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In New South Wales, Australia, a major inquiry into the state's public hospital system (the Garling Inquiry) has recently recommended that all staff in hospitals wear colour-coded uniforms. 

Recommendation 62: Within 12 months, NSW Health implement a state-wide policy ensuring uniforms or vests are worn by each health professional, identifying in large print the role of the health professional. The state-wide policy should:
(a) designate a colour to each professional role and ensure that the colour is consistently adopted;
(b) include a requirement for posters to be prominently displayed throughout NSW Health facilities providing a chart to indicate which
uniform or colour is assigned to which profession; and
(c) NSW Health amend existing policy or develop additional policy to require the wearing of name badges (or similar, but not cards on lanyards) by each type of health professional, bearing in large print the person’s name and title or role.

See page 146 and following of the report 
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/Special_Projects/ll_splprojects.nsf/vwFiles/E_Volume2.pdf/$file/E_Volume2.pdf

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Richard Hockey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

In Australian hospitals  white coats disappeared nearly 20 years ago. Even nurses uniforms disappeared for a while but seem to have made a come back.

R

 

 

From: Evidence based health (EBH) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pranab Chatterjee
Sent: Tuesday, 21 April 2009 12:00 AM


To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Evidence on White Coat

 

Hi,
 
Belated Easter wishes everyone!
 
I got into a bit of a disagreement with a professor regarding the matter of wearing white coats. I was under the impression that white coating was no longer considered an absolute essential in the medical wards, whilst he stated that it still was the established norm. What does the "evidence base" say about it? Any relevant reviews/papers/info on the same would be appreciated greatly. I need to be able to fend my proposition.
 
I have had the chance to obtain the following:
 
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1293248&blobtype=pdf
 
http://pmj.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/80/943/284
 
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/177_11_021202/nai10445_fm.pdf
 
Can someone please forward me a copy of this:
 
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0195670199907028
 
My favorite medical blogger, Dr. Kevin Pho, is short and sarcastically sharp here:
 
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/09/banning-white-coats.html
 
I have two requests:
 
1. What is the Evidence supportingNOT wearing a white coat (thats what I did, so I need to support myself)?
 
2. What is the protocol at your institution?
 
Thanks and regards,
Pranab


Pranab Chatterjee, MBBS
Medical College, Kolkata, India

Mobile: +91 98 361361 95
 
[log in to unmask]
 
http://www.nerdoc.net
http://www.pranabchatterjee.co.nr




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