Doctors: Professional Attire

I read this article in the New York Times today (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/health/21essa.html?_r=2&oref=slogin) and I wondered how important it is to people here that your doctor dress professionally? Or, in general, how do you relate to your doctor's appearance? Do you prefer an attractive doctor? And if so, would you prefer you doctor to be dressed professionally? Casually? Or even wearing something that is revealing?

Does an inappropriately dressed doctor wreck the fantasy for you?

My doctor is a woman, and I confess that I have noticed that she has nice legs, for example...

In RL my GP practice is a group one and previously i have seen a male doctor who dresses informally: no tie, no suit. I suppose "smart casual" is the phrase. He has always been fine as a GP and I hadn't thought about his dress until i recently saw another GP at the practice, as mine was unavailable. This one was very smart. Not a suit, but a tie, ironed shirt etc. and, interestinglym, younger than my usual GP.

It was sufficiently striking for me to wonder if it made a difference to me, or if i preferred one style over another, assuming everything else was equal, and i think i prefer the second, smarter GP. He had an air of confidence and professionalism which wasn't totally down to his manner. However on the basis of one consultation i am not sure i can really make a real assessment.

But it is an interesting area to explore.

I prefer my doctor to dress professionally. The last time I saw my GP, who usually dresses well, she had on a revealing top with her girls almost hanging out. I was really shocked, as it was not like her, and I was a bit put off by it. Perhaps she was showing off her new tan, as she'd gone south for March Break (she's from a hot climate and hates the Canadian winter!), but I just found it not professional.

Male doctors, I like to see in shirt, tie and lab coat but that is rare these days. As long as they are neat, clean and presentable ie. no jeans, torn clothing etc., I can live with that.

The turn off that sticks in my mind most about a doctor was when I went to a walk in clinic in a large city, and the doctor came in cracking gum! I don't remember what she was wearing, but she had quite a bit of makeup on, and was chewing gum, cracking it with that loud, annoying sound. That really, really, really put me off and I never went back there.

As for attractiveness, it's not important to me, male or female.

In play, shirt, tie and lab coat of course. Scrubs are good, too, for an occasional change of pace.

I like the doctor to have a shirt and tie. The white coat is fine but not as important as the shirt and tie. This kind of attire makes me feel more inadequate in my white briefs.

Outside of a real hospital setting, it seems like most doctors don't even put on medical whites in their own consultation rooms anymore. Our family doctor doesn't in any case. I don't know why the trend is to just wearing normal civilian clothes. To save on laundry? Or maybe to lower the threshold between medical personnel and patients? Even in hospitals where the staff has to wear some kind of medical clothing, I find it impossible to identify who is a nurse, doctor or cleaning staff. Perhaps it's more egalitarian, but sometimes identifying items helps when you need to ask a question and you approach the wrong person.

And I've gotta say, the not shaved for 3 days look gives me an instant mistrust of the person. I don't place any particular coolness on the haggard detective look on TV shows, it's the same with central casting for drug runners, Mid Eastern terrorists and others ... not shaving is not cool.

As is the trend in most businesses in the US today, even in the medical field the trend is more of a casual look...after all it has been decades since nurses wore white caps and dresses, and even the lab coat seems optional today. Personally, I don't care what they wear so long as I get a good and complete exam.

My PCP is a female, attractive but wears loose casual clothing, nothing that looks like medical clothing. She is extremely fit but very petite. Always has worn very loose pants. Only skin exposed is her face and hands!!

At my local GP practice the male Drs tend to wear a shirt and trousers, no tie and open neck shirt. The female Drs are smart casual. I miss the days of the GP being in a white coat.

@agracier ,

I think the trend away from that is to make practitioners look more approachable to encourage patients to open up. My PCP does a lot of touches around the office to ease patient anxiety, and if she has hers on its more because she's cold. Also, in situations where infection control is very strict, there's been some data that indicate they're not the best item to wear due to germs potentially hitching a ride. When I've been helping providers suit up to go into hot zones, lab coat didn't go with them, didn't matter whether they wore it routinely out of the hot zone or not.

Seems that all workplaces are becoming more casual. I wore a sport coat and tie for many years in the 70's - 90's….then gradually weened off to slacks and a shirt to slacks and a tee-shirt in the 2010 timeframe. Suspect medical workers followed the same kind of casual transformation. My docs wear anything from scrubs, to casual clothes, to HK gym pants and shirts.

Seems that all workplaces are becoming more casual. I work a sport coat and tie for many years in the 70's - 90's….then gradually weened off to slacks and a shirt to slacks and a tee-shirt in the 2010 timeframe. Suspect medical workers followed the same kind of casual transformation. My docs wear anything from scrubs, to casual clothes, to HK gym pants and shirts.

@Rigel,

What is HK, a brand name of clothing? Vaguely familiar, but looking it up didn’t help me.

Eric

@Rigel,

What is HK, a brand name of clothing? Vaguely familiar, but looking it up didn’t help me.

Eric

@ericmacson My Bad!!!!!! Thanks for asking as that was a slip on my part. HK (Heckler and Koch) is a German Company that makes technical clothing and accessories, we occasionally shop online. I doubt a doctor would wear any of their clothes at work!!!

