Patient questionnaire survey, administered across four Scottish regions.
Orthopaedic outpatient departments.
427 patients and accompanying relatives.
The absolute and relative importance of the doctors' appearance, as reported using a 5-point Likert scale. The absolute and relative importance of the style of clothing worn by doctors, as reported using a 5-point Likert scale. The rank preferences for four different styles of doctors' attire as illustrated by standardised clinical photographs.
The study was appropriately powered to identify a 0.5 difference in mean rank values with 0.90 power at a聽=聽0.05. The majority of participants felt the doctors' appearance was important but not as important as compassion, politeness and knowledge. Only 50% felt that the style of doctors clothing mattered; what proved more important was an impression of cleanliness and good personal hygiene. In terms of how patients would prefer doctors to dress in clinic, the most popular choice proved to be the smart casual style of dress, which conforms with the 鈥榖are below the elbows鈥?dress code policy. The smart casual clothing style was the highest ranked choice irrespective of patient age, gender, regional or socioeconomic background.
The doctors' appearance is of importance to patients and their relatives, but they view many other attributes as more important than how we choose to dress. While not specifically addressing the role of doctors clothing in the transmission of infection, our results do support the preference of patients for 鈥榖are below the elbows鈥?workplace attire.