. Technical support staff and non-nursing licensed clinical personnel may wear gray under their attire. Chaplains wear eggplant and volunteers wear burgundy as the identifying colors for their groups. 3. NMH supports the apparel program by initially providing each full-time employee with six individual pieces of apparel which would create three functional apparel sets. A functional apparel set consists of a top and a bottom. A part-time employee initially will receive four apparel pieces that would create two functional apparel sets and casual employees receive two apparel pieces for one functional apparel set. 4. Routine apparel cleaning and maintenance will be the responsibility of the employee. NMH apparel does not function as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and employees wearing NMH apparel must follow the procedures and standards outlined in Safety Policy #6.11, Personal Protective Equipment. In the rare event that an employee s apparel becomes saturated with a contaminant at work, temporary replacement and cleaning of the soiled apparel will be coordinated by the Materials Management staff following the process outlined in Appendix A: Cleaning of Contaminated Uniform. The employee who owns the soiled apparel should initiate the process by paging Materials Management. 5. Clinical staff order apparel through the NM Clinical Apparel Web Store. G. Scrub Apparel 1 Scrub Apparel is defined as all Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) apparel which is Hospital Laundry Services marked apparel used by physicians, housestaff, employees, students, and others at NMH. All personnel will comply with current policies and procedures, specifically General Administration 01.0012, Scrub Attire. H. Exceptions 1. Requests for exceptions (e.g. foot surgery requiring a special shoe) must be reviewed with and approved by the manager. 2. For certain work areas and/or purposes, exceptions to the dress code may be made at the department manager s discretion.
4 of 5 3. New NMH employees included in the NMH Apparel Program who have not received their initial apparel order before their start date may wear attire as approved by their manager. IV. MODIFICATIONS: This Policy creates no rights, contractual or otherwise. Statements of policy contained herein are not made for the purpose of inducing any person to become or remain an employee of NMH, and should not be considered promises or as granting property rights. NMH may add to, subtract from and/or modify this Policy at any time without notice. Nothing contained in this Policy impairs the right of an employee or NMH to terminate the employment relationship at will. V. SPECIAL: Questions regarding this policy should be referred to your manager or your Human Resources Consultant. VI. POLICY UPDATE SCHEDULE: This policy will be updated every five years or more often as appropriate. VII. APPROVALS: Responsible Party: Manager Employee Relations Reviewers: Employee Relations Director, Special Affairs Associate Chief Nurse Executive Approval Party: Senior Vice President, Human Resources VIII. REVIEW HISTORY: Revised: 01/14/2014 NMH 4.79 HR, v 03/01/2010
: APPENDIX A: CLEANING OF A CONTAMINATED UNIFORM 5 of 5 Appendix A: CLEANING OF A CONTAMINATED UNIFORM PROCEDURAL RESPONSIBILITIES 1. Employee a. Compliance with all policies and practices associated with the use of Personal Protective Equipment. b. Responsible for contacting Materials Management in the case of saturation. c. Responsible for returning hospital issued scrubs to Materials Management. 2. Materials Management a. Responsible for coordinating the retrieval of the soiled uniform, provision of the hospital issued scrubs, communication to management of service requested, and return of the cleaned uniform. b. Serves as the liaison between the employee and the linen service. 3. Manager Responsible for ensuring appropriateness of utilization of the uniform cleaning policy and enforcement of return of hospital issued scrubs. PROCEDURE 1. The staff person in need of uniform cleaning should contact Materials Management staff via web page. They will provide hospital issued scrubs and coordinate the process for cleaning. 2. Cleaned uniforms will be returned to the employee within one week from the time of pick-up. 3. Upon contact by a staff member, the Materials Management employee responding to the page will deliver to the unit a set of clean hospital issued scrubs, a yellow Customer Owned Goods(COG) linen bag, and a Hospital Laundry Service (HLS) COG delivery ticket. 4. The staff member that has the soiled uniform will do the following: a. Change into the hospital issued scrubs. b. Place the contaminated uniform in the COG laundry bag. c. Fill out the special instruction on the delivery ticket with their name, location, extension or pager number and current date. d. Fill in the item and quantity on the Soiled COG section of the delivery ticket. e. Return the COG laundry bag and delivery ticket to the Materials Management employee. 5. The Materials Management employee will sign the delivery ticket and give the staff member the top white copy. 6. The Materials Management employee will return to the linen room and follow normal COG shipping procedures when shipping the uniform to HLS. 7. The Materials Management employee will send a second copy of the delivery ticket, via interoffice mail, to the Department Manager. 8. Upon return of the clean uniform from HLS, a linen service employee will deliver it to the unit and obtain a signature on the delivery ticket. 9. The linen service employee will have the staff member sign the delivery ticket to verify receipt of uniform. 10. The staff member will return the hospital issued scrubs to the Materials Management employee. 11. The linen service employee will return to the linen room and file the delivery ticket. APPENDIX A: Cleaning of a Contaminated Uniform Manager Employee Relations REVIEW HISTORY Revised: 02/13/2012 Superseded NMH 1.34MM,v06/16/2004: Cleaning of Contaminated Uniform