All Your Scrubs

Whether it’s a lab coat or a set of scrubs, there’s just something about doctors’ and nurses’ clothing that inspires trust. A family doctor acts as a close confidante – in many cases he was there when you were born. This creates a strong emotional bond and a trusting familiarity toward other health care professionals. When you see the clothes, you instantly think of all the time and schooling that went into this person’s medical education.

It’s probably for these reasons that advertisers have latched onto the idea of featuring “doctor” in television ads. A man or woman in medical uniform with a stethoscope around his or her neck just seems a bit more trustworthy – even if the product itself has no medical credibility. The fact remains that medical garb leaves an indelible impression in our minds – that of honesty and integrity.

It is believed that scientists were the first ones to wear white lab coats. These days medical lab coats are more often associated with doctors. These coats are used to protect the clothing and also avoid spreading germs. When you work in a medical facility it is often required to wear a medical coat because there often spills and mess. The length and particular design of a lab coat varies based on dress codes set by hospital authorities. There are usually minor variations from one hospital to another.

In general doctors wear white lab coats and not colored lab coats. This has been in practice for sometime and is based on the belief that the color white garners more respect than other colors. Wearing medical lab coats is also a form of etiquette. There is also an issue with how medical professionals wear their buttons. Some professionals think that the coats should be buttoned up fully; while others feel that they should be unbuttoned.

With intent to become a science major in college, in almost all cases, you have a tough road ahead.  Beginner and intermediate level science courses are designed to filter out bad students, thus they’re much harder than necessary.  In addition, you will need to keep an assortment of supplies on hand at all time, including a lab coat, multiple textbooks, scientific tools, calculator, and all manner of writing utensils and more standard academic accessories.  Once you’re through the beginner and intermediate level science courses, you might even say that life becomes easier.  Though you tackle harder concepts, you won’t have the ridiculous amount of tests, practices in memorization, and busy work as you do in the earlier courses.

Just remember, with a quasi-science major, nobody wins.  If you aren’t eligible to move into the upper echelons of science, and are looking for a high earning career, turn to business or another field.  Majors like forestry and oceanography depend on research funds from outside sources, and there’s often little stability with the work. 

A group of more than 300 medical students dressed in their white lab coats rallied on Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon calling on Congress for a greater emphasis on primary-care physicians and for more medical assistance to poor people.  They stressed that there are underserved people in every state in the United States. 

The group voiced their concern that too many people are either uninsured or underinsured.  This group of students marched chanting “Everybody in! Nobody out!” The marchers were dressed in white medical lab coats and armed with signs.

Kim Cunningham, spokeswoman for the American Medical Student Association stated, “The rally really excites the students. They are the next generation of medical physicians. You really need a strong primary care work force.”

The march started at the Navy Memorial-Archives subway stop and ending at the west side of the Capitol at Third Street Northwest.  Once they reached the Capitol Hill lawn, they joined with others for speeches.  After the rally, they dispersed to lobby lawmakers, mostly in the House and Senate offices spread around Capitol Hill.

For the next costume party you attend, take on the persona of a mad scientist and provide people with a great image of how science can run amuck. Here are useful tips how to create a great outfit:

~Hair – Go with wild hair ala Albert Einstein or Doc Brown (of the Back to the Future fame) by buying an inexpensive wig. Or go bald like Lex Luthor and pop a bald cap onto your head and cover your eyebrows with fake skin. If your hair is long enough, make use of hair sprays or gels and hair colorings instead.

~Lab jacket or coat – This is an important element of your costume as it will establish your identity as a truly mad scientist. Decorate your coat with scorch marks and food spills to make it look more authentic.

~Shirt, pants and shoes – go for dark clothes to contrast with the whiteness of your coat and put on a goofy pair of bowling shoes.

~Accessories – Fill your chest pocket with a ruler, notepad and calculator. Make sure they show. Carry a beaker with a colored liquid and dry ice for a smoky effect.

