Patients' and Physicians' Viewpoints on Interns' Professional Outfit: A Survey in an Iranian Teaching Hospital

A person’s appearance and his/her adherence to the dress code standards are essential in the medical profession.

This study aimed to investigate patients’ and physicians’ viewpoints on interns’ professional outfits.

This is a cross-sectional study, with the participation of patients and physicians of general departments in a teaching hospital of Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2018. The patients and physicians were selected through convenience and census method, respectively. To examine the participants’ perspectives on the professional dressing, six schematic images, three for males (1, 2, 3) and three for females (A, B, C) were designed. Data were collected through a structured interview in this way, the schematic images were displayed to the participants and they were asked to express their perspective using a series of questions. Data analyzed using SPSS version20.

Totally, 381 patients and 34 physicians participated. The majority of the participants preferred the professional outfit A for female interns and the professional outfit 1 for male interns in response to questions regarding the knowledge, responsibility, patient-care, hygiene, reliability of diagnosis and treatment of diseases, giving emergency consultations, the possibility for discussing sexual and psychiatric problems, as well as life problems. The physicians and patients had the same perspective except for the item about knowledge. (p <0.05).

Our study shows that the outfits of physicians were considered by the participants in forming an effective relationship between the doctor and the patient, and the amount of patients' trust. Therefore, training interns for dressing professionally and complying with the necessary standards should be considered.