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TV Checkup

We're obsessed with television. As employees of America's number one health site, we often find ourselves questioning the medicine behind our favorite medical TV shows. Do the docs on ER and House really know their stuff? And just how common is that rare disease on last night's Grey's Anatomy?

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WebMD Health News

Friday, December 15, 2006

Doctor's Duds: A Fashion Emergency?
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I remember the first time I put on a pair of scrubs. It really made me feel like a doctor. Funny how paper-thin, green clothes can help give you the confidence to care for patients (4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 3 years of residency help too).

Slip on a white coat over those scrubs and VOILA!...You really feel like a big shot.

But why do some TV doctors run around in scrubs and others in regular street clothes?

Most of the docs on TV are in medical training (as in Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs) or working in the emergency room (aka ER). In both of those settings scrubs are the norm.

Interns and residents are required to sleep overnight in the hospital a few times a week (well, that is if they get the opportunity to actually go to bed)and scrubs serve as great pajamas. If there's an emergency you have to be able to get to the patient as quickly as possible. And yes, that usually means you're wearing the same pair of scrubs for a day and a half.

And since the ER can be a messy place, scrubs just make more sense.

When's the last time your doctor walked into the office with a pair of scrubs? If your doctor is a surgeon, then it just may happen. Otherwise it's pretty unusual. By that point we've gotten our infatuation with scrubs.

And not all docs that spend a lot of their hospital time walking around in their greens and blues. It really depends on the area of specialty. Most of the docs on Grey's Anatomy are surgeons and therefore spend a lot more time in scrubs. But the docs on House appear to be more of the Internal Medicine variety and prefer the street clothes approach. This is pretty typical for real docs too.

But why do some docs wear the fancy surgical caps while others wear the poofy bouffant hats? It's all about personal preference. Some docs just don't care -- thus the awful poofy things. But other docs like to make a fashion statement. Grey's Dr. Burke, for instance, is apparently quite fond of his colorful headwear.

Doctors run around the hospital in their fancy scrub caps all day. Can you blame them since they probably haven't even had time for a shower? Imagine the bed head. And then there's the footwear. Doctors and nurses were wearing Croc-like shoes way before they were cool.

But don't those caps have to be sterile for surgery? Actually, they don't.

In order to decrease the risk of infection in patients, doctors and nurses go through a process called scrubbing. The cap isn't required to be sterile (its main use is to keep the hair contained so that it doesn't fall into the patient during surgery).

Scrubs aren't just for doctors. Head out to your local uniform store and grab yourself a pair. They're quite comfy to wear around the house.

Related Topics: ER Report Card: States Get Low Marks, Men Delay ER Trips to Watch Sports

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Posted by: Michael_Smith_MD at 12/15/2006 02:40:00 PM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

After an orthopedic injury a few years ago I purchased a pair of scrubs since I had a large cast on my leg that no other clothing would adequately fit over. They were so comfortable that I found myself gravitating towards them whenever I'm ill instead of grabbing for my old flannel comfort jammies.

1/05/2007 10:44 AM  

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