Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Dress for success or sterility?
You may think that your quality of care and adherence to guidelines are crucial measures of medical performance, but physicians' clothing choice, of all things, seems to be the quality issue that won't go away. (At least not until something more entertaining comes along for medical journalists to write about.) We first analyzed patients' preferences related to doctors' dress back in April 2007.
Now, the Brits are taking action on the subject, according to the New York Times. The National Health Service has banned ties and encouraged docs to wear short-sleeve shirts, with a goal toward reducing the spread of infections. Debate has ensued, as apparently evidence is mixed (and limited) on whether ties are overall good or bad for patient care.
One reader came out definitely against ties in a response to our article. What do you think? Is it more important to gain that little bit of patient respect garnered by a tie? Or would you rather reduce the possibility that your clothes are spreading germs?
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
8:00 AM
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3 Comments:
On my Ob/Gyn clerkship last fall, a male medical student colleague and I (a woman) discussed the pros and cons of ties, bow ties, and no ties. He is one of those men who is able to pull off the look of a bow tie without looking silly, and he is now convinced it is the way to go in medicine, after witnessing something particularly unsettling: a male attending wearing a tie stood up at the end of a pelvic exam to do the bimanual exam, and leaned forward ever so slightly over the patient's lower abdomen. My friend saw the end of his tie fall forward into the patient's labia and touch vaginal discharge, and the doctor didn't notice. He (my friend) was scarred for life, and I admit that after hearing that story, and finding out how infrequently ties are cleaned, I am also a convert to the "no ties" theory.
Ewww. Yet again, personal experience proves to be more convincing than abstract data.
Even more worse, an attending intubating a patient at our hospital forgot to throw his tie over his shoulder, and ended up stuffing the tie into the ET tube. Because he was so into looking for the 'cords' he did no seem to notice, and ended up almost asphyxiating both himself and the patient!!
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