Can You Identify Your Hospital Doctors and Nurses?

A new survey conducted at the University of Chicago interviewed 2,800 patients who had been admitted to the medical school’s hospital, over a 15-month period. The patients were asked to name the doctors on their medical team (which normally consisted of 3-4 people, including medical students, resident doctors and attending physicians). According to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 75% of the patients were unable to name a single doctor on their team, and of those who responded with a name, fewer than half were correct.

Is it important to know the name of the doctor who’s treating you? It depends who you ask, of course. But one of my gripes goes a little further. When you’re being seen in the Emergency Room, or even on the floor, which of the many people who come to see you is, in fact, a doctor? In my youth, we wore a short white coat as a medical student, a long white coat with a stethoscope in the pocket as a doctor (resident or intern), and a suit with a tie as a ‘consultant’ or specialist. Now one can only recognize the doctors by the fact that they don’t wear scrubs, and probably look as if they’ve just come in from their yard, a bike ride, or the golf course.

Don’t get me started on the difficulty in telling the difference between a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a technician, or a secretary. They all wear scrubs of different hues and patterns, according to whim. And just to confuse you, many of them turn their name badges round so you only see the back. Gone are the days when the top nurse (“sister”) had a distinctive cap, the nurses had neat uniforms with a white apron, and the technicians wore a lab coat. Ah, the good old days! I think the patients were more content, too.