The Guide to Workwear part 3: Medicine a la Mode

Picture by Walt Stoneburner via Flickr

Welcome to the third (and for the time being final) installment of our guide to workwear series that looks at the appropriate clothes to wear when working in a hospital or surgery. This piece was very kindly provided by Louise, a fifth year medical student, who has managed to make room in her busy schedule to give you all her advice on how to dress as a medic. Wherever you are in your medical career, this is an essential read to ensure your appearance matches your qualifications!

Dressing for work in a hospital is all about managing to look stylish while still being practical and abiding by the infection control rules. You have to remember that patients expect a certain level of appearance from their doctor, and are likely to make judgements about your competence based on what you look like- nobody wants a doctor that looks like they’ve just crawled out of a hedge or has been sleeping in their clothes. As a result, ironing is a must: you don’t want the patient’s first impression of you to be that you were too disorganised to iron your trousers when they need to trust you to make decisions about their health.

An easy way to dress smartly with minimal effort is to have a wardrobe of tops and bottoms which you can mix and match from. Keep it simple when it comes to trousers and skirts; go for blacks and greys, and team them up with brightly coloured blouses and tops. Blouses are a lot more effort to iron than tops made of stretchy material, so I’d go for these, although you need to make sure that they’re not too tight and clingy- it encourages patients to make inappropriate comments, especially in A&E on a Friday night!

A couple of things that I would recommend avoiding:

1. Anything long and dangling- you never know what it might trail in!

2. Tops with necklines that gape when you bend over to examine a patient- you’re supposed to be inspecting their chest not vice versa!

Unfortunately, the bare below the elbow policy doesn’t leave too much scope for keeping warm in the winter, but there are ways around this problem. Although they are hard to find, especially if you’re shopping in winter, short sleeved cardigans do exist. Vests can be layered under shirts although this can backfire if you end up on a very warm ward (removing a vest is obviously not something you can do at the bedside!) Tank tops are another alternative.

As for shoes, comfort is everything. Hospital floors are unforgivingly hard on the soles and as you’ll be walking miles every day your feet will thank you for investing in good quality, sensible shoes. A more expensive, better quality pair of shoes will also last far longer before they show signs of wear or become misshapen.

One final word of advice:  don’t buy an orange stethoscope- they clash with everything!

Thats the end of our guide to workwear for now! If you are in a career not covered yet and would like some advice or fancy writing a post giving advice to others in you field drop us a line at literateblonde@gmail.com or let us know in the comments below!