Scrubs are uniforms worn by healthcare professionals, designed for sanitation and easy laundering. The varied colors seen in a hospital are often part of an internal color-coding system intended to quickly identify the wearer’s role or department. This system helps streamline communication and organization, but it is not governed by a universal standard. Therefore, the significance of a color like blue can change from one facility to the next.
Core Roles Associated with Blue Scrubs
The most consistent traditional association for blue scrubs, often teal or navy, is with the surgical environment. Personnel wear blue in the operating room (OR) to maintain a sterile field and easily identify members of the surgical team. This attire typically includes primary surgeons, assistant surgeons, anesthesiologists, and certified registered nurse anesthetists. Surgical technologists and operating room nurses, who manage instruments and patient flow, are also frequently designated to wear this color. Darker shades of blue, such as navy, are prevalent because they mask stains and convey professionalism.
Facility and Departmental Variations
Outside the surgical suite, the meaning of blue scrubs is less consistent and determined by individual hospital policy. Many large healthcare systems implement facility-wide color mandates assigning different shades of blue to various non-surgical roles. For example, royal blue might be designated for Registered Nurses (RNs), while light blue (“ceil blue”) might be assigned to patient care technicians or medical assistants. Dark navy blue is often reserved for senior medical staff, such as physicians or physician assistants, to distinguish their seniority. In facilities without a strict color-coding system, blue may simply be one of the permissible colors for general clinical staff, signifying “staff member” rather than a specific role.
The Functional Science Behind Blue
The preference for blue, green, and teal in medical settings, particularly surgery, is rooted in visual science. These colors are chosen because they are complementary to red on the color wheel, which is the dominant color seen when operating on tissue and blood. Staring at red for prolonged periods causes visual fatigue, temporarily desensitizing the cone cells in the eye to red light. When a surgeon shifts their gaze from the red surgical field to a white surface, a distracting green afterimage can appear. Since blue and green are close to red’s complement, looking at blue scrubs helps the surgeon’s eyes “reset” and maintain sensitivity to subtle variations in red. This visual balancing effect reduces the risk of the distracting afterimage and enhances the ability to discern fine details in human anatomy.