Comments on: What residents and medical students should wear in the hospital

By: Cospo

Cospo — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:00:43 +0000

Forty years ago when I was in nursing school and then when I graduated and worked in hospital there were very clear rules one had to follow re: what could be worn in/out of hospital. Women’s hair was to be up off their collars at all times. No garish makeup, no hoops/dangle earrings (studs only), no nail color, no jewellry on hands, a water resistant watch only with sweep second hand. No perfumes of any sort were allowed. Fingernails were short, smooth, clean; your dress hem was below the knee and your cap was immaculately starched, your pinafore and Clinic shoes were sparkling white – even down to the laces(!). Each morning we gathered in the “Fishbowl” for muster where the instructors examined your person and clothes head to toe. If everything wasn’t perfect and in place you were not permitted to go to the wards until it was – even to the point of returning home until you could meet the standards of proper dress. Oh, and your time out was naturally docked from your clinic time which you had to make up on Saturdays. No one wore scrubs in those days other than surgical, nursery, or isolation ward nurses and doctors – and those were owned and laundered by the hospital. When you worked those areas you had an assigned locker within the unit itself, changed your clothing, put on scrubs, cap and shoe covers. If you left that space you removed cap and covers and put on a CLEAN white lab coat and stayed gone only the shortest amount of time. Your space to wander was strictly limited and you had to return post haste to your assigned area when your business was concluded. At the end of your shift, you took off all the outer wear that you’d worn, deposited it in a laundry bag, took a shower right there in the locker rooms and redressed in your street clothes and went home. One NEVER saw scrubs in public or even nurses’ uniforms in public as the scrubs were hospital property and nursing uniforms were considered inappropriate in public as it only brought thoughts of Typhoid Mary in those days – TB was still a widespread public health concern in those days when one might not even spit on the sidewalk! And one thing you rarely heard of then were nosocomial infections that were out of hand. Not only health care individuals but the public at large were more careful about possible vectors then. What a difference these days!! Perhaps if we went back to some of those education and infection control practices there would be less MRSA, C. Diff. etc. around now. Of course, I’ve pretty much dated myself here, but I wonder when did we get so careless about things such as this? Perhaps the false security of all those new antibiotics made us think that precautions weren’t so necessary anymore??

By: tamoroso

tamoroso — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:45:38 +0000

I’m with the folks who think we should ditch the tie. I wear Hawaii shirts at work (I’m an ER doc), and I have since I worked in Hawaii (where Hawaii shirts are business wear for all except stockbrokers serving clients from the mainland).

We need to step away from the idea that a doctor should dress a certain way, and like Karin, step towards the idea that clothing is first to protect the worker, and second to protect the patient. Fashion, respectability, all the reasons we wear ties, jewelry, and all the other whatnot of modern society, do not finish.

By: William Ott

William Ott — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:30:40 +0000

You obviously are not a pilot. Pilots operating large aircraft or most any type of jet depend on watches, typically the Breitling or Rolex watches with sweep second hands, stop watch function, rotating slide rule for fuel burn ratios and display of two or more time zones. Anon EM doc is right, what a concept, checking pulses, calculating drip rates, etc.. where a clock isn’t available, radical indeed..Jewelry, right, get a clue

By: Fernando Moreno

Fernando Moreno — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:22:36 +0000

Ties are a vestige of a class system who’s days should long be past us (not to mention breeding grounds for all sorts of harmful pathogens). I work in a very diverse community hospital where most patients hover at or below the poverty line, and a tie to me represents some archaic notion that somehow, perhaps, I am better than them. This is not who I want to be and clearly not the impression I ever want to portray.

If you want to know what a doctor looks like, look at me. I’m a doctor, and therefore, this is what a doctor looks like. I can assure you, it doesn’t include a tie.

By: DKV

DKV — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:57:04 +0000

Watch, yes.
Comfortable shoes, yes.
Cleavage, no.
Agreed.

But we (Americans) have to ditch the ties and white coats, symbols at best and vectors of disease at worst.

By: just a patient

just a patient — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:09:00 +0000

One nit-pick with this… Bleach sets in all iron-based stains, which includes blood. A bleach pen will only make the stain permanent, and if you don’t rinse it out the bleach may eat a hole in the fabric you’ve used it on. Better are the stain-wipes that several of the laundry product manufacturers produce, as they are non-chlorine bleach, so they don’t set the iron into the fabric and shouldn’t damage the fabric.

By: Xerxes1729

Xerxes1729 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:32:38 +0000

Something doesn’t add up. I can only wear scrubs when I’m in the hospital. I have to change into them there and out of them before going home. Then why is it okay for me to wear my shirt and tie from home, to the hospital, and back home?

By: Anon EM doc

Anon EM doc — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:30:55 +0000

Agree highly. Color-coded scrubs should absolutely be the standard for numerous reasons.

By: Anon EM doc

Anon EM doc — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:29:18 +0000

Cool. Do you use something to clean off all the iGerms, or do you spread them to friends and family?

By: Anon EM doc

Anon EM doc — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:27:15 +0000

I use mine to check pulses when a clock with a second hand isn’t close by. Radical idea, huh?