Retro Fashion in Surgery: the White Coat

Abstract

The debate on current doctors' attire is topical and international, from Glasgow (Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland annual conference 2009) to Adelaide (international Surgical Week 2009). Our attire has a great influence on the public's perception of our competence. Recently white coats and bow ties have gone out of vogue, yet they were the doctors' traditional uniform. To investigate the public response to the wearing of white coats and bow ties (and coincidentally to honour the impending retirement of an eminent consultant surgeon who is a great advocate of such attire) we carried out a non-randomised clinical trial by exposing our patients to a ward round with fashion from a bygone era.