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The white coat and the liaison psychiatrist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Alan N. Wear*
Affiliation:
Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford OX2 6HE
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Medical care in general hospitals is a collective activity and liaison psychiatrists may become part of this process. Cornerstones of successful management are co-operation with colleagues and ‘teamwork’, although these elusive goals are not always achieved. A shared uniform is one possible solution to improve this teamwork, the white coat being the livery of the hospital doctor. Furthermore, patients may appreciate a uniform. One survey of 200 North American general hospital in-patients showed the white coat to be surprisingly popular (Dunn et al, 1987); 65% of those replying wanted to see their doctor in a white coat. But the white coat is often unpopular with doctors and perhaps a more relevant question is whether it makes any difference to patient behaviour.

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Articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990

References

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Dunn, J. J., Lee, T. H., Perclay, J. M., Fitz, J. G. & Goldman, L. (1987) Patient and house officer: attitudes on physician attire and etiquette. Journal of American Medical Association, 257, 6568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R. H., Pillsbury, J., Bushey, M. & Snell, S. (1972) Psychiatric staff: uniform or street clothes? Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 1922.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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Stockwell, F. (1972) The Unpopular Patient. London: Royal College of Nursing. Pp. 6768.Google Scholar
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