<i>War against doctors’ dress!</i>
A revolution is going to take place in the hospital's dress code very soon. This will start from the United Kingdom. Following the recent well publicised outbreaks of MRSA and Clostridium difficile, various demands and claims have been made about how doctors' dress might be regulated with a view to improving hospital infection rates.
Hospital Management authorities in England are banning doctors' traditional long sleeved white coats (popularly known as Apron in our country) from coming September. They are also going to ban ties, long sleeves and jewelry for doctors in an effort to minimise the spread of deadly hospital-borne infections.
Throughout the world Hospital management classically advocates doctors to look professional. A lot of experts have been saying strongly against wearing a tie for the last few years, as those pieces of clothes are usually not laundered everyday, worn for many days colonising pathogens.
In 2006, British Medical Association termed this as "functionless clothing item". As concern over hospital-borne infections has intensified, doctors are taking a serious look at their clothing. In fact, manner of dress is often used by patients and families as a cue for recognition of the function of the staff members and may shape their perceptions about individuals and the hospitals. As well as, patients and patient care providers need to be safe from exposure to infections.
It has been found that MRSA (Popularly known as a superbug) accounts for more than 50 percent of in-hospital blood infections especially in most Asian countries. Moreover, MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) — the noxious bacteria are resistant to lots of antibiotics.
The concerned authority believes that the new dress code would help prevent the spread of MRSA. Since this bacteria are so difficult to eradicate, heath care providers are becoming more interested in improvements of hospital cleanliness.
On the contrary, the U.S. Infection Control Societies did not recommend similar dress restrictions because there is no strong evidence that healthcare staffs who don't wear ties lessen the risk of infection. Dr. James Steinberg, an Emory University infectious disease specialist believes that doctors and nurses who don't adequately wash their hands pose a far bigger risk to patients and that hand-washing should be the focus of infection control efforts in all hospitals.
For management point of view, why is dress code so important for a hospital? Because of two reasons — (i) to convey a professional appearance to the patients, visitors and co-workers; and (ii) to promote safety for patients and healthcare staffs.
In fact, hospital staffs represent the hospital and influence the opinion of patients, visitors and other employees. Today in Bangladeshi hospitals, we need a guideline for healthcare professionals regarding proper dress code, which will be very much helpful especially in treating high-risk patients.
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