physiotherapist dress code

hi guys
anyone have any articles about the best dress code for the physiotherapist??
or any suggesstions.... thanx for your help(in advance):)

There won't be any articles on this, only opinions.

We are professionals so we should only be dressed professionally.

Some people like pants, shirt and tie. In my field, this is becoming more prevalent (manual therapy)

Some people see lots of sports people so their dress is shorts and polo shirt - to wear a shirt and tie would alienate them.

Hospital staff have their own uniform.

So long as we look neat and tidy and can do our work, what does it matter?

thank you for your respond

i was reading,, and i found out that most of healthcare givers used to follow fashion during the prev. 2 decades, but now,, no one cares,, but if you look at the psychological side, the patient reaction will defer, when you are sooo dressed up:) dont you think:)

In my hospital we have a uniform shirt and choice of shorts or trousers - I find shorts more comfy and practical for doing Neuro but others prefer trousers. Professional is the key to what you wear....

Every hospital has its own criteria for dress code. Some hospital do not require the necessity of dress code. While some hospital like other health professional assign the white coat to be worn. Some hospital assign colored dress code especially for physiotherapist for identification as a specialist.

There are other hospitals who wear scrub suit but it is of a different colour to best identify them from surgeons or specialists. As long as it is comfy and as for ladies,it's best to wear pants and with a white coat too.

:)

dress code actually is diffrent for physios, depending where do they actually work, but most of nurses have white dress,, and even most of us wear lab coat, which is also white,, but that might be not suitable for all of us, but somehow it gives us a medical relationship with all of the other healthcare givers.

Is it unprofessional to wear JEANS during work?

In the hospital where i work, we are allowed to wear our own attire under the white coat... most of the time i wear pants and a shirt, sometimes i wear jeans.... Considering we deal with patients on a more personal level as compared to the other professionals in the hospital, Is it that necessary for me to be in formals always?

my hospital also allowed us to wear our own attire under the white coat, but its must be long pant slack and short/long sleve shirt... JEANS and collar/uncollar T-shirt totally cannot wear...

I am in independent practice, and fortunately dont work in a hospital. I wear normal clothes, because I can do occupational health work as well. Clean jeans, T's, Shirts, sweat shirts, whatever...
In hospital practice I have always understood the key issue to a uniform is preventing carrying infection, and capability to be washed at high temperature to kill bugs. So I would have thought this question is largely hypothetical because it depends on where you work.
What I HATE is seeing ward staff wearing work clothes in the street. Get changed at work, and leave ward clothes at work, carry work clothes home in a bag, and wash them hot, hot hot.

yes jaw i think your right,,, thaks bud
now... what do you think is the design of the physiotherapy uniform should be??
i think we should have something just for us,, dont you think ??
:)

In Spain most of the people wear scrub suit in hospitals and in private practice. In hospitals most of the people wears in white suits and in private practice I think most of the people wears in blue suits.
I think this is important for the patients.
There are some articles about medical doctors dressing and they found differences in the opinion of the people who are attended for a doctor in white coat and people who are attended for a doctor who is wear without a white coat.

yes javier, this is actually what iam trying to study,,, the effect of what physiotherapist wear on patient, and what type of wear should be more benifecial,, :)

Here is an article about this subject:

That is a really interesting article and research finding...
I guess its common sense that we should be presentable at work no matter what setting we are in. As we are catering to the basic human instincts.
If you think of it, the same applies the other way around if we could choose the sort of patients we would rather treat.... We look forward to the treatment sessions of a well dressed gentle man/lady who is clean and tidy, rather than the one with heavy body odour/smelly feet... (Not meaning to sound discriminative in anyway... But just wanting to make a point)

thanx for the article javier
and i totaly agree with you aisha
it is realy important to look at the cultural side as well,,, in my contry ,, people are more materialistic, soo, agood looking guy will have huge impact on the patient that the one who is not dressed properly:)

I would like to know, amongst those who are allowed to wear their own clothes under a white coat,etc. Do you regard wearing jeans, easy shoes and semi formal shirt as acceptable or not?
At times i feel physios should be in casuals and at times i feel tailored pants/trousers & shirts are necessary.

Another question, closed shoes? open shoes (sandals/slip ons)?

depends on what the white coat covers.

If no white coat, then no jeans! Must have a collared shirt

Closed shoes are important for safety, esp in the hosp system. In PP, maybe you can get away with it but the majority of your clients must usu have open shoes as well.

I see some colleagues wearing ultra-mini skirts and dress at work, when they are doing out patients and sometimes orthopaedics
I see female therapists wearing killer high heels walking in the wards
...onve your boss does not say anything about your attire, everything comfortatble and professional enough is OK.

for me, I will be comfortable enough with shirts (long sleeves but folded, since the hot weather and low ventilation for subsidized wards), cropped pants, hair tied up in pony tail and light make up. Due to the poor ventilation in such wards, she also allow us not to wear white coats at work.

ah, forget about one new regulation in Malaysia.
They are now prohibiting doctors wearing ties to work in the wards, because of low frequency washing them, leading to high bateria level there.

Has other countries has certain research findings regarding this?

In the UK hospital uniforms on the ward are generally a white tunic with navy blue piping around the collar and navy trousers. This tends to be across the board, OTs have green piping and Radiographers red theoretically to be more easily identifiable to the patients. However my experience is they will tend to call you nurse unitl you've established exactly what your profession is and how it fits into their care. In outpatients or paeds you sometimes get away with wearing a poloshirt and tracksuit bottoms which in my opinon is better especially for hands on practice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by meganli

ah, forget about one new regulation in Malaysia.
They are now prohibiting doctors wearing ties to work in the wards, because of low frequency washing them, leading to high bateria level there.

Has other countries has certain research findings regarding this?

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yup.. dats right meganli... now days physio, Dr, occt didn't allowed to wear ties, thats order come from Malaysian Heatlh Ministry... they claimed that ties can cause cross infection...

hi
seeing the response ..i wud also like to put our uniform . its a scrub suite-grey colour with tiny red piping at the bottom most outer side of scrub suit bottom & a a red tiny piping on the mega sleev outer part .everyone envy our scrub suite. as its designed by a famous designer(so afterall its a comfy designer wear!!).very easy to carry ; wear;wash & maintain...when it comes to muslim girs in our dept.they use grey pretty scarves with red piping on all four boarders with satin cloth.they look stunning & elegant there!!

ours is a desiner wear ..every othr dept envy our dress code!! its a grey scrub suit with tiny red piping. the muslim girls wear a grey scarve with red piping with satin cloth on 4 sides.they look simply elegant!!!(the grey/ash with red is an excellent combination afterall)

I think we would all agree how we dress is a form of communication and that we wish to convey our professionalism. In addition to this hygiene is paramount. There are really many things we may want to convey in addition to these two points - corporate identity for a service etc. The context in which you work is really important. I know when I worked in occupational health it was important to be able to create rapport with whom we were dealing with and a uniform not appropriate. If we had to face up to a board room then we wore a suit and tie. And if we were going down a mine to asses a workers worksite we wore jeans a blue shirt steel capped boots etc. Some people find a tie intimidating. So it is an important thing to think of the context.