January 20, 2022
Take a moment and imagine you're in a waiting room at the doctor's office for your annual physical. There's a knock at the door and the doctor says hello as they come into the room. In the scenario you're picturing, is the doctor wearing a white coat? It wouldn't be surprising, since white coats are practically ubiquitous in the profession. But why do doctors wear white coats? In addition to making doctors easily identifiable, there are several reasons they remain popular to this day. Keep reading as we detail their history, the role they play in patient-physician relationships, and which types of doctors are most likely to wear them.
The History of White Coats in Medicine
The white coat doctors wear is called a lab coat, and they didn't become common until the late 1800s. For several centuries leading up to this change, physicians primarily wore dark attire such as thick leather coats with hoods, gloves, and boots. These early uniforms were designed to cover as much of the body as possible and repel fluids in an attempt to prevent the spread of disease during patient visits.
Dark colors remained the standard through the first half of the 19th century, with black and blue serving as the colors of choice as efforts were made to formalize the profession. The goal was both to create a standard for medical training, as well as establish educated physicians as respected members of society. As the turn of the century approached, white coats and uniforms were introduced alongside a focus on improved hygiene in the profession, a change which also saw the introduction of gloves and masks as standard attire in certain settings.
What Does a White Coat Mean to Patients?
So why do doctors wear white clothes? Today we see medical professionals wearing a variety of colors, each with their own unique meaning, but the association between white and cleanliness remains. In the same way, it's been shown that white coats still command respect and convey experience to patients. In a 2018 study, 4,000 patients were surveyed about their perception of medical professionals based on the type of clothing they wore. They found the following:
- 53% of those surveyed said that physician attire matters to them during care.
- Roughly 33% reported that this influenced their satisfaction with the visit.
In addition, each patient was asked to rate their physician on a scale of 1-10 across five categories, including how knowledgeable, trustworthy, caring, and approachable they were, as well as how comfortable they felt with the physician. Final scores indicated that patients have a distinctive positive impression of physicians wearing business attire with a white coat, with this combination earning the highest score (8.1/10). Here's the full breakdown with scores for each type of attire:
- Business attire + white coat: 8.1/10
- Scrubs + white coat: 7.5/10
- Business attire + no coat: 7.5/10
- Business casual + white coat: 7.4/10
- Scrubs + no coat: 7.3/10
- Business attire + suit jacket: 7.1/10
- Business casual + no coat: 6.2/10
In addition to sharing higher scores in every category for attire that featured a white coat, 62% of respondents also said they believe a white coat should be worn when a doctor sees a patient in the hospital. All of this feedback was even more pronounced for patients over 65 years of age.
In summary, the study showed that white coats are a symbol of knowledge and authority for patients seeking medical treatment, and this perception is part of the reason they're still widely worn almost a century and a half after their initial introduction.
Should You Wear a White Coat in Your Role?
Whether you wear a white coat mostly comes down to your personal preference based on your day-to-day responsibilities and whether you feel the need to make a certain impression on your patients. For example, the study above also found that patients generally preferred scrubs and no white coat for surgeons and emergency room staff, while the opposite was true for hospital room visits and in primary care environments.
There have also been debates in the medical community around the potential risk of increased pathogen transmission by physicians wearing long-sleeved coats compared to short-sleeved coats. One study determined that those wearing long-sleeved coats were more likely to end up with transmissible pathogens on their cuffs and were also less likely to include their wrists in handwashing, but it is still inconclusive whether wearing long sleeves leads to greater infection rates among other patients and physicians themselves.
For those who prefer an alternative to a lab coat out of an abundance of caution or for greater ease of movement on the job, sleeveless scrub vests are a great option.
Finding the Coat That's Right for You
Between history, tradition, and patient perception, it's easy to see why doctors wear white coats so often. If you're looking to upgrade your wardrobe with a new coat, be sure to browse our selection of lab coats for women and lab coats for men to find an option that matches your style and professional needs. If you have a question or need help, our customer service team will be happy to assist you.
Sources
- National Library of Medicine. “A brief history of medical uniforms: from ancient history to the COVID-19 time” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/. 21 December 2021.
- BMJ Journals. “Understanding patient preference for physician attire: a cross-sectional observational study of 10 academic medical centres in the USA” https://bmjopen.bmj.com/. 21 December 2021.
- Oxford Academic. “Bare Below the Elbows: A Randomized Trial to Determine Whether Wearing Short-Sleeved Coats Reduces the Risk for Pathogen Transmission” https://academic.oup.com/. 21 December 2021.
