White coat with outpatients

[Sikrouf]

Hey,
This may be a dumb question but im going to do part time private practice and i was wondering if in other countries psychiatrists were in white coat in outpatient settings

Thanks

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[calvnandhobbs68]

Never. I haven’t worn a white coat consistently since med school.

Slacks and dress shirt, no tie cause I don’t need someone choking me to death.

 

[Stagg737]

Nah, scrubs all day every day. After IM rotations I never wore my white coat again other than our annual program picture, and I didn't even wear my own one year, lol.

 

[Merovinge]

For medical specialties data suggests - Professional clothes, recommend suits if you are comfortable with them or well fitting shirts/slacks, tie if feeling comfortable from patient population (physical safety). I wear suits 4 days/week (casual Friday) at every job I've worked and it's consistently been a good experience for me compared to shirt/slacks in residency. No white coats.

For surgical specialties - Scrubs and white coat.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

White coats? We are psychiatrist and should not pretend to be "real" doctors. We should wear our stereotype with honor. Since we don't deal with puss and exudates, me might as well wear real clothes like normal professionals. I'm sorry for those that get messy. They picked their profession but we don't have to run around in pajamas.

 

[nexus73]

Maybe if you're starting IVs for ketamine

 

[docksan]

I only wear my white coat when rounding in hospitals.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Never white coat. Never suits. Slacks and collared shirt. Friday around rodeo it is jeans with boots.

 

[allantois]

You should resemble father of psychiatry Freud in every way possible including not wearing a white coat

 

[WisNeuro]

None of my personal outpatient providers wear white coats. I'd find it weird at this point. In the settings I worked in, similar to others, only saw them on inpatient units, and some midlevels. Midlevels love wearing whitecoats.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Midlevels love wearing whitecoats.

Yeah, trend in the hospital is the more frequently you wear a white coat, the less likely it is you're a physician. The freaking unit secretaries and social workers have white coats in the hospital and loveee wearing them lol

 

[Liquid8]

Haven't worn a white coat since a medical student ortho rotation, which was already considered by other specialities to be an oddity at the time. In fact, that was the only time I ever saw anyone wearing one outside of a couple of older General Practitioner types.

For a private psychiatrist I think wearing professional attire gives some gravitas. Can't really go too wrong with a dark suit (navy or charcoal) and collared shirt (neutral colours like white or light blue) combination. Had some colleagues who were a little more "expressive" in their dress sense, but this doesn't always go down too well with some patients.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Maybe if you're starting IVs for ketamine

The family practice doc who has done ketamine with some of my patients would wear the white coat during our treatments. Practical but also might have helped magnify positive expectancies and sense of safety from the traditional MD role. I have seen how effective old school medical care and bedside manner can be from that soothing stance with my patients who have a really hard time ever feeling safe.
Outside of that, I think my patients, especially the irreverent adolescents, would be more likely to mock a psychiatrist who wore a white coat and it might be hard for me not to laugh along with them. 😜

 

[Stagg737]

You should resemble father of psychiatry Freud in every way possible including not wearing a white coat

If we want to imitate the father of modern psychiatry, we should be dressing like Pinel. So knee length overcoat, frilled shirt, and a cane; which actually sounds like it could be really fun to wear onto the inpatient unit sometime...

 

[Stagg737]

Yeah, trend in the hospital is the more frequently you wear a white coat, the less likely it is you're a physician. The freaking unit secretaries and social workers have white coats in the hospital and loveee wearing them lol

When I rotated through one of our VAs on medicine, everyone on the team wore a long white coat except the med students who had their short white coats. That included residents, NPs, PAs, pharmacists, and the nutritionist. White coats have become meaningless in the US in terms of identifying staff.

 

[comp1]

Never going to do outpatient, but it sure would weird me out if my own psychiatrist wore a white coat. As far as inpatient work, I consider physical agility extremely important. I've always done a polo and khakis, but am considering switching to scrubs. Our dress code actually strongly discourages white coats. For one thing, it's a horrible fomite, worse than ties (although a little harder for a patient to strangle you with).

 

[Celexa]

Never going to do outpatient, but it sure would weird me out if my own psychiatrist wore a white coat. As far as inpatient work, I consider physical agility extremely important. I've always done a polo and khakis, but am considering switching to scrubs. Our dress code actually strongly discourages white coats. For one thing, it's a horrible fomite, worse than ties (although a little harder for a patient to strangle you with).

Haha a coat is only a fomite if it doesn't get washed. Here's a true fun anecdote: in my medical school, there was a robust secondary market for used women's student white coats. Most of the female students picked up some extras from graduating seniors. There was no such robust market for men's white coats. I could only conclude that women would wash theirs (and thus wanted the extras ready to go when others were in the laundry) and the men......didn't.

I see no reason to wear it on inpatient units or outpatient. If my coats fit at my next institution I may start wearing one again for consults. Mainly for pockets.

 

[docksan]

If you're in a hospital and rounding literally everything you don't wash is a fomite.

 

[NickNaylor]

Pretty much the only time my white coat gets used is in the rare chance I have to take pictures for publicity purposes at my institution.

 

[Sikrouf]

Ok thank you all much appreciated