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Rocking the suit, inpatient


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What are your thoughts on physicians/providers wearing suits on a daily basis, particularly with inpatient medicine? At my local hospital there is a hospitalist group and a select few always have nice suits on, expensive shoes, gelled hair, etc.

 

Personally, when I see these guys walking through the hallways I always think to myself that they look like narcissistic douchebags. I mean, I get dressing professionally and understand the shirt/tie with or without the white coat. But why the suit coat? Plus, it just seems gross. If I had multiple nice suits, the last place I'd want to be wearing them is to he hospital.

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Where I work this is expected dress. Business attire is considered the professional uniform for every staff member. Exceptions are food service and maintenance. Even the transporters wear suits (I think provided by the hospital.. they are identical to my eye and don't seem to be tailored).

 

You get used to it. Plus since everyone wears it, it quickly seems less weird.

 

ETA... people can still manage to look a little "douchy" even in a crowd if they are actually douches at heart. :-) SUIT UP!

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I think it looks nice, but could understand a lot of variability. Inpatient rounding on the wards at a prestigious hospital? Understood.

 

In a county ED somwhere...ridiculous. Same principle though... I don't see too many residents (if ever) wearing the EM mullet here, and not too many attendings either. Scrubs and lab coat or dress shirt/khakis and lab coat seems to be par for the course here. I have seen some shops where it is much more station boots/5.11 pants/fleece jacket type atmosphere, but again it was location driven.

 

Orderlys in suits crack me up. Food service has the back pants, vest and tie thing going on, but man, how can you push carts all day in a SUIT!

 

Edited: Agreed with above as well. You always know which ortho guy or cardiologist wants to let everyone know he "made" it just the same as his banker brother. Its the attitude thats more of a problem IMO. I still don't see a problem with a nice suit, gelled hair, and a rolex.

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I'm actually in the process of writing a research proposal to determine the influence that physician assistants' attire has on compliance, confidence, and overall satisfaction of patients. There's been plenty of research concerning physician attire and the overall preferred choice is professional attire, which includes a dress shirt & tie, slacks, and a white coat. I don't see it being much different for physician assistants.

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Some places I work the docs wear cowboy boots & jeans.

Reminded me of an attending that came in one Saturday out in Oregon. She came in with shorts, a t shirt, flip flops, and her golden retriever. Just was checking on a single patient though. Cracked me up.

 

Also, didnt someone figure out ties were fomites?

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Yeah, I don't wear ties except to job interviews, and not to 100% of those.

 

But I am a sucker for a cool vintage blazer from a thrift store. I found a killer Italian-made jacket that was tailored for somebody very very close to my shape, and I feel like a bad-ass wearing it, so that got added to the collection. Another one is an Amana tweed that my late grandfather gave me. 

 

In the spring and fall I might have a jacket on just for comfort, and if I'm going to be seeing people who have hacking coughs or if I'm repairing a wound or doing an I&D, I'll swap it for a lab coat.

 

But if I'm working alongside MDs and they don't have the white coat, I feel a little weird being the only one. We do business casual, and that can mean just the khakis and the button-down shirt, but I find the jacket is nice because it's a place for the pen and the phone and the ID badge, plus it looks sharp.

 

A suit, though? Funny enough, the only people I ever saw in suits were the Infectious Disease team at the hospital where I had my first job after school. They definitely knew ties are fomites and vectors, I think they just never came close enough to a patient for it to matter. ;)

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when I work the obs unit I do shirt/tie, no jacket.

See, that was me for a few good years, but try the jacket with no tie and see how you like it. For me, I stopped feeling like I was at a high school speech meet, or selling car stereos for extra money over college break, and started feeling like George Clooney.

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See, that was me for a few good years, but try the jacket with no tie and see how you like it. For me, I stopped feeling like I was at a high school speech meet, or selling car stereos for extra money over college break, and started feeling like George Clooney.

sorry Feb, but you look more like Jason Statham...not that it's a bad thing...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005458/

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I work ER and my wardrobe varies depending on laundry day, rotation of shirts/pants or personal preference.  Someone mentioned 5.11 - Urban Tactical is my main clothing outlet, since I rarely wear my lab coat anymore, so I need something with pockets.  A lot of their pants are near indestructible.  Occasionally I wear jeans with button down shirts or personalized golf-shirts (courtesy of Vistaprint).  If I'm feeling T-Shirt ish, I wear a scrub top.  When I had an office practice, usually had a button down shirt or golf shirt and slacks or khakis, since I had a desk and shelves for pockets.  Lab coat was there for cold days.  Ties - I wore one on psych consult service and office internal medicine...never wore one in the psych unit or the ER.  Interviews - well, ties also come out.

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Dress Shirt/Button Down, Slacks, +/- Tie, EVERY work day... it is MY work "uniform."

 

Why... because as studies have shown... dressing professional reminds one to be professional.

 

When I'm off... I wear other things.

 

When I'm in 5.11s... I'm a bit more gruff/off-the cuff/reactive... and aggresive.

When I wear sweats/scubs... I'm a bit more laid back and spontaneous... and a bit more "flippant."

When I'm in shorts and flip-flops... I'm a bit more non-chalant and lazy... and more likely to get into trouble.

 

I dress according to my role/the presentation I intend...

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I work OP fp/uc. Most days are slacks and a button down/nice sweater with a white coat or one of my nice feece jackets. A suit would be serious overkill and likely estrange me from my population to an extent. The thought of patient transporters in suits is too much for me...

 

Me and one of the docs I work with decided wednesdays was scrub wednesday and we wear scrubs for the day to change things up a bit. The rare weekend urgent care day is always scrubs because the hell if I am dressing up to work on the weekend :p. We are gonna buy my SP a tie dye lab coat at some point, as we are pretty sure she might wear it.

 

Of note, we have several dogs in the office which is pretty awesome and tottally an alaskan thing.

 

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Dogs in the office?! Totally love. One of my favorite jobs was part-time in a rural Pennsylvania clinic in Amish country. We had dogs and received chicks in the mail.

that is right out of a dire straights song; "money for nuthin and the chicks for free"....I'm sure they were talking about the joys of rural FP.....:)

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Guest Paula

I am still wearing the white jacket.  I'm always cold and need the pockets.  Plus I feel it distinguishes me from the MA and RNs.  The male physicians and the one male PA in my office all wear slacks, shirt and tie and a few wear the white jacket with it.  The NPs (all female) wear dress casual, I rarely see them wear the  white jacket.

 

I wear the white jacket and believe my patients respect it and it reduces the comments of what is a PA or what do you do?  If I ever give up the white jacket I will have to resort to dress conservative heels, skirt and blouse and then will have to wear the fanny pack to keep all my crap in.  Just keepin' it real. 

 

My employer pays for the cleaning of the jacket and I'm learning it takes weeks to get them back.  So if I resort to taking them home and washing myself I will soon be wearing a yellowish orange whitish  jacket.  We're on well water with lots of iron in it.  It has helped me develop a backbone though!  LOL!

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With some fee for service or contract groups, professional dress is mandatory.

Essentially placing the group in the best light possible to the critical eye of the hospital administration.

The mantra is, dress professionally, feel professional, act professional, perceived as professional.

No complaints, no questions, no concerns from patients, staff and administrators. 

Become a cornerstone to the hospital.

No concerns keeping on as the contract group.

No threats to income.

It's all business driven.

G Brothers PA-C

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