Medical Fact of the Day – Why White Coats?
I wore my white coat today to shadow a geneticist in clinic. This made me wonder - why do doctors even wear white coats? It is a recognizable symbol of the medical profession, but how did it start?
WIthout any context, this man looks like a doctor. What a powerful symbol the white coat is.
One answer seems to be that the knee-length coat is indicative of a scientific approach to medicine. It had traditionally been used to ward off chemicals in the laboratory. In the 1900s, scientific medicine competed with homeopathy and traditional remedies, but the development of more powerful drugs established the power of science to treat humans. As a result, doctors adopted the white coat as symbolic of the role of science within medicine and to claim legitimacy in their roles.
Alternatively, my TA in anatomy had a bloodier story. In the early days of surgery, there were very few ways to see inside the patient's body to know exactly what to operate on and where other things were. As a result, the surgeons practiced their procedures on dead bodies right before trying their hand at the real patients. The white coats were thus worn to shield the doctor from the dead body's fluids before transitioning to the live patient. I couldn't verify this story, though it certainly is meaty.
Nowadays, there is debate on the appropriateness of the white coat. Some say it can increase infection and is an unnecessary symbol of medical hubris. However, the white coat has become such a clear marker of the doctor that patients are much more likely to trust physicians wearing the white coat.
Personally, I also find its pockets useful to hold pens, electronic devices, and a stethoscope.
Fun fact: Medical students wear shorter white coats that extend to the waist, while doctors with their MD degrees have longer coats extending almost to the knee. Often patients address me as doctor despite my shorter coat, which is giving me far more credit than I deserve.
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October 13th, 2009 - 23:47
I agree, patients address me as Doc all the time. I’ve stopped correcting them, though I did have a funny encounter a few weeks ago. I was doing pre-rounds on a 14 year old girl with meningitis. Her mom was asking me basic questions about the disease when the girl said, “Mom, stop grilling him! He’s just a med student!”
October 16th, 2009 - 00:18
The white coat really is a fickle concept. On one hand, it may serve as an invisible barrier between patients but on the other it offers comfort for patience to know they are in safe with a medical professional.
October 18th, 2009 - 23:09
Other professions seem to have evolved past a symbolic uniform. Lawyers, for example, no longer wear robes and wigs (although judges still do). Why is the medical profession more tied to the uniform?
November 6th, 2009 - 21:35
George: Lawyers in the UK do wear wigs, right?
I can think of several reasons doctors still wear coats:
-they’re functional since they give pockets to hold lots of stuff.
-the popular media perpetuates this image (pharmaceutical commercials to blame as well) so patients expect it. The abandoment of the robe and wig (I assume) occurred before the advent of television and so disappeared from the public conscience.
It’s also still necessary for lawyers to dress _well_ in general. A lawyer wearing jeans and a sweatshirt would have no credibility, and so there is still a remnant of symbolism in the whole ordeal.