A new laboratory designed to reduce errors by keeping human hands off test specimens is now operating in Michigan. The laboratory is following the example of the manufacturing industry by having the test tubes of blood and specimens encoded with a scannable bar code. The specimen travel down a conveyor belt and robotic “fingers” are used to move them.  Machines sort the samples and even pop off the caps, when necessary.  The test tubes are sent to the proper departments through a network of tubes.

Previously, lab technicians were required to label the tubes and process them.  This required that the test tubes be handled several times.  Each time a test tube was handled, the chance of contamination or error was increased. 

This setup reduces human handling by 97 percent which eliminates the repetitive and frustrating tasks of removing caps and addressing labels.  Every time health care professionals remove a cap from the blood specimen, they’re potentially exposed to a biohazard.  Plus, ripping off caps hour after hour is very hard on the wrist causing carpal tunnel.

This new technology will not do away with the personnel you see in medical labcoats in the laboratory.  However, it will alter the type of work they will perform.  This type of facility will allow the nursing hours to be focused on patient care rather than the mundane tasks of transporting these specimen.

Have you ever wondered about the origin of the white medical lab coat?  A white coat or laboratory coat is usually a knee-length overcoat or smock worn by professionals in the medical field or by those working in a laboratory to protect their street clothes.  The medical lab coat is made from white or light-colored cotton, linen, or cotton polyester blend, allowing it to be washed at high temperature and make it easy to see if it is clean.

When used in the laboratory, the lab coats protect against all kinds of accidental spills.  If the lab technician is working with chemicals, the lab coat needs to have long sleeves and be made of an absorbent material, such as cotton, so that the user can be protected from the chemical.  Some lab coats have buttons at the end of the sleeves, to secure them around the wrist so that they do not get into beakers of chemicals.  Short-sleeved lab coats also exist, and are preferred by some scientists.  Microbiologists generally prefer the short sleeved coats because it also allows them to wash their forearms which is an important consideration in microbiology.

Like the word “suit”, the phrase “white coat” is sometimes used to denote the wearer, i.e. the scientific personnel in a biotechnology or chemical company.

In addition to the presence of doctors and nurses in the hospital, clinical medical technologists comprise another very important group seen in their white medical lab coats in the halls of every hospital.  Clinical laboratory testing is a very important part of the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease.  Medical technologists and medical laboratory technicians perform most of these tests in a laboratory setting.

Clinical laboratory personnel use automated equipment along with computerized instruments to analyze cells and body fluids.  They analyze the chemical content of these fluids looking for bacteria, parasites, and other microorganisms.  Medical technologists match blood for transfusions and test for drug levels in the blood that show how a patient is responding to treatment.

Technologists use microscopes, cell counters, and other sophisticated laboratory equipment.  After testing and examining a specimen, they analyze the results and relay them to physicians.  With increasing automation and the use of computer technology, the work of technologists and technicians has become less hands-on and more analytical.

Always look professional and competent as you walk the hospital corridors. Don fashionable lab coats that are made with high quality materials that help protect your clothes as you perform your duties. Lab coats are ideal for use by doctors, pharmacists, and lab technicians.

The men’s three-pocket medical lab coat from Active Scrubs features a plain back for a more professional look. It has a left breast pocket with a tacked pencil divider for quick access to writing tools. It also has large lower pockets with plenty of room for medical accessories. These lab coats are made from high quality fabric.

Have you ever noticed how much stuff a nurse can pull out of the pockets of her medical uniform?  Nurses scrubs generally contain multiple pockets on both the scrub top and the scrub pants.  This is because of all the supplies that a nurse must carry to be prepared to do his or her job.

Nurses will almost always carry a pen to record your vital signs.  She may have scissors or a stethoscope in her pocket.  Many hospitals now require nurses to carry a cell phone or some type of hospital pager.  A nurse may have any number of items in her pocket which she will inevitably use throughout the course of the day.

Apparently, nurses had some input in the way the medical uniforms are designed because today most scrub tops have two large pockets on the front and many times also include smaller pockets sectioned off for a cell phone or a pair of scissors.  Scrub pants usually have two large side seam pockets and often have big pockets along the side of the leg to hold additional supplies.  Nurses also wear a warm-up jacket much of the time that affords even more pockets.