Patient and house officer attitudes on physician attire and etiquette
J. J. Dunn, T. H. Lee, J. M. Percelay, J. G. Fitz and L. Goldman
To study patient preferences on physician attire and etiquette, we
interviewed 200 patients on the general medical services of teaching
hospitals in Boston and San Francisco. Of these 200 patients, 65% believed
physicians should wear a white coat, 27% believed physicians should not
wear tennis shoes, 52% believed physicians should not wear blue jeans, 37%
believed male physicians should wear neckties, and 34% believed female
physicians should wear dresses or skirts. Forty percent of patients wanted
physicians to address them by first name, but only 10% of patients wanted
to address their physicians by first name. A concurrent mailed survey of 74
medical house staff members at the two hospitals revealed wide variability
in physicians' attire and in how patients were addressed at each
institution. Thus, many house officers had habits that were less formal
than a substantial portion of their patients preferred.
