Do you know why doctors wear white coats?
Miscellaneous / / October 25, 2023
This has not only practical meaning, but also special symbolism.
In fact, until the end of the 19th century, doctors - and even surgeons - did not wear any special clothing. They entered the operating rooms in casual attire - a black frock coat and trousers, with the exception of wearing only a butcher's apron on top to protect things from blood splashes.
It was believed that such an official suit befits to the doctor, because he looks official in it - for example, like a priest or a lawyer. This made everyone understand that this is a respected person. After all, medicine is a serious matter.
Also surgeons of those times operated on bare hands using non-sterile materials. For example, silk threads for sewing with reusable needles and gauze made from waste from cotton factories. They also loved to demonstrate their skills in public, organizing operations in amphitheaters, where spectators were allowed in for a small fee.
For the first time, white coats for medical workers
become put on around 1875. The fact is that it was at this time that the theories of the English surgeon Joseph Lister about the need to process instruments before operations became widespread.At first wear Medical assistants and nurses began wearing gowns and thick rubber gloves to protect their hands and clothing from the chemical solutions used to disinfect premises and equipment. And after them, this practice began to be adopted by surgeons. True, at first he was reluctant, since it was more difficult to wield a scalpel with gloves on than with bare hands.
The gowns protected the doctors’ clothes well from splashes of blood and chemicals.
They began to be made from white material for three reasons. Firstly, on pure white material it was easiest to notice stains of blood and other fluids that could be toxic or carry infection. Before Joseph Lister, doctors didn’t think much about such trifles, but now they began to care about sterility: no one wanted to catch some kind of disease from the patient.
Secondly, white cotton or linen could be used without problems wash at high temperatures, whereas dyed fabric would quickly fade and deteriorate. And finally, thirdly, white color catches the eye, so it is easier for patients in the hospital to know doctor in this outfit. And it’s easier for doctors to distinguish their colleagues from visitors.
According to Mark Hochberg, a medical historian and surgeon at New York University School of Medicine, white, in addition to purely practical purposes, also has a symbolic meaning: creates a feeling of kindness, purity and sincerity. In many cultures, it is associated with something good, and black, on the contrary, with something bad.
So the doctor’s white coat lets the patient know that it is not a mere mortal in everyday clothes who is working with him, but a professional medical worker, kind and honest.
It is noteworthy that, following doctors, nurses began to wear white coats. Previously, doctors were mainly helped nuns. Hence, in fact, the address “sister”. Naturally, during work they put on in their black clothes. But at the end of the 19th century, the orders of nuns who practiced medicine also changed them to white ones, so as not to differ from the doctors they assisted. And when medicine and religion finally separated, secular nurses began to wear ordinary gowns rather than cassocks.
However, in some countries, for example in the UK, doctors have recently abandoned traditional white coats. Exist studies showing that pathogens are often found on the sleeves of these clothes. That’s why doctors there are switching to medical uniforms with short sleeves, most often blue or greenish.
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