ER Fashion Trends

Back in my shiny, noob nurse days, when I was all excited to go out and buy my uniform for my exciting new job in the ER, I wandered into a scrub shop while out running errands with my husband, found some relatively cute shit, and bought it with my fancy new nurse intern money.  As I was checking out, the lady at the counter asked me if I was a medical professional.  I replied that yes, I was an RN, with the typical shit-eating grin of someone who hadn't yet had to start drinking to cope with my chosen  profession. Okay, she told me, you get a discount then.  Just write your name down here.
I remember thinking at the time that it was so odd that they did that, because who the hell buys scrubs that isn't a medical professional? Who exactly is buying this scratchy, expensive crap to wear in their downtime?
Um, yeah.  My patients, that's who.  Most of the time they present to triage in their scrubs, I guess in the attempt to trick us into thinking they're some kind of medical professional or nurse or whatevs, except when you open your mouth and start talking about your vaginal discharge that you've had for two weeks and how your baby's daddy had that gonorrhea last month, it kind of ruins the illusion, but thanks for playing. One girl even showed up a while back in a scrub top with a little cutesy print with "RN" as part of the pattern, and then proceeded to blow her cover in record time with a chief complaint that not even the dumbest of RNs would present to the ER for.
Even better is when they show up wearing this shit as we're taking care of their family member like they're at work here (bonus points for showing up in the uniform of whatever fly-by-night 6 week medical assisting/phlebotomy program they're currently enrolled in) and then stand at the bedside trying mean mugging anyone involved in their family member's care.  Even more bonus points for googling the shit out of everything we say and then trying to argue about what we're doing.
Come to mention it, a general rule of thumb ER BFF and I have come up with is that if you are wearing scrubs and advertising the fact that you're a "nurse", chances are, you're NOT. This comes from several years of empirical evidence during which we've looked up face sheets and verified people's licenses online. Most of these people are actually lab techs, in the best case scenarios, they are nursing aides, but a good portion of them are also just total liars/cray-crays. Most actual nurses, myself included, wear street clothes and say nothing about being a nurse.  People are more likely to show the real time of care they intend on giving when they aren't trying to impress you, and you can more accurately judge whether or not they're a douche.
Anyway, complete tangent, but are my patients the only ones who try and pull these kinds of shenanigans? It's really a terrible waste of money.