Dress Code

[DrRobert]

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I was reading an editorial in the recent ASA newsletter that basically denounced many anesthesiologists for not "dressing up" when seeing patients.

I view wearing scrubs as on of the many advantages to the field. As someone who hates to dress up, I look forward to wearing scrubs for the rest of my career. And I always considered scrubs and a white coat professional attire for physicians. Most of the public associates scrubs with physicians.

The author mentioned that at his program, residents are required to wear suit and ties before entering the locker room and while doing preop/postop assessments.

I think that's ridiculous. Anyone care to share their school's/program's/hospital's dress code?

 

[Lefty]

Amen to scrubs. 😀

 

[chillindrdude]

i dunno, at my hospital, residents wear scrubs, the attending wear scrubs. i think there are bigger things to worry about than wondering what color tie to wear with what color shirt.

the author of that editorial is lame

 

[OldManDave]

I was reading an editorial in the recent ASA newsletter that basically denounced many anesthesiologists for not "dressing up" when seeing patients.

I view wearing scrubs as on of the many advantages to the field. As someone who hates to dress up, I look forward to wearing scrubs for the rest of my career. And I always considered scrubs and a white coat professional attire for physicians. Most of the public associates scrubs with physicians.

The author mentioned that at his program, residents are required to wear suit and ties before entering the locker room and while doing preop/postop assessments.

I think that's ridiculous. Anyone care to share their school's/program's/hospital's dress code?

I agree that it is totally ludicrous to require anesthesiologists/residents to wear a suit & tie to enter the hosp, go home & to interact w/ patients. It is crap like this that perpetuates the false chasm of "us & them" that people do not like. Before you were a physician, you were just a normal old Joe...so why feel compelled to play dress up to differentiate you from your patients.

Besides, what a major pain in the @$$ to have to dress in & out of suit<-->scrubs!!!!! Most days, I see several pts b/t cases & that sort of BS would add considerable time to case turn overs...and that is something that would be heavily frowned upon & simply not tolerated in the private practice world.

 

[Skip Intro]

I was reading an editorial in the recent ASA newsletter that basically denounced many anesthesiologists for not "dressing up" when seeing patients.

Is it online? Do you have a link?

We've talked about this phenomenon in several of my rotations throughout different disciplines. And, all that really matters is what the patient thinks, not what some doctor (with all his/her biases about what he/she believes a doctor should look like) thinks.

It seems the consensus has more to do with wearing a whitecoat than a necktie and/or suit. Patients are familiar with the "scrubs and whitecoat" look of doctors, which is often what is worn while doing pre-ops in the hospital. I agree that, if you accurately related this editorial, this is a non-issue that this anesthesiologist raises.

Here's a couple of studies that support this:

Patients' satisfaction with the anaesthetist and his/her visit was not influenced by dress. [SIC] Patients expressed a preference for doctors to wear name tags, white coats and short hair but disapproved of clogs, jeans, trainers and earrings.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=8460799

Our aim was to assess the effect of the anaesthetist's appearance during a ward visit on the patient's evaluation of either the visit or the anesthetist himself. In our sample of 66 patients we found no evidence that the style of dress (formal: suit and tie, informal: jeans and open-necked shirt) affected that evaluation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1781533

And, here are a few more that generally back this up:

Resident physician attire makes a difference to patients. Our patients prefer the white coat with surgical scrubs. Casual clothing is less well liked by our patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15167876

Dress style made no statistical difference in patients' attitudes toward their physician.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=4055467

Most patients did not mind a male doctor with an earring, a women in trousers or a man without a tie. A majority preferred their doctors to wear a white coat, be free of political badges and for men to have conventional length hair. Older patients are stricter than young patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1765477

About half of patients still prefer the doctor to be dressed in a white coat. Patients prefer a more formal dressing for male and female physicians in family medicine clinics. Most of the patients claimed that the attire of the physician had no influence on their choice of family physician.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9848422

Of these 200 patients, 65% believed physicians should wear a white coat, 27% believed physicians should not wear tennis shoes, 52% believed physicians should not wear blue jeans, 37% believed male physicians should wear neckties, and 34% believed female physicians should wear dresses or skirts.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=3783905


Point in conclusion is that this has been studied, and there is no consensus to back up this guy's opinion. His personal preference should, therefore, not be taken as paramount to the patient's or those of his colleagues. If he wants to wear a suit, fine. Let him wear a suit. No one is stopping him.

-Skip

 

[doc05]

what is wrong with wearing a suit? every surgeon I've met wears a suit into the hospital, and then changes into scrubs. why should it be any different for anaesthesia?

 

[abords]

As a resident in the program that was written about in the newsletter (Mayo - Rochester) i can asure you that none of us wear a suit into the hospital unless we are going to be seeing patients in the Clinic. Most of us dress nicely, khaki pants and a collered shirt, but this is not required. Once we get to the hospital, scrubs are the norm. I only glanced at the article by Dr. Bacon (a truly terrific person and wonderful physician to work with), but I think that he mentioned working with the resident in the POE (pre-op evaluation clinic) which is an outpatient facility here at Mayo and thus a place where it is expected that all physicians wear a suit and tie.

 

[gaslady]

We wear business casual clothing to and from the hospital. I think the men tend to wear ties when they are in the clinic or pain service. Our PD wants us to wear a white coat and clean appearing scrubs when we see patients.