med students with long coats???

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Panda Bear said:
One day I was standing at the nurse's station in the Emergency Department drinking my Diet Cherry Coke during a rare quiet moment when I saw a guy in a Long White Coat and scrubs walking down the hall. I knew he wasn't a doctor by his demeanor and bearing but I idly surmised that maybe he was a respiratory tech or a Nurse Practitioner...you know, someone like that.

He stopped at his janitorial cart, put on his iPod, grabbed a toilet brush and proceded to give the crapper in a hall bathroom the most righteous cleaning I have ever seen. He was an artist. A true craftsman and that ****ing bathroom was absolutely spotless.
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:laugh::laugh::laugh:

just...wow. Why the hell is this allowed?
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HoodyHoo said:
So I am working at a hospital in so. florida and I noticed that the 3rd year med students from one of the schools down here wear long coats. I thought it was interesting to say the least. I personally feel that I need to earn my long coat. would there be any justifiable reasoning as to why they do not where short coats I wonder? just a thought.
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The official reason why students wear long white coats at the University of Miami is because students are seen as team members and colleagues from the day they start med school. The atmosphere of the medical center really is set up that way from the start. I've seen places where its been like med students just about only talk to med students and PGY1s to PGY1s, fellows to fellows/attendings, etc... its not like that at Miami at all. The long white coat for students just reflects that.
 
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AmoryBlaine said:
He had obviously earned his LWC -- unlike us snot-nosed, upstart medical students.
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Very, very true.

Maybe to fix the problem, though, doctors should just wear longer white coats. The chief of medicine could have a really long coat, like a ridiculous wedding dress, and a pair of med students to carry it around for him.
 
Xerxes1729 said:
Very, very true.

Maybe to fix the problem, though, doctors should just wear longer white coats. The chief of medicine could have a really long coat, like a ridiculous wedding dress, and a pair of med students to carry it around for him.
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Either that or we could start wearing long hot-pink coats. Although if we did I guarantee you that all the NPs, PAs, dieticians, PT/OTs, speech pathologists, and RTs would want pink coats within 2 years.
 
it pisses me off too when i see nurses wearing white coats. it's not that the white coat per se is anything special. (tho i dont believe it significantly spreads germs unless you are dripping with body fluids or something). as much as i hate my short white coat (so unflattering!) i like the idea that we are clearly identified in the hospital heirarchy as doctors in training as opposed to doctors. In addition, as a woman, wearing the long white coat clearly identifies me as a doctor as opposed to nurse. wearing it means i get fewer patients assuming i'm the nurse.
 
yeap, i sorta feel that we should earn our white coats as well, but i'm not going to complain with my long coat.
 
I vote this thread as funny thread of the month. seriously between Tired's comments about wizard hats, the suggestion that we wear tear away gowns, the suggestion that we wear patient gowns, Panda's usual funny and witty comments, and so many others, I've spent the last 20 minutes cracking up here at some of the comments.
 
BTW while on the topic, England did away with white coats because they said it carried too many germs. They believe people should wear short sleeved scrubs to minimize germs. They don't even let doctors wear long sleeve dress shirts and stuff like that. Apparently it caused quite a stir with muslim female workers.
 
Reminds me of:

Backstreet Boys (I want it that way)..

White coat and pants..

In singapore, it is the uniform of one of our political groups..😉
 
I have to wear a long white coat at work - biological scientist. It's fitted to me and everything. It will suck to have to start wearing an ugly short one this fall. At least it will have my name on it, that is one thing to look forward to.
 
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We have long coats and thank GOD for that. I really don't need to feel like even more of a little bitch.
 
I think it's funny that the "cosmetologists"/makeup consultants/whatever at the local JC Penney and Macy's wear white coats as well :laugh:
 
LeLu said:
I have to wear a long white coat at work - biological scientist. It's fitted to me and everything. It will suck to have to start wearing an ugly short one this fall. At least it will have my name on it, that is one thing to look forward to.
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I stopped wearing my short white coat during my 4th year and I noticed I was treated a bit better in the hospital. One day I decided to wear it again on a whim and I remembered why I had stopped: it's like wearing a "KICK ME" sign.
 
