Let's Restore Respect

A major hospital in Cleveland, one with a worldwide reputation, recently made a brilliant move so I am joining the fight to make that move universal. The hospital may pack more clout than I do, but even so I'm taking up the cause.
If you've been around long enough you remember when two groups of women gained your respect on sight. The first was comprised of nuns. Regardless of a man's religious beliefs, and that included those with no beliefs at all, he knew that a nun had sacrificed a lot in order to help mankind. She was someone to hold in respect, someone to call sister.
The second group consisted of nurses. In a crisp white uniform she was someone to trust with your health. Her very presence made you feel better. There are male nurses, of course, and they were seen in the same way even though they didn't wear dresses. At least none did so while on duty.
Then some idiot decided that nurses should dress like any slob that wandered in off the street because patients would appreciate the lack of formality. What a crock, what a con job. A patient wants professionalism, not informality.
So now if you are in a hospital room or a doctor's office and a woman walks in you don't know whether she's a nurse or a cleaning lady. Literally. It's a fact. Cleaning ladies perform a necessary job and also deserve respect. Still, a nurse ranks a bit higher, or did so at one time.
It's a little like a time-worn joke about the woman in a hospital for tests. As she was lying there naked on an examining table several men dressed in white entered the room and stood looking down at her. As they started to go on, one said to her, "The doctor should be here soon." Somewhat startled, she said, "Aren't you doctors?"
"No," the man replied, "we're the painters."
That was funny in its day, but no more. The way some doctors dress today that lady would have known at once that those men were the painters.
And the same thing applies to nurses. That feeling of trust and respect is gone and now they are seen as no different than cleaning ladies because you can't tell one from the other.
That hospital in Cleveland is changing all that. Nurses will have to go back to wearing white, and it's about time. If the practice catches on we soon will be holding nurses in the high respect we once did. Why? Because we'll know who they are. No longer will we see them as possibly members of the janitorial staff. They deserve better so maybe some of them will take up the cause themselves. Clothes do make a difference. Always have and always will.

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