In the Fall 2025 newsletter you may have seen and participated in the “physician attire” poll. So what was the inspiration for the poll and curiosity? A recent post on LinkedIn from Dr. Shariff Bishai, orthopedic surgeon in Detroit, posed an interesting question...Has physician dress laxed post-Covid?
Dr. Bishai refers to a “uniform” that he used to stick to on a daily basis - more of the professional plus white coat look. Since adopting a more casual and comfortable look, he’s noticed that it helps patients feel comfortable as well. He said in the post that one day we went back to his old “uniform” for a day because he had a presentation. He was surprised to hear patients comment that they liked the casual look better and that his shirt, tie, coat combo was "unnerving."
Do you and your colleagues wear what feels most comfortable to you or what society says you should wear? Or possibly what patients expect you to wear or what makes them comfortable? Maybe you haven’t really given this topic much thought. And often these decisions are made based on employers and/or work environments.
There’s likely not a right or wrong answer here - just something to think about. If it was truly Covid that changed everything, does physician work attire post-Covid change forever?
White coat syndrome is certainly a thing, but if the white coat disappears, does the syndrome go with it?
After reading dozens of comments on the thread, a couple things are clear: 1) Everyone has an opinion or personal experience to share. 2) The answers are across the board. As for our ICP physicians and APPs that responded to the poll, the majority fall into the "scrubs only" and "business casual" categories.
Ben Sharareh, MD, referenced a couple PubMed studies (within the post) that addressed the topic of physician attire and resulting patient comfortability. While some data and universal observations can be found, there is likely no one-size-fits-all dress policy that would appease all physicians, patients and work settings.