DrZeke said:
He's just crying cuz he had to swipe into his mandatory classes everyday 🙂 AAAAAAND he has to wear a short white coat. Sorry OP...
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Hey DrZeke, you've been "yzarc gniog ylwolS" for almost 2 years now and I was wondering when you're finally going to get there. 😉
 
I was at the coffee bar getting my coffee when I'm surrounded by all these kids in long white coats. I'm thinking, hmm, I wonder who these kids are? I never asked, but they had a patch on their shoulder from their high school (as far as I could tell they probably were high school kids interested in medicine). So there you go, even high school kids can wear the long white coats and look sharp! Every lab tech wears a long white coat.

I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not a fan of elitism anyway; I would rather just wear a nice shirt and slacks or scrubs anyway.
 
I was on the wards today and this topic was running through my mind. I looked at the ward nurse and she had a long white coat. I looked at the hospital administrator, and they had a long white coat.

You know what angers me to the most. When I look at the white coats of these nurses and I see: Jane Doe, RN, MPH stitched on their jacket. Why in God's name does your MPH degree have to be stitched onto your obcenely long white coat? I have also seen long white coats with a master's degree stitched onto it.

As much as I enjoyed my white coat ceremony, I think that I am going to walk around with just my stethoscope, my ID badge, and my pager like some of the ER docs do the surgeons on clinic. People aren't quite sure what you are, but when they see you with patients it becomes more clear.

The short white coat is just stupid. Even this guy below gets to wear a long white coat:
RK_KT50_LS.jpg
 
I was addressed as "doctor" in the hallway when I wore a lab coat as a grad student. I wasn't even walking in the hospital hallways; I was one building over from the hospital.
 
I demand that every person in the hospital wears a hat that tells you how long since they got their MD or how long until they get it. That'll put those RNs in their place!!! :laugh:
 
Arsenic said:
The official reason why students wear long white coats at the University of Miami is because students are seen as team members and colleagues from the day they start med school. The atmosphere of the medical center really is set up that way from the start. I've seen places where its been like med students just about only talk to med students and PGY1s to PGY1s, fellows to fellows/attendings, etc... its not like that at Miami at all. The long white coat for students just reflects that.
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Seems like a nice place to be. I have come to accept that the majority of higher education is based on degradation and cruelty. Wearing the short coat is merely a metaphor for "easy access" as the residents and attendings screw you over constantly.
 
daisy958 said:
FSU = long white coat UNLESS you do clinical years at a hospital that also has residents...in that case, we have to buy new short coats <a href="http://img .studentdoctor.net /images/smilies/rolleyes .gif" border="0" alt="" title="Roll Eyes (Sarcastic)" smilieid="8" class="inlineimg" />
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what kind of teaching hospitals are you at that dont have residents?
 
I've worn one for years as a grad student but only when I have to work with scary **** (a butcher and a janitor have better reason for wearing LWC than MDs). I'm not looking forward to looking like an ice-cream seller only. Just give us all IDs and leave us alone. Look, I know I'm not even MS1 for two more months but white coats in a hospital just denote people who are part of the staff. All the bitching about non-MDs wearing them is pointless. We all know that any step which devalues nurses ect. would cause the level of patient care to plummet. Just color-code the badges everyone wears and be done with it. Make it national so the patients know who to chase down.
 
