Scrubs Color Psychology

It is already past the time all the nurses wearing the same color in all healthcare facilities.
Today, hospitals and clinics are more flexible in choosing the color for nurses’ uniforms because they know the importance of color to their brand image.
Color is expressive and emotional; every color evokes a different feeling or mood for people.
The color of uniforms will affect not only the nurses’ feeling but also patients’ feeling and emotion.
While the perception of color is subjective, some effects of colors have universal meanings and effects.
Understanding the psychological meaning of every color will help you choose the suitable color which can create a right mood, while aligned with your hospital’s brand image.
Every color evokes different mood and tone for the scrub you are going to wear.
Before picking a color for scrubs in your healthcare facility, you should think about the meaning behind every color and its effects on professionals’ performance.
Another factor to consider when choosing color is your hospital brand image: the color of scrubs should blend well with your hospital’s interior design.
Lets walk through how each color can impact the ‘look and feel’ of your scrubs.

Scrub used to be white. White has been marked ‘healthcare color’ as it has been considered as the best choice for doctors and nurses for so long until now.
White has been the most optimal and safest choice because white is a sign of sterility and hygiene.
White – the color of cleanliness. Meanwhile, white color evokes the neutral, and calm tone for both the patients and nurses.
However, in practical use, white fabric is subjected to stain and dirt. The white uniform also requires high maintenance to preserve the white color.

Recently, blue is also a popular choice for nurses due to its meaning and practicality in maintenance.
Blue is a sign of peace and calmness. It also evokes the feelings of trust, and serenity.
Blue uniforms create a professional, friendly and trustworthy ‘look and feel’. It is also the color of wisdom and intelligence.
It is to explain why medical doctors usually have blue scrubs.
In additions, blue uniforms are pretty easy to maintain the colors.
Stain and dirt’s are not too visible on blue colors.
For overall brand image of the hospital, blue uniforms blend pretty well with different interior design styles of hospitals and clinics.

If you watch the TV series Scrubs or Grey’s Anatomy, you will easily spot that the surgeons wear green scrubs.
There is a number of reasons that green scrub is picked for operation theater.
Speaking of meanings of color, the green is a color of peace and harmony, a color of nature.
The green color also evokes the feeling of refreshment and equilibrium. The green scrub creates friendly and calm feelings for patients.
Another more important reason to surgeons choose green color for scrubs: the green color creates a much more important impact on the performance of surgeons.
Green is considered to help doctors see better in the operation theater. On the color wheel, we can see that green is the opposite of red.
And looking at green or blue colors will help doctors refresh doctors’ vision of red things, which include the bloody internal organs of patients.
Besides, deep focus on red can lead to distracting green illusions on white surfaces because the white color contains all colors of the wheel including red and green.
Therefore, if the scrub color is green, the green illusion can be minimized.

Warm colors like purple has been picked for nurses because the warm colors evoke feelings of warmth and sincere care.
Purple, the royal color, also creates a feeling of truthfulness and high quality. The purple scrubs make the nurses look much more friendly, and stylish.

Pink is also one of the favorite colors for nurse scrubs due to its lovely, friendly tone. Pink creates a tone of warmth, and nurturing. It is also a sign of love.
Pink is usually picked for nurse scrubs in pediatric department where the nurses need trust and acceptance from the little patients.

Minimalist colors like white and black are never out of fashion.
Although black is not really as popular as white when it comes to healthcare uniforms, black is still picked by many hospitals due to its color meaning and practicality.
Black color is a sign of security, emotional safety and efficiency.
Also, black is a stylish color, which will make you always stylish and professional.
For practical use, black color is easy for washing and maintenance.