Aim: In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between the clothing style of physicians providing service in the Cardiovascular Surgery (CVS) clinic and patients' physician preferences.
Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out with 250 patients who would undergo open-heart surgery in the CVS clinic of a training and research hospital in Istanbul between April and August 2017. Data were obtained using the questionnaire form including questions about clothing preferences and their effects on patient-physician relations by showing the pictures of different clothing styles of both male and female physicians (classic, white coat, sport, uniform). In the data analysis, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean), as well as the chi-square test for a comparison between the groups, were used.
Results: The average age of the participants was 55.37 ± 14.33 years, and 55.2% of them were male patients. It was determined that white coat was the most preferred clothing style for CVS physicians. Younger patients compared to older patients, and male patients compared to female patients stated that they mostly wanted their physicians to wear a white coat during a routine physical examination and while sharing their private matters.
Conclusion: Patients stated that they preferred CVS physicians to primarily wear a white coat. For this reason, the white coat may positively affect patient-physician relations and may help a physician in making a good impression.
Key words: Clothing, female, male, physician-patient relations, physicians
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