大象传媒

Is the medical white coat set to disappear?

From ER 急诊室的故事 to House M.D 豪斯医生, medical dramas are popular among many all around the world. The figures in their white coats are always the centre of attention and always, somehow, save the day.

I have always wanted to be a doctor and I was under no illusion 没有幻觉 when I applied for medical schools that my life would ever be like those on television. I did, however, long for 盼望着 the white coat.

The earliest thing that I remember about hospital and doctors was from when I had pneumonia 肺炎 when I was five years old.

I was very ill and remembered that my father wrapped me in a blanket and carried me to the hospital in the middle of the night. I was given intravenous 静脉注射，点滴 penicillin 青霉素 for four days.

Work experience

The paediatrician 儿科大夫, an affable elderly lady, used to come round and took out a spare stethoscope 听诊器 from underneath her white coat for me while I was having my drip 点滴. That was the first time that I heard heart sounds and breath sounds.

I then did my work experience 实习，见习 in a hospital in China, and was allowed to wear a white coat.

The moment I stepped into the hospital with the white coat on, I felt the expectant 期盼的gazes 目光 from the patients falling on me, as they thought I was probably a doctor.

This was very different from my work experience in England. No white coat, I just had to look formal 正规服装. Wherever I went, everyone searched for my badge 胸牌, trying to work out who I was.

Health and safety

The lack of white coat became more of a problem when I became a clinical medical student. We were denied the white coat for "health and safety" 卫生与安全守则 reasons. The argument being that the white coat carries germs 细菌，感染物 from patient to patient.

But surely any piece of clothing would do that, and some people don’t change their jumper for weeks!

Patients do get confused about who we are, especially when we have stethoscopes hanging around our neck, tourniquets 止血带 hanging off our belts and worked past midnight.

In all fairness, without the white coat, the doctor-patient relationship seemed somehow less paternalistic 家长式作风.

Equality

In the environment of "Patient-Centred Care" ?以病人为中心的健康服务, it is friendlier and encourages patients to voice their ideas, concerns and expectations.

"White coat hypertension 高血压" and "white coat syncope" 昏倒 may soon become extinct 绝迹，灭绝 in this country.

Under this government, the white coat has become a scapegoat 替罪羔羊 for nosocomial infections 从医院得来的感染. Getting rid of the white coat did not eliminate the infections, but it did abolish a tradition in medicine.

It does promote equality between doctors and patients, but somehow dimmed the halo 使……头上的光环变暗over the profession.

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