Multiple piercings/tats and healthcare occupations

Texanne

Texanne

5,000+ Posts
A young woman was just in my office looking for the EMT program. She had what looked to be about 10 or 12 piercings in her face/ears, at least two tattoos on her neck, and tats all over her arms and hands.

If I were an employer in the EMS world, I would not hire this woman. It would be frightening to a patient to come to in an ambulance and see such a scary image. I know I would not want to be that patient.

Of course, people are free to exercise their right of self-expression, and if body piercings and tattoos are their chosen methods, that's fine. But hospitals and EMS companies don't hire people who have deliberately made themselves look like freaks.

And people with multiple facial piercings and tattoos are not a protected class -- I doubt this woman could win should she decide to sue because her piercings and tattoos are the reason she didn't get hired.
 
'Freak' is a pretty relative term. I think people who wear bell bottoms or leisure suits look like freaks... yet there was a time when that was hip and accepted.
I am not a huge defender of this group or fad, but it is what it is. In some cultures certain manners of dress and adorning (jewelry etc) are normal, accepted or even encouraged beyond what individuals really want. (Along these lines, while I think neckties look sharp on a guy, they serve ZERO function, and I wonder a bit why they don't seem totally weird and out of place)
I think for people in a younger generation, these types of personal choices are more accepted for others even by those who don't choose to do this. That being said, I never understood neck tats.
 
If I were an employer I would want the people who are my company's face to the customer to look and be professional and competent. Being inked and pierced as described wouldn't fit that desire for an EMT job. For some jobs perhaps but not for this one.

Decisions have consequences, sometimes positive and sometimes not.
 
the number of young women who look as though they have just fallen face-first into a tackle box is completely out of control.
 
I agree they look like freaks, but....


if I'm looking for an EMT I probably won't be looking for the best looking one, as long as they are qualified, I'll take whoever shows up first. EMT employers technically shouldn't care what she looks like either, because EMT's only job is to keep the people alive, not get return customers by looking nice.

Ties are a scourge, they look silly, serve no purpose, and should be banished from the Earth.
 
That's not as bad as the time I was in line to donate platelets at a blood drive for a cancer patient and the screener kept fiddling with her pack of smokes.
 
Cruise by the Seton Shivers Cancer facility over on MLk sometime. You have a good chance of seeing employees (to include nurses and techs) smoking on the sidewalk. I kid you not. I once saw a woman right in front of the sign. I could not believe it.
 
I know a guy who is a nurse anesthetist who makes amazingly great money and has tattoos over almost his entire normally visible body, except the face. Hands, neck, full sleeves, gauged piercings in his ears, etc. If women are trusting this guy to do their epidurals and everything else his job entails, that tells me most folks don't have a problem.
 
I pregnant woman needing an epidural probably has other things on her mind besides the looks of the nurse anesthesiologist.
 
i had a weird experience last month along the same lines. We were holding an open casting call for our genetics lab and we ended up interviewing 25 people. In the first time in 10 years all three of the department heads listed the same applicant as the first choice. She was brilliant, she was a Wash-U(the Rice of the midwest) grad w/ oodles of genetic lab experience(as a student intern) in one of the most respected labs in the midwest. I know the director of her lab and she wouldn't shut up about this chick.

Long story short she had all this **** in her face. Lips,nose, eyebrows........usually in multiples. I told her that in spite of the fact that she is not in contact w/ patients there is a strict policy about removing facial piercings before coming to work. Now, i Realize I'm 43 and firmly in the "get off my lawn" era of my life but i was shocked to my core when she basically told me to go **** myself. **** me............ she was one of 100 plus applicants, one of 25 interviewed. I garun-damn tee she will not sniff that kind of opportunity for another 10 years if she is lucky.

When i told her there wasnt anything else left to talk about and wished her luck in future endeavors it was now her that seemed shocked. What did she expect me to do, go to war with top brass just on her behalf. I instantly went from being a big fan of hers to realizing i dodged a huge bullet. I was disgusted. She turned down a huge oppurtunity to use her degree in a field that was exploding, because of a completely un-unique fashion accessory decision. Have fun working at the gap for the next decade, *******.
 
I once advertised for nude models for a series of paintings I was doing. One woman showed up for an interview with piercings all over her face and body. I was trying to figure out what I could do with her, and the only thing I could come up with was to paint her as a fishing lure.

I ended up telling her no thanks.
 
RayDog, I don't even care if that's not a true story, that's some funny stuff right there.
 
People are certainly free to pierce and tattoo as much of their bodies as they care to, and as an employer, I am certainly free to show them the door and hire someone who's willing to maintain a personal appearance that is more broadly socially acceptable. It's a great country we live in.
 
so it's possible to advertise for nude models?

interesting.

(whistles while heading off towards art supply store)
 
Well, I can tell you it DOES make a difference in the hiring of EMS personnel. Most people in an ambulance don't even know where they are or what happened to put them there, their first thought upon coming to is not, "Wow, this guy is trying to save my life." They think, "OMG, what in the hell is going on here??!!??"
 
seeing someone as a "freak" is in the eye of the beholder.

in that moment, i'd be happy enough that someone who seemingly knew what they were doing was there to help me.
 
A little off topic, but I went to the Guadalupe for a bachelor party with 10-12 25 year old guys this weekend and none of us had tats or piercings. But as we went through the day we decided that our group was severely "out-tatted".

Can we generally chalk it up to education level? I know it isn't a perfect indicator, but it seems to be generally true. We decided that we probably could have picked out any group on the river and we would have had roughly 2-3 times more college/advanced degrees than any other set of people out there.
 
There is another side of the story. Professional dress for physicians generally includes a tie and a white coat. Were I a patient in a hospital, I would not let a doctor touch me if he/she was wearing either. They are disgusting vectors for every nosocomial infection that you should be afraid of (Not just MRSA/VRE, but pan-resistant Psuedomonoas and Klebsiella). Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff with direct patient contact should wear scrubs WITHOUT SLEEVED SHIRTS UNDER THEM.

As for the EMTs, I could care less about their appearance (cleanliness matters, so long fingernails are of course a deal breaker). In general, apperance is irrelevant and focusing on it can lead you to miss some great people.
 
Stat, is that stat true? I wonder if it is something related to the job or something. I am going to start paying closer attention to this and not just their butts when they walk by.
 
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