Leiflet I agree with you completely. In the hospital where I work, lots of different people wear white coats, from lab workers to PAs to nurse managers. I really don't think many of them went through the thought process of "Maybe if I wear this coat, everyone will think I'm a doctor, which is way more prestigious, and then I can give out medical advice hahaha (wicked laugh)". Actually, most of us are just given a set of options for our uniforms, which sometimes include white lab coats. All the doctors wear black MD badges (and many don't wear white coats at all), and although the patients may not be clued into that yet, I'd like to think that anyone that is caring for a patient and is wrongly addressed as doctor is not running away with the assumption.
Also, wearing coats when you're around patients all day can get kinda gross (I guess there's evidence to back this up), you have to admit that at least WHITE coats are better than say, black, if you're going to wear a coat anyways (which many hospital workers do since its so darn cold in there). I kind of see it as, you're going to wear a coat that will get dirty, but if you wear a white coat, you will more likely keep on top of cleaning it since it will be really obvious if you don't-maybe that's why administration or whoever is encouraging white coats for everyone. Either way, as long as people aren't taking advantage of others' ignorance/assumptions with their white coat wearing, I couldn't care less who has one on.
I also think that picturing the whole hierarchy of the hospital from doctors down, as described a lot here, is a little bit egotistical, whether or not it's true. Doctors may write orders and be "in charge" of others, but that doesn't make them better than other people in the hospital. It seems like a lot of this debate is based on the perception that doctors are the best and everyone is trying to emulate them, which I really don't think is true in most cases. Yeah, traditionally white coats have been for doctors, but this is not the military (for most of us). Saying a nurse or PA has not earned a white coat like a doctor has is a little like saying everyone's goal should be an MD and those who don't have it have just failed in life. I'm not trying to offend anyone, and I obviously don't have the perspective of those who have "earned" their coats, but I'm just trying to give the perspective of that janitor who is given the option of white coat or no coat. I really don't think he or she is trying to take something away from what it means to be a doctor. If our culture does dictate that wearing a white coat yields respect and prestige, then having people copy it, if it really is copying even, should be seen as flattery, not just fuel for the ego and condescension fire.
 
HoodyHoo said:
So I am working at a hospital in so. florida and I noticed that the 3rd year med students from one of the schools down here wear long coats. I thought it was interesting to say the least. I personally feel that I need to earn my long coat. would there be any justifiable reasoning as to why they do not where short coats I wonder? just a thought.
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you are talking about UM, and yes we get to wear long coats. Yes I feel undeserving at times, esp when I dont even know how to get around the hospital, but other times it feels bad ass. Not only that, I look way younger than I am adding to the awkwardness of me wearing a full length white coat.
 
I could write here about how much it bugs me that everybody seems to wear white coats. Hell, it would be true. We all have stories about someone wearing a white coat that really shouldn't be.

But for crying out loud, guys? Are we really that shallow? It's just a freaking coat! I know we've all worked hard to get to our "place on the totem pole," but does it really matter? At the end of the day, who cares if someone gives a stranger more respect than they "deserve"? Just bite the bullet and deal with not being worshiped when you walk down the hall. I'm sure your ego will survive.

And if you're really concerned with setting yourself apart from the lilliputians, you can always just show up in a regular tie or blouse or something. The only people who wear those and still carry stethoscopes are doctors.
 
Blesbok said:
what kind of teaching hospitals are you at that dont have residents?
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FSU does their clinicals at different off location sites. Some of them like ORMC which will soon be affiliated with UCF are already established academic hospitals. same with Fl. hospital system that FSU, Nova, and now UCF also uses.

However, other smaller hospitals in rural sites are probably not al affiliated with academic institutions where residents are i.e. those in Pensacola or Southern Georgia where they go. Sarasota Memorial which is a major USF nursing teaching hospital is also not affiliated with med schools just nursing schools so it won't have residents. That is also a FSU hospital.

So I am willing to bet she means those hospital sites or maybe their new one in ft. pierce.
 
At the ER i used to volunteer at, you knew who was who by what color scrubs you were wearing.

Techs - green
docs - light blue
nurses - "normal" blue
unit secretaries - hot pink (the one dude refused)
scribes - maroon
admissions people - light brown
Social workers - black

It was like walking around the flight deck on an aircraft carrier
 
You know what angers me to the most. When I look at the white coats of these nurses and I see: Jane Doe, RN, MPH stitched on their jacket. Why in God's name does your MPH degree have to be stitched onto your obcenely long white coat?
Click to expand...

That's a whole other topic entirely (sorry for the derail) but they're really starting to copy the "alphabet soup" after your name.

A nurse practitioner handed me her card a year or so ago to give me her number and it was like: Jane Doe RN BSN MS MPH APN and I swear a few more I didn't recognize.

