All the inpatient psych units I have worked, toured or know people who work on in the Baltimore/Washington DC area have the Doctors and NPs wearing white lab coats.
On the NP section someone just enlightened me that none of the inpatient units they have worked over the course of 40 years have had providers who wear lab coats and their opinion is that lab coats on inpatient psych is dangerous.
I've only ever seen one of my doctors wear a lab coat. She would wear the most eclectic dresses and jewelry with it.
For the rest, it's business casual at minimum during the weekdays. On weekends, it's more relaxed: skirts and blouses, slacks with a polo or button-down shirt, and a few may even wear jeans.
Specializes in General adult inpatient psychiatry.
I work in a teaching hospital and while they don't wear them all the time, residents do wear them as well as attendings. I mostly see them worn by residents when they're on call (for storage, like stethoscope, pager, etc.). Otherwise it's business casual.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Psych 101, 1978: The Instructor, Dr. B, a PhD, believed Docs do not need to wear lab coats, as they are worn to protect the clothing underneath. Dr. B said Doctors wear lab coats much for the same reason a Judge wears a robe- as a symbol of power and authority.
As with the other Nurses in the Hospital, we wore whites when I started in Psych back in 1984. Some time later, street clothes with a lab coat was the assigned attire. With the State Hospital in the early 90's, the dress code was very casual.
When I hired in, in 2003, at the Facility where I'm now employed, the attire was nice street clothes. Now, I wore a lab coat for 4 reasons back then: Cold units, pockets to keep gloves, hand cleanser, alcohol wipes, etc., to identify me from the Patients, and because the Patients saw the lab coat as a symbol of a professional. I noted that Patients actually treated me differently when I wore a lab coat!
All direct Patient care staff, since '06, wear scrubs.The only Docs I've ever seen wear lab coats were Medical in nature, never Psych.
Psych 101, 1978: The Instructor, Dr. B, a PhD, believed Docs do not need to wear lab coats, as they are worn to protect the clothing underneath. Dr. B said Doctors wear lab coats much for the same reason a Judge wears a robe- as a symbol of power and authority.
As with the other Nurses in the Hospital, we wore whites when I started in Psych back in 1984. Some time later, street clothes with a lab coat was the assigned attire. With the State Hospital in the early 90's, the dress code was very casual.
When I hired in, in 2003, at the Facility where I'm now employed, the attire was nice street clothes. Now, I wore a lab coat for 4 reasons back then: Cold units, pockets to keep gloves, hand cleanser, alcohol wipes, etc., to identify me from the Patients, and because the Patients saw the lab coat as a symbol of a professional. I noted that Patients actually treated me differently when I wore a lab coat!
All direct Patient care staff, since '06, wear scrubs.The only Docs I've ever seen wear lab coats were Medical in nature, never Psych.
Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN
4 Articles; 7,907 Posts
I've only ever seen one of my doctors wear a lab coat. She would wear the most eclectic dresses and jewelry with it.
For the rest, it's business casual at minimum during the weekdays. On weekends, it's more relaxed: skirts and blouses, slacks with a polo or button-down shirt, and a few may even wear jeans.