Tucked vs. Untucked: The Great Scrub Debate

When you walk through the halls of a hospital, you will always see some employees with the top scrub portion tucked in, and others with it untucked. Some have thought long and hard about their stance on tucking, others have never noticed. But, we are here to tell both sides. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of wearing scrubs, for which we have some observations.

At first, it may seem like how nurses wear their scrubs mostly boils down to personal preference. But, there’s actually a certain method to their madness – which seems to be the case with most nurses.

So how on earth do you decide if you should wear your scrubs tucked in or out? Below, we’ll dive into various reasons that can help determine why some decide one way or the other. But first, let’s go over some of the main pros and cons of each way of wearing your scrub top:

Another thing to keep in mind is the operating room. When scrubbing into the operating room, many hospitals expect scrubs to be tucked in. Okay, so we know the advantages and disadvantages, which can help you make an informed decision on how you choose to wear yours. Let’s move on to those observations we were talking about; these are essentially some differences in scrub fit between doctors and nurses. 

First, it seems doctors tend to wear their scrubs tucked in because often they are given to them by the hospital when they come to work. These hospital scrubs tend to be unisex and plain which, therefore, tends to look better tucked in. Docs also used to have to carry pagers on their hip which would be covered if they didn’t tuck in their scrubs. 

We all know how it is – nurses tend to always have a million things in their pockets. From saline flushes to tape, we believe in having as much on hand as possible to ward off problems and provide top-notch healthcare support. Keeping this in mind, we tend to opt for scrub tops that have the pockets at the bottom, which are easy to grab from. There are also no pagers to carry as a nurse. 

Ultimately, there is no wrong way to wear your scrubs unless your facility has a policy. What do we recommend? Full pocket utilization of course! (Unless you’re in the OR!)

What about you? Do you tuck your scrubs or leave them untucked?