ABSTRACT
The physician remains the primary icon of medicine in the United States despite sustained efforts to emphasise team-based health care. Explicitly stated dress codes for physicians include wearable symbols of the profession: white coat, scrubs, stethoscope. However, just as medical education recognises an informal or ‘hidden’ curriculum, there is also an informal or ‘hidden’ dress code, which includes important variations, performed by individuals and subcultures of physicians, which symbolise identity and inclusion to those who recognise them. As a crucial part of the everyday performance of their professional roles, physicians and trainees significantly and continuously alter what may be seen as their costumes and props. This chapter draws on observations over almost two decades of teaching in medical schools, in conjunction with academic literature in medicine and health care, to reflect on historical and current dress codes, traditions, and approaches to dressing the part of physician.
