The white coat still is important:
Seventy-six percent of the respondents favored their doctors wearing a white coat. The next most common attire — 10 percent — was surgical scrubs.The patients who participated in this study stated that their trust and confidence in the doctor was significantly associated with the physicians’ attire. They were also more willing to share their social, sexual and psychological problems with doctors who were professionally dressed.
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{ 5 comments }
white coats are meaningless…. everybody in the hospital wears one.
hell the janitor wear them nowadays
I agree, everyone wears white coats and scrubs now. I like to see a doc. wearing a suit, or atleast dress pants and a sports coat.
is this a east coast thing? i’m in the midwest and feel that pts respond better to me w/o the white coat and tie. Most my pts are blue-collar and would be turned off / intimdated by a full suit
A surgeon once told me that when he delivers bad news to a family, he wants them to view him as the senior attending surgeon. It gives the impression he is a professional and takes himself seriously. He also believes that it has saved him from a lawsuit when he made a mistake.
Every patient I’ve seen in the last five years has seen me with a white coat and tie, even if it is 3AM. It increases confidence and trust and reduces lawsuits. There is no reason not to do this.
b
What about cleanliness? The white coats imply it, and the scrubs send the message that they get…well, scrubbed often. BUT we live near a hospital and I’m frankly startled to see medical people trotting to work or out at lunch or running errands in their scrubs. Eeewwwww.
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