I mean, yeah celebrate your academic achievement but it gets ridiculous. Of course, MD's started it with their PhD's and professional organization on it, but we don't write our undergraduate degree at least.
 
PeepshowJohnny said:
That's a whole other topic entirely (sorry for the derail) but they're really starting to copy the "alphabet soup" after your name.

A nurse practitioner handed me her card a year or so ago to give me her number and it was like: Jane Doe RN BSN MS MPH APN and I swear a few more I didn't recognize.

I mean, yeah celebrate your academic achievement but it gets ridiculous. Of course, MD's started it with their PhD's and professional organization on it, but we don't write our undergraduate degree at least.
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The more important you are, the fewer abbreviations after your name. That's a good rule of thumb. Also, patients can generally tell their doctor apart from the crowd by his bearing, knowledge, use of language, and the fact that he's not taking direction from anyone else. If you act the part, and there is a lot of theater in medicine, you will have no problem being recognized.
 
Leiflet said:
Just color-code the badges everyone wears and be done with it. Make it national so the patients know who to chase down.
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👍 this is what they do at vandy.

rn = light blue
np = dark blue
other staff - white
residents = light green
attendings = dark green
 
laawalla said:
Leiflet I agree with you completely. In the hospital where I work, lots of different people wear white coats, from lab workers to PAs to nurse managers. I really don't think many of them went through the thought process of "Maybe if I wear this coat, everyone will think I'm a doctor, which is way more prestigious, and then I can give out medical advice hahaha (wicked laugh)". Actually, most of us are just given a set of options for our uniforms, which sometimes include white lab coats. All the doctors wear black MD badges (and many don't wear white coats at all), and although the patients may not be clued into that yet, I'd like to think that anyone that is caring for a patient and is wrongly addressed as doctor is not running away with the assumption.
Also, wearing coats when you're around patients all day can get kinda gross (I guess there's evidence to back this up), you have to admit that at least WHITE coats are better than say, black, if you're going to wear a coat anyways (which many hospital workers do since its so darn cold in there). I kind of see it as, you're going to wear a coat that will get dirty, but if you wear a white coat, you will more likely keep on top of cleaning it since it will be really obvious if you don't-maybe that's why administration or whoever is encouraging white coats for everyone. Either way, as long as people aren't taking advantage of others' ignorance/assumptions with their white coat wearing, I couldn't care less who has one on.
I also think that picturing the whole hierarchy of the hospital from doctors down, as described a lot here, is a little bit egotistical, whether or not it's true. Doctors may write orders and be "in charge" of others, but that doesn't make them better than other people in the hospital. It seems like a lot of this debate is based on the perception that doctors are the best and everyone is trying to emulate them, which I really don't think is true in most cases. Yeah, traditionally white coats have been for doctors, but this is not the military (for most of us). Saying a nurse or PA has not earned a white coat like a doctor has is a little like saying everyone's goal should be an MD and those who don't have it have just failed in life. I'm not trying to offend anyone, and I obviously don't have the perspective of those who have "earned" their coats, but I'm just trying to give the perspective of that janitor who is given the option of white coat or no coat. I really don't think he or she is trying to take something away from what it means to be a doctor. If our culture does dictate that wearing a white coat yields respect and prestige, then having people copy it, if it really is copying even, should be seen as flattery, not just fuel for the ego and condescension fire.
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quoted for truth
 
lapelirroja said:
however I don't think that PAs and NPs are ridiculous for wearing them, when they are performing similar tasks.
Hopefully no one rags on me for wearing a white coat when I'm a PA...although I suspect there will be some animosity anyway...oh well!
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This is not taking a shot at or attacking you personally, but I've never quite understood why people (i.e. NP, PA, etc.) who are "performing similar tasks" feel they should be granted physician treatment and have the same privelages as a doc. PAs and NPs are glorified nurses with 2 years of extra school (sorry,somone had to say it) so if you want people to treat you like a doc why not just go to med school? When I did an anesthesia rotation, I saw a PA do a brain biopsy that the neurosurgeon should have been doing, and was shocked. It's gone far beyond the "assistant" role, which I think is complete B.S.
 
