How often do you have to dress up MS1?

[surftheiop]

Sorry in advance for the stupid questions, but I've be a t-shirt and shorts guy my whole life.

I was curious how often I need to plan on wearing the white coat / dress shirt / tie as an MS1, probably like once a week for some sort of preceptorship right? I know this sounds dumb, but I hardly have any dress clothes (like 2 shirts / 2 ties) so trying to figure if I should start trying to expand my selection before school starts.

Also as an aside, once you get to MS3 and have to dress up everyday, do people buy like 20 shirts so they only need to do a ton of ironing every once in a while?

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[osumc2014]

Sorry in advance for the stupid questions, but I've be a t-shirt and shorts guy my whole life.

I was curious how often I need to plan on wearing the white coat / dress shirt / tie as an MS1, probably like once a week for some sort of preceptorship right? I know this sounds dumb, but I hardly have any dress clothes (like 2 shirts / 2 ties) so trying to figure if I should start trying to expand my selection before school starts.

Also as an aside, once you get to MS3 and have to dress up everyday, do people buy like 20 shirts so they only need to do a ton of ironing every once in a while?

Buy a bunch of shirts when they go on sale for 15 bucks, you will always have a use for them

 

[WashMe]

Sorry in advance for the stupid questions, but I've be a t-shirt and shorts guy my whole life.

I was curious how often I need to plan on wearing the white coat / dress shirt / tie as an MS1, probably like once a week for some sort of preceptorship right? I know this sounds dumb, but I hardly have any dress clothes (like 2 shirts / 2 ties) so trying to figure if I should start trying to expand my selection before school starts.

Also as an aside, once you get to MS3 and have to dress up everyday, do people buy like 20 shirts so they only need to do a ton of ironing every once in a while?

What's that? lol

 

[mvenus929]

We wore white coat attire 1-2 times a week during first year. Start asking for nice clothes for presents. You will never get to the point where you have too many shirts and ties.

 

[Staradmiral]

Also as an aside, once you get to MS3 and have to dress up everyday, do people buy like 20 shirts so they only need to do a ton of ironing every once in a while?

Ironing? Dude just buy iron-free shirts. Every store has them, and yes they do work. they never wrinkle or fold and I never need to iron mine.

 

[armybound]

We had standardized patient experiences about once a month in first year. You could get by with 1 shirt/1 tie for a while at that rate.

There are a lot of sales constantly at Jos A Bank. I'd recommend looking there.

 

[surftheiop]

Thanks for the advice, now that I looked at the tag I guess my shirts are the iron-free ones. I'll go ahead and tell my parents I want dress shirts for my birthday.

 

[FrickenhugeMD]

Thanks for the advice, now that I looked at the tag I guess my shirts are the iron-free ones. I'll go ahead and tell my parents I want dress shirts for my birthday.

Get Iron free pants too. I havent Ironed anything in years, and lord knows my wife wont do it for me either. I bought 4 pairs of pants from LL Bean and they have lasted me into my 4th year and still have their crease

 

[MedicineMike]

Ironing? Dude just buy iron-free shirts. Every store has them, and yes they do work. they never wrinkle or fold and I never need to iron mine.

^This...coming from the "corporate world" I have a lot of dress clothes and all of my shirts are non-iron. This is essential.

If you are looking to spend a little money on shirts that will last you a long time, try looking at Charles Tyrwhitt or Brooks Brothers. Joseph A Bank has some good ones as well. And if you are a skinny dude, go slim-fit. That is also essential

 

[ucbsmd]

Buy yourself a few Jos A Bank Traveler's series shirts when they run they run one of their 3 for 1 sales. They are great quality plus you'll never have to iron👍

And i second the Tailored/Slim fit for skinny dudes.

 

[surftheiop]

Buy yourself a few Jos A Bank Traveler's series shirts when they run they run one of their 3 for 1 sales. They are great quality plus you'll never have to iron👍

And i second the Tailored/Slim fit for skinny dudes.

They are running 3 for 1 today online, I might go ahead and order some. I've always been a white and light blue guy personally, I wonder if I should branch out at all in colors.

 

[projectlogic]

It's going to be school-specific, so ask upperclassman at your school.

 

[mdeast]

We did it once a week for some periods in MS1. I actually had just one "patient" outfit the whole year and didn't care that much. I also gave up on wearing ties, but maybe that's just because I go to school in California and no one seemed to notice or care. Just wear something decent and make sure you throw on a white coat so people aren't distracted if it's cheap looking.

 

[2012mdc]

We did it once a week for some periods in MS1. I actually had just one "patient" outfit the whole year and didn't care that much. I also gave up on wearing ties, but maybe that's just because I go to school in California and no one seemed to notice or care. Just wear something decent and make sure you throw on a white coat so people aren't distracted if it's cheap looking.

Man I miss the Cali attitude. They would go crazy if we didn't have ties on when we dressed up. I still remember my chief tearing up an intern for not having a tie on.

 

[410322]

Thanks for the advice, now that I looked at the tag I guess my shirts are the iron-free ones. I'll go ahead and tell my parents I want dress shirts for my birthday.

