2010 was a big year for Stacey Tatroe. She earned her Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of West Georgia and also patented a design for nursing scrubs.
Tatroe’s fashion foray has a serious purpose. She took a pair of plain, gray scrubs and transformed them into a point of pride by using acrylic pink paint and rubber stamps to print RN all over them.
“I was so proud when I finished my associate degree in nursing and got my RN license in July of 2007 that I wanted everyone to know,” said Tatroe, RN, BSN.
The day after she created them, Tatroe wore her RN pants with a plain top, a crown and sash to work at WellStar Cobb Hospital's ER the next day.
“When people asked me about my outfit, I told them I had gotten my license. Many people said that they didn’t know that I was an LPN [licensed professional nurse] before,” Tatroe said. “The problem is that everyone wears scrubs and there’s no way to differentiate a nurse from everyone else in health care. We have lost the nursing uniform.”
Tatroe would like to revolutionize the nursing uniform. She has no wish to go back to starched white uniforms and caps, which she considers impractical. She loves the comfort and versatility of scrubs, but says they don’t make nurses stand out from nursing technicians and assistants, and other health care workers, including veterinarians.
“I wanted something that told people, ‘I’m a nurse. I went to school and I have the answers,’ ” Tatroe said. “Nurses get lost in a sea of scrubs.”
Other nurses loved her first pants so much that she began to make other designs. Whenever nurses saw them, they asked Tatroe where she bought them.
“When I told them I stamped them myself on my dining room table, they’d ask me to make them some,” she said.
While it seemed like an idea that could catch on, Tatroe couldn’t make pants for everyone who wanted them. The busy ER nurse is also a wife, a mother of two sons and a PTA president.
While watching an episode of the TV show “Shark Tank,” Tatroe got the idea to patent her design for RN-patterned scrubs and get the interest of a manufacturer to produce them. Along with her husband, Jeff Tatroe, a Cobb County police sergeant and her staunchest cheerleader and supporter, she began researching nursing uniforms and companies that helped people secure patents.
A representative of Thoughts to Paper, a patent services company, helped them through the year-long process of applying for a design patent.
In the meantime, Tatroe called Cherokee Uniforms, a leading manufacturer of medical uniforms. “I wore their products and I figured, what could it hurt?”
Tatroe found a sympathetic ear in the CEO’s assistant, who connected her with the head of the company. After Tatroe secured a patent, she negotiated a contract to produce a line of RN-patterned scrubs. Cherokee Scrubs will make the line available to retailers this spring.
Tatroe can’t believe her three-year project is finally resulting in products that nurses can buy.
“I’m so excited and get all flustered just thinking about it. I can’t wait to see other people wearing them. I’ll probably run up and say, ‘Do you know where the idea for those came from?’ ” she said with a laugh.
While working on the scrubs, Tatroe earned her BSN degree and switched to the ER department at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. Tatroe has also made more RN-patterned scrubs, and gets positive comments from nurses when she wears her prototypes.
“Nurses get it immediately. I believe that having our licensure as part of our scrubs will help nurses connect with each other,” she said. “Patients appreciate them, too. They tell me that they know who I am immediately when I walk into a room.”
Tatroe doesn’t expect to get rich from her design pattern, and has no intention of quitting her job.
“I put in the work to get these scrubs to market because of pride in my profession,” she said.
She believes other nurses feel the same pride and will appreciate the work wear.
“I went into nursing after my first son was born,” she said. “My first career was in law enforcement. The two are similar in that it takes a willingness to care for others. You need a servant’s heart.”
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