Evaluation of physician's attire by patients; study of Dokuz Eylül University Hospital department of emergency

Introduction: The relationship between the patient and physician is one of the basic components of medicine. This relationship starts with the first seen and when seen by patients, the attire and appearance of the physician is an important part of the first impression. It is thought that physician's clothes may create trust, knowledge and hygienic perception of physician in patients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate patients's preferences of physician's attire and the parameters that affect the patients' choices who admitted to the adult emergency department. Materials and Method: The study was planned to include 400 patients who admitted to the Dokuz Eylül University Hospital Adult Emergency Department. The patients were selected by systematic sample selection in one month study plan. Patients were asked about the most preferred, the most knowledgeable, the most reliable and the most hygienic attire choices by showing photographs taken by two doctors, a man and a women in five different attires. In addition, a questionnaire was applied to ask opinions about physician's attire. Results: A total of 400 patients (215 male, 185 female) with a mean age of 39.8 ± 18.0 were included in the study. 50.5 % (n = 202) of the patients who participated in the study preferred white coat and scrubs the most; 67.0 % (n = 268) of the patients preferred the formal wear the least. The majority of the patients stated that physician who wear white coat and scrubs create 46.5 % (n=186) a trustworthy and 55.0 % (n = 220) a hygienic image, 53.0% (n = 212) of the patients stated that the white coat worn on the formal outfit formed a knowledgeable image. The patients stated that they preferred to wear blue color the most (45.3 %) in physicians wearing scrubs. The patients stated that the physician's clothing was absolutely important (44.8 %), and that physicians working in the same place should wear the same attire (55.5 %) and that their attire should have a name and status tag (45.0 %). It was observed that the patient-physicians relationship wasn't affected by the tattoo of the physician's body (40.8 %), the use of piercing had a negative effect on the body (43.5 %) and the well-groomed physician had a positive effect on it (94.1 %). There was no significant difference between the attire preferences of the patients and gender, marital status and age. The majority of those with high school or lower level of education stated that the white coat and scrubs is reliable, while the majority of the patients with university or higher education stated that the white coat and the formal attire is reliable (p=0.004). Patients who admitted due to trauma were more likely to prefer physicians that wear scrubs than white coat (p<0.001). Conclusion: According to the results of our study, we have revealed that a significant part of the emergency department patients considered the white coat as the most preferred, more reliable, more knowledgeable and more hygienic physician attire for the emergency department, on the other hand we revealed that the formal attire was the least preferred attire for the emergency department. We showed that there was no relationship between attire preferences and gender, age and marital status of the patients, but we found that attire preferences were related to the cause of admission of the patients (traumatic or non traumatic) and education level.