You don't sound like the kind of guy that's going to care about this, but as you start buying middle- to higher-end clothes, noniron is a terrible choice. To get the non-iron quality they chemically finish the cotton. Maybe as an MS-3, MS-4 you'll start to notice these things.

Also, keep it professional. Whites, light blues, light pinks, a lavender or two. But they don't have to be solids. Fine gingham checks, stripes (bengal stripe is the most classic), etc. Material-wise I opt for 100% cotton, but I like dress clothes. If you feel no difference, and want to save money, you can do a poly blend (eg: Van Heusen, Alfani, ..etc).

As for ties, I like soporific. See if you can find a navy or maroon with fine white pindots. They match up to dozens of types of shirts and never look out of place. Definitely don't do the "one tie per shirt" buying strategy that I see so many people do. Experiment a little!

Dress pants: 100% cotton, wool, or twill. Polyester pants will absolutely not breath and as you're running around in them all day, you will feel hot.

If you have more specific questions about things as you start looking, shoot me a PM.

 

[Mattchiavelli]

Man I miss the Cali attitude. They would go crazy if we didn't have ties on when we dressed up. I still remember my chief tearing up an intern for not having a tie on.

I've heard ties are becoming optional in more and more places, in our resident handbook it clearly says ties are optional, which is nice, because I hate them.

Linen blend pants are essential if you're a sweater and parts of your hospital are not air conditioned very well. Oh, and wrinkle releaser is your friend... or instead of ironing you can soak a hand towel and throw a shirt in the dryer with it for about 10 mins to kill wrinkles.

 

[armybound]

You don't sound like the kind of guy that's going to care about this, but as you start buying middle- to higher-end clothes, noniron is a terrible choice. To get the non-iron quality they chemically finish the cotton. Maybe as an MS-3, MS-4 you'll start to notice these things.

Also, keep it professional. Whites, light blues, light pinks, a lavender or two. But they don't have to be solids. Fine gingham checks, stripes (bengal stripe is the most classic), etc. Material-wise I opt for 100% cotton, but I like dress clothes. If you feel no difference, and want to save money, you can do a poly blend (eg: Van Heusen, Alfani, ..etc).

As for ties, I like soporific. See if you can find a navy or maroon with fine white pindots. They match up to dozens of types of shirts and never look out of place. Definitely don't do the "one tie per shirt" buying strategy that I see so many people do. Experiment a little!

Dress pants: 100% cotton, wool, or twill. Polyester pants will absolutely not breath and as you're running around in them all day, you will feel hot.

If you have more specific questions about things as you start looking, shoot me a PM.

soporific ties, eh? someone spends some time on styleforum.

 

[Barcu]

The anti-ironing crowd on this thread is pretty funny. It's really not all that difficult nor time-consuming to iron your shirts. Plus, I think it looks better.

Having a non-iron shirt or two is pretty nice when travelling (but really, it's still pretty easy to iron your clothes).

Just buy a few nice shirts, a couple ties, and a couple nice pairs of pants. Make sure they all match each other, so you can create lots of different combos.

And very important, make sure they fit right. You don't need to be super-stylish man, but ill-fitting dress clothes look terribly unprofessional.

 

[gettheleadout]

soporific ties, eh? someone spends some time on styleforum.

 

[Funky]

If you must iron your shirt, iron only the front. You can just wear the white coat to hide those wrinkles so you don't look like such a hobo.

 

[medstudent1113]

Sorry in advance for the stupid questions, but I've be a t-shirt and shorts guy my whole life.

I was curious how often I need to plan on wearing the white coat / dress shirt / tie as an MS1, probably like once a week for some sort of preceptorship right? I know this sounds dumb, but I hardly have any dress clothes (like 2 shirts / 2 ties) so trying to figure if I should start trying to expand my selection before school starts.

Also as an aside, once you get to MS3 and have to dress up everyday, do people buy like 20 shirts so they only need to do a ton of ironing every once in a while?

I think I dressed up once a week during MS1 and MS2 years. I have to dress up every day for MS3 year. In anticipation of this, I bought shirts, pants, ties (even 'child friendly' ties for my pads rotation), and shoes. I think I have 7-8 shirts, 5-6 pairs of pants, 10 or so ties, two pairs of shoes (one black and one brown). Some of my classmates also bought a second white coat for MS3 year, although I'm not sure if I want to do this.

 

[410322]

soporific ties, eh? someone spends some time on styleforum.

Spent*. But I'd actually heard the term before there, believe it or not. I just found them stupid until a more professional dress started appealing to me.

 

[sanityonleave]

I've heard ties are becoming optional in more and more places, in our resident handbook it clearly says ties are optional, which is nice, because I hate them.

I don't have much advice to add to the OP except to reiterate that non-iron shirts are great. I have a few iron shirts that I love, and I will happily iron them, but not when I'm running late for class at 8 am.

As to the above about ties, this is absolutely not the case at my program. Granted, I go to school in the deep south, which tends to be more formal/traditional -- but a few of the guys in my class tried to show up to rounds / wards / whatever without ties and got in trouble for it.

 

[armybound]

The only rotation where guys don't wear ties at my school is psych.

 

[WashMe]

The only rotation where guys don't wear ties at my school is psych.

so the patients don't choke them out?

 

[armybound]

so the patients don't choke them out?

precisely. bitches be craaaazy