Lab Coats

Congratulations to Mary, the winner of January’s Editor @ Large Contest. When I contacted Mary to tell her about her win she shared a little bit about herself and her job. Keep reading to find out more about her.

Mary earned her M.D. and is now doing her residency, working towards a specialty in Emergency Medicine. She’s employed at one of the largest public inner city hospitals in the country and she described her position in detail,
“I am blessed to get the opportunity to care for a variety of people that have very few options with little to no access to routine healthcare including: individuals who are indigent, homeless, incarcerated, low income and undocumented. This special population of people due to factors such as substance abuse, mental health issues, little to no previous medical care, environmental factors, cultural beliefs and lack of knowledge present with a multitude of disease processes not commonly seen in any other setting. The care of this population brings with it a need for a unique and exceptional learning experience that when my training is complete will allow me to work anywhere and be adequately prepared. In 5 short months my training will be complete and I will assume a role in a yet to be determined location as your run of the mill ‘ER doctor’ yet my training and residency experiences have taken me to a level that makes me not so run of the mill.”

For the contest, we asked you, our customers, to describe the colors required by your work dress code and here’s Mary’s winning comment:

“I am a senior resident in the Emergency Department of a large urban public hospital. We have no specified dress code, yet most of my colleagues have adhered to an unspoken tradition of wearing either the scrubs provided to us from the hospital or solid navy or black traditional unisex scrubs almost always embroidered with their title. The amusing thing is that the hospital scrubs are color-coded depending on size. Therefore, when these are worn everyone knows exactly what size you are wearing. The XL scrubs, the size many of the males wear, are pink. Despite my adherence to said tradition and often adding a lab coat, I had a difficult time conveying my role as the physician to patients. It is clear that my sex will always foreshadow any other role-identifying label including nametag, lab coat and uniform. Having recognized this fact, I have chosen to break tradition and become much more creative with my uniforms. I have now started wearing styles that are more fashionable and fun. The amazing thing is I now connect better with patients and gain their trust much more easily despite the new scrubs.”

As our winner she’ll be receiving a $50 gift certificate which she can use towards hospital scrubs, medical coats or whatever else she’s had her eye on at Lydia’s Uniforms. Mary mentioned that Dickies Everyday scrubs are her favorite, so maybe a new pair will be going into her shopping cart soon.

If you want to be our next winner, click here to enter.