White Coat, Physicians' Art

Doctors may no longer be viewed by patients as demi-gods, but they are viewed as professionals upon whom people rely to diagnose and treat ailments, and to give aid and comfort to the afflicted. Somehow part of that trust and respect is conveyed when doctors' appearance seems to reflect the gravity and importance of their profession.

That is difficult to convey when doctors are casually dressed, in jeans and open-necked sport shirt. Somehow it just doesn't look professional. It becomes difficult for patients to have trust in the ability and expertise of a doctor who looks just like them. Call that the white-coat syndrome.

Even though the white-coat syndrome is commonly used as an expression to explain how it is that patients so often express high blood pressure on a visit to the doctor's office, or when their vital symptoms are being checked before a medical procedure. It is, in effect, an expression or realization that a doctor's diagnostic and therapeutic capability can have a major effect on someone's life.

Along with the fears of hearing bad news about one's health from a medical professional, amplified by tension, and reflected in higher blood pressure readings. Which most doctors realize, understand and tuck away in a patient's medical chart. The thing of it is, people do want to have respect and trust in their medical doctors. Appearances mean a great deal.

A doctor who presents in a traditional white coat signals who he is, what he represents, and that the patient's care is in reliable hands.  A doctor who presents in slacks and casual wear looks like anyone else and the mind of the observer has to play around with that, sticking a medical degree onto the sport shirted professional, on faith.

This is not the impression of a casual few people wedded to tradition. A new study has come to the conclusion that people in intensive care place more trust in doctors who are well groomed and wear the conventional white coat or scrubs, both of which are becoming less conventional as new physicians and surgeons take the place of the old guard.

Even doctors in business suits do not impress patients to the extent of those wearing white coats. "Traditional attire was associated with perceptions of knowledge, honesty and providing best overall care. Physicians wearing scrubs were a second choice and were perceived as being caring and competent to perform a life-saving procedure", reports a study published in the current issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

According to the study authors, Drs. Selena Au and Henry T. Stelfox, University of Calgary's department of critical care medicine and Farah Khandwala of Alberta Health Services, doctors' appearances in ICU settings can be particularly critical to the apprehension of patients, where trust needs to be quickly established.

Human beings are, quite simply, creatures of habit and expectations. It is been habitual that we see medical practitioners garbed in an outfit expressing their profession; our expectations that medical professionals will greet us in this way, establishes, confirms and consolidates our trust in their medical degrees and professionalism.