White coat?

How many of you wear a white coat for clinicals? I start tomorrow but we had to get a white coat (the short kind like med students wear) to wear. Any of you wear something like this? I don't know that we'll actually wear them, once we get out in clincals, they may not make us wear them.

I don't know a single nurse in the real world (other than NPs) that wears a white coat, so why do we do it in school? Are we supposed to be trying to look like med students?

And the short coat? While a long coat may imply professionalism and instill confidence, nothing says, "I don't have a clue what I'm doing" like the short coat. I've got a good friend who is a PA who said she couldn't WAIT to get rid of her short coat after PA school. (She has a long one now.)

Several people have mentioned wearing coats over their street clothes. We have uniform scrubs that we wear to clinicals. How many people wear street clothes? And what type?