April 2007

White lab coats no longer trendy

A recent article by Gary Haber of the Gannett News Service says that the white lab coats once considered de rigeur by medical doctors are becoming a fashion faux pas.

"Despite the lab coat's status as a symbol of the medical profession, some physicians are ditching them in the name of practicality and comfort and because, they say, it helps them relate better to their patients," Haber explained.

White lab coats were once so closely identified with MDs that even many chiropractors adopted them in order to seem more like "real doctors." The practice was decried by those who preferred chiropractic to have its own, unique identity.

In a 1998  Chiropractic Journal article, Terry A. Rondberg, DC, president of the World Chiropractic Alliance, noted: "Some DCs tried to survive by imitating their attackers. They wore the same uniform ‑‑ the white lab coat with the stethoscope draped around the neck. They spoke the same language ‑‑ lots of medical jargon and doublespeak. And, worst of all, they adopted the same purpose ‑‑ diagnosis and treatment of disease. But in doing this, they also lost a piece of themselves, their vital sense of identity which would have grounded them and given their lives and their vocations meaning."

Although the issue of whether or not to wear a white lab coat may seem trivial at first glance, it has generated widespread interest and even spurred several research reports around the globe.

An article published in the Medical Journal of Australia observed that "modern‑day patients may find the use of a white coat to be an inappropriate status symbol or a barrier to effective communication. In particular, in paediatric practice it has been suggested that white coats may be an impediment..."

In England, a BBC news survey found that just one in eight of the doctors actually wore a white coat. Seven out of 10 doctors felt the coats spread infection while six out of 10 found them too hot and uncomfortable. One doctor, John Heyworth, an accident and emergency doctor at Southampton General Hospital, pointed out that the coats may cause discomfort in patients as well. "There is also the phenomenon of white coat hypertension where a patient's blood pressure can go soaring when they spot a doctor wearing a white coat," he stated.