Do Doctors Not Wear White Coats Anymore?

Do doctors not wear white coats anymore? I thought those coats were supposed to have near-mystical powers, but the last few providers I’ve seen—including my new, young PCP, who seems to be fresh out of med school—don’t wear them. —Patiently Waiting for Your Answer

I see what you did there, Patiently, but perhaps you should leave the risky one-liners to the professionals—I’d hate to see you become yet another victim of pun violence.

Pardon me while I open the window and light a match. Anyway, you’re not wrong about the white coat’s exalted status as a fetish object. Medical schools often present these coats to students in a ceremony with all the ritual pomp of a Jedi knight receiving his first lightsaber, and many studies have noted that the coat’s presence during care can have real (if presumably placebo-adjacent) effects on patient outcomes.

You’re also not imagining things; the coats increasingly seem to be products of a bygone era. One telling statistic: 75% of doctors over 70 rock the white coat, compared to just 34% of those under 30. What gives?

There are a couple of factors. Our culture has been trending away from hierarchy and elitism and toward informality and egalitarianism (I’ll hold off on calling it “toxic egalitarianism,” even though it’s the impulse that encouraged stupid people to vote), and some doctors aren’t keen on such an overt marker of privileged status. Given this, it’s somewhat ironic that women and minorities, ever at risk of being mistaken for nurses or orderlies, tend to embrace the coat; only white men have the privilege of forgoing it without consequence.

It also seems at least some physicians aren’t entirely comfortable with the totemic, even shamanistic, aspects of the coat and prefer the more down-to-earth presentation of business casual. There’s an irony here as well, since doctors initially adopted the lab-style coat to underscore 19th century medicine’s grounding in science (ish) rather than mysticism and quackery, as had been the case in the recent past.

And yet, here we are. Modern clinicians may run from the woo-woo aspects of the profession, but they’re part of a lineage of healers and medicine men (and women) that long predates science. For many patients, seeing a doctor who’s not wearing the white coat is like having Superman show up to your rescue in a Patagonia jacket. So bring back the coat! (Says the guy from a bygone era.)

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.