What's next, police officers won't wear blue?

The leading nurses union tried to block a new dress code requiring members to wear white -- the color that symbolizes the medical profession.

The pristine threads are "more susceptible to soiling and staining" and cost more to keep clean, said the New York State Nurses Association, which represents nurses at public hospitals.

The hospitals wanted to make all registered nurses wear a nonwhite top, white pants and white shoes, starting last January, so that patients could easily identify their caretakers.

But the union argued, "The cost of maintaining white scrub bottoms and white shoes, which are more susceptible to soiling and staining, will be greater than would be imposed by the current uniform policy that allows nurses to wear darker or pattern shoes and bottoms."

At the heart of the dispute now is who will pay the additional $568,140 to buy and upkeep the new uniforms: the cash-poor Health and Hospitals Corp. or the nurses themselves.

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