Psychiatrists' attitude to the psychiatrist's style of dressing and addressing

ABSTRACT

The patient - physician relationship [rapport] is one of the most important cues in daily medial practice .How a physician dresses and how she or he addresses the patients are important factors in developing rapport. This study was done to determine psychiatrists preference dressing style and their addressing. This descriptive - analytic study was done on psychiatrists and psychiatric residents. The psychiatrists who were intended to enrol in this study were selected and their demographic data, medical practice duration, dressing preference for male and female psychiatrist, patient aspect for psychiatrist gender preference, patients and psychiatrists addressing. Eight Photos demonstrating different styles of dressing [four, for female physicians and four for male, based on Iranian culture] were shown to everyone to .select the preferred one. 77 psychiatrists [58.4% male and 41.6% female] were participated in this study. Formal attire [72.7%] was selected as a preferred dress for male psychiatrists and colored gown and scarf [32.5%] and veil [28.6%] for female. The majority of attenders [81.8%] didn't believe in psychiatric patients don't select their psychiatrist based on his/her gender [92.2%] of psychiatrists preferred to be addressed as Dr and Family name and [77.95%] believed that patients should be addressed ad Mr or Mrs in Front of their name and [81.8%] of them stated that using plural pronouns is better and [87%] preferred that their patients use plural verbs to address them. Psychiatrist's dressing and addressing based on physicians attitudes help improving patient -physician rapport