I meant to say UnderArmor or Nike gym clothing.

My preference toward nudity in all matters applies to doctors the same as anyone. A health practitioner, a masseuse or spa worker, anyone providing therapy has no business wearing a blessed thing. But I know a lot of people want there to be some kind of boundary, using clothes to set people apart from each other… They're good at that, if that's what you're into.

As for type of clothes, I could not tell you what any doctor I've seen has been wearing, I just don't pay it any attention. I do see a lot of the white coats but in general clothes is clothes. I literally just got back from an MRI and I couldn't tell you what the tech was wearing, beyond some of it being turquoise.

Frankly, I wouldn't care if my male doc wore jeans and a t-shirt, as long as he was competent.

My internist wears dress clothes With a tie and lab coat in the office. Working in academic medicine I’ve seen the med students up to the attending in a variety of costumes from baggy scrubs with less than white lab coats to fully dressed attire with shirt and tie. You can have a professional appearance with scrubs and a lab coat. Competency is not measured in the clothing one wears.

I live in North Carolina, and the dress codes are business casual, in most places. Up North, it was very formal. I’m not interested in how a doctor is dressed, but whether they’re competent, and have good people skills.

I wear shirt and tie in clinics. Friday is casual dress. Many in our office follow similar.. When rounding longer hours in hospital, i switch to scrubs and white coat..

Most docs I’ve ever had by now at age 70 have been male, wearing a shirt and tie, and sometimes suit jacket. The last 15-20 years in OK, I’ve had a very fine ophthalmologist who is a woman, who I’d see both as a colleague in the hospital as well as my personal eye doctor in her office. The last few times I’ve seen her in the office, she’s had another woman partner. In the hospital she’d be in somewhat casual but nice and businesslike dress clothes, or scrubs in the OR. Recently in their office, they’d both be in scrubs and sneakers just like in the hospital OR. I’d been with one of them for a long time, knowing how truly excellent she was as a physician, as well as every partner she’d had, so I was perfectly happy to see them in whatever they liked, from a lady’s business suit to scrubs and sneakers. Incidentally, the chief ophthalmologist, my main eye doctor, also turned out to be my kids’ karate teacher back in their youth, so I’d also see her in even more outfits from a white karate uniform to very casual jeans and sneakers at the dojo. Believe me, this is a very interesting doc! Glad to have her.

Eric

My PCP is male and he always wore a shirt, tie, and dress slacks until COVID. Once COVID began, he began skipping the tie. Honestly, I don’t blame him and I don’t mind a bit. I’ve also heard ties are just germ carriers. His sleeves are always rolled up regardless. I’ve never seen him in scrubs or a labcoat in person except in older photos of him while in residency when he was in his lab coat.

My previous PCP always wore a lab coat over his shirt and tie. I remember thinking the first time I met him that he must have been incredibly hot under it—it was one of the thickest lab coats I had ever seen.

With all that said, I work in a healthcare environment and rarely see any physicians in a white lab coat and definitely never in a tie anymore—pre and post COVID. In fact, it was odd to me to see my PCPs wearing a tie. I figured it was because they were in an outpatient setting versus inpatient. I only see a few surgeons wearing their white coats over their surgical scrubs from the scrub machine if they visit the cafeteria between cases or are walking to their office across campus or vice versa at the beginning or end of the day.

I don’t care what my physician wears, as long as it clean. I got to the doctor in a tshirt and shorts if I’m off work, or business casual if I’m going to or from work,— so why can’t they be in business casual?

Most of my doctors now wear scrubs and a lab coat. Scrubs can be revealing when a female leans over which can make it harder to control things.

Ties are just about a thing of the past. Think about it - even if you are not a physician - when was the last time that you had your tie cleaned (unless, of course, you used it as a bib!)? Probably close to never would be my bet. Had a medical director a few years back who said that the NHS had banned them in England, so he wasn't wearing them when he was doing clinical. Not sure about the NHS ban…

Lab coats are just as bad. How often are they laundered? I've seen resident coats that are black around the pockets. Besides the muck from their reference books and hands, what else are they carrying around with them?

I like scrubs, gloves and overall cleanliness. They are working with blood, vomit, other bodily fluids.

Lab coats are just as bad. How often are they laundered? I've seen resident coats that are black around the pockets. Besides the muck from their reference books and hands, what else are they carrying around with them?

Actually, they carry quite a lot!!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/upshot/doctors-white-coat-bacteria.html

“A systematic review of studies found that white coats are frequently contaminated with strains of harmful and sometimes drug-resistant bacteria associated with hospital-acquired infections. As many as 16 percent of white coats tested positive for MRSA, and up to 42 percent for the bacterial class Gram-negative rods.”

I don’t know if this is common, but I feel less nervous around doctors and nurses who dress more casually. For one thing, my blood pressure is lower. My naturopath dresses in skirt and blouse, her nurse often in nice jeans and a simple top. My gynecologist dresses casual as well, although she puts on a gown when doing an exam.

I still see docs in lab coats in hospitals, particularly those imprinted with the doctor‘s name and specialty. I guess that’s OK for identifying who these people are, but it’s also an ego thing.

My internist wears jeans in his office. I like the fact that he dresses casually.