Preferences for Addressing Title to Patients and Physicians' Attire in a Medical Office

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Most patients feel uneasy about visiting a clinic and thus the trust on their physicians can be affected by the physicians' attire, attitude and greeting. We aimed to investigate the difference between patients' and physicians' preferences to attires and greetings in clinics. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey on 394 outpatients in a university hospital and on 169 doctors from five university hospitals. We questioned to the outpatients about their preference for physicians' dress style, how to address them and the method of greeting. We also questioned to the doctors about their own attire, attitude and etiquette. RESULTS: The patients preferred to be called 'OOO Nim' (54.0%), 'OOO Ssi' (29.2%), 'Hwanjabun' (16.2%) and 'Sunsaengnim' (2.5%). However, the physicians were used to calling patients 'Hwanjabun' (39.2%), 'OOO Nim' (29.6%), 'OOO Ssi' (24.5%) and 'Sunsaengnim' (1.2%) (P<0.001). Both the patients and the physicians preferred physicians'to wear white-gown (70.3% vs 78.7%) in a medical office. Inside the gown, a shirt and a necktie (66.2% vs 71.6%) were favored in both groups. Compared to the patients, the physicians thought that their attitude (23.1% vs 45.6%) and their attire (49.7% vs 55.6%) had a great effect on their professionalism. CONCLUSION: We found that the patients wanted to be called 'OOO Nim', but 'Hwanjabun' was most commonly used by the physicians. Both the patients and the physicians preferred white-gown. We also found that the physicians' attire and attitude were strongly associated with their professionalism.