AmoryBlaine said:
Either that or we could start wearing long hot-pink coats. Although if we did I guarantee you that all the NPs, PAs, dieticians, PT/OTs, speech pathologists, and RTs would want pink coats within 2 years.
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very true. At Shock Trauma at the University of MD they have pink scrubs because they thought people would steal them less than they did other colors. Now the pink scrubs are like a badge of honor and everyone wants them.
 
GoBuckeyes913 said:
This is not taking a shot at or attacking you personally, but I've never quite understood why people (i.e. NP, PA, etc.) who are "performing similar tasks" feel they should be granted physician treatment and have the same privelages as a doc. PAs and NPs are glorified nurses with 2 years of extra school (sorry,somone had to say it) so if you want people to treat you like a doc why not just go to med school? When I did an anesthesia rotation, I saw a PA do a brain biopsy that the neurosurgeon should have been doing, and was shocked. It's gone far beyond the "assistant" role, which I think is complete B.S.
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PAs are not glorified nurses. If anything they have less education than most nurses.
 
At our hospital, the only people that wear them are the MD, DO, the one PA i have seen, and the Pharmacists. I am a pharmacy intern, and i generally wear scrubs, but sometimes, when i am going to be on the floor all day, i wear my short white coat given to me by my school.

do you guys not like that pharmacists, especially ones on clinical teams ( such as ICU, or internal medicine) wear white coats?
 
TheRealMD said:
I demand that every person in the hospital wears a hat that tells you how long since they got their MD or how long until they get it. That'll put those RNs in their place!!! :laugh:
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There was actually a readers digest article about this maybe a year or two ago. In one state the doctors are required by law to have on their badge what part of the hierarchy they are in (and, in necessary, what year in post-graduate training they are in) because patients felt that they should know without having to ask. The article basically said that the worst times to be in the hospital were weekends and nights, especially when the new residents are there in the summer.
 
neuroprotector said:
...actually, a lot of PAs started out as nurses.
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that may be so. But many of the freshly minted PAs I meet are younger than I am (I'm almost 25). I figure a nurse practitioner meeting minimal requirements still has more education (BSN and then practice requirements before NP program) and hands on patient experience coming out of school than a PA meeting minimum requirements.

Obviously there are exceptions to everything, I could go find an exception to that statement tomorrow. I'm just saying that's what I see the most of.


And I get mistaken more for a doctor when I'm wearing a black t-shirt and green OR scrubs bottoms than I do in my white coat. Or if I dress business casual and have papers with me - maybe I look particularly "doctorly" and should head to med school? :laugh: (Actually I think there are a handful of residents and fellows who are about my height with similar colored hair, we probably all look the same from behind).
 
university of chicago med students get the long white coats, not the short ones ... get them day one at the white coat ceremony
 
At our school, nurse practitioner STUDENTS wear long white coats, and med students wear short white coats.
 
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Everyone from RT's to u/s techs wear long coats at my hospital. Physicians usually wear scrubs or professional attire. Only the IM docs (usually not specialists) wear the white coats, and some surgeons going to clinic.

I used to work in an ER where the unit clerk wore a white coat and the docs wore street clothes (mostly).
 
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I'm surprised you wear white coats at all. In the UK doctors and students haven't worn white coats for years (except randomly in Wales). Ties have to be tucked into shirts or pinned back and in most deaneries you can't wear anything below the elbow, sleeves, watches, bracelets etc
 
white coats are stupid unless you like sweating all day.
 
njac said:
PAs are not glorified nurses. If anything they have less education than most nurses.
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In my opinion, they are. I'm well aware of the educational requirements of a PA. Jesus, why is everyone on this site always so quick to get techinical about everything?
 
HoodyHoo said:
So I am working at a hospital in so. florida and I noticed that the 3rd year med students from one of the schools down here wear long coats. I thought it was interesting to say the least. I personally feel that I need to earn my long coat. would there be any justifiable reasoning as to why they do not where short coats I wonder? just a thought.
Click to expand...

cry_me_a_river.jpg
 
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