‘Compare the difference in attitudes of osteopaths’ clinical attire between tutors and students across different year groups in a teaching clinic. A questionnaire study’
Item
- Title
- ‘Compare the difference in attitudes of osteopaths’ clinical attire between tutors and students across different year groups in a teaching clinic. A questionnaire study’
- Author(s)
- Hookway, M
- Abstract
- Background: Attire clearly produces an effect, sets a tone and contributes to the atmosphere of a clinical setting. While the importance of a medical doctor’s appearance in relation to other professional attributes is largely unknown, research into the message conveyed by attire and its importance to the doctor- patient therapeutic relationship is extensive in the field of classical medicine and of health care generally, highlighting the importance of its effect, but in the field of osteopathy studies are scarce. The osteopath-patient relationship is however an important therapeutic inter-personal relationship with clothing potentially contributing to its overall efficacy. Yet osteopathy presents an interesting conundrum in that while professionalism must be observed in all areas including that of dress, freedom of movement and comfort must take precedence over restrictive formal wear and the patient who must remove clothing ought not to be unsettled by a heightened sense of formality conveyed by a professional uniform. Objectives: To determine the difference in attitudes towards Osteopaths’ clinical attire and how these may change between tutor and student in the ESO teaching clinic. To assess the importance of appearance and clothing style and its value compared to other attributes. Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire study.Methods: An online clinical attire questionnaire modified from ‘The importance of the orthopedic doctors’ appearance: A cross-regional questionnaire-based study’. Results: The questionnaire was sent out to a total of 300 ESO students and tutors, there were 125 respondents (response rate: 41.7%) of which 53.6% were female, 45.6% male, with 0.8% gender unclassified. Students constituted 81.6% of participants and the tutors 18.4%. Results indicate that although appearance and style were deemed valuable, compared to other attributes these were considered of only ‘little importance’ on average. Additionally, a preference towards white coat and smart casual wear was revealed as opposed to casual wear. Statistically significant associations were found between students’ and tutors’ responses in regard to views on professionalism (P=0.006), preference towards jacket and tie (P=0.0402) and comfortable wear (P=0.041). Few significant associations were found between age, gender and year group. Discussion: Recent studies have provided extensive research on the importance of clinical attire particularly within the medical field. There is a clear preference towards other attributes compared to appearance. The 3 attributes of knowledge, professionalism and cleanliness are deemed more important, but the latter 2 of these are not, unrelated to the question of attire. Further research might confirm or refute these findings and is required for more reliable results as there is a lack of current comparative data for the study. Conclusion: A summary of the results provides little significant difference in students’ and tutors’ attitudes to clinical attire with the only significant variance being that tutors prefer comfortable wear more than students who prefer jacket and tie. Overall clinical attire is regarded as important regardless of participant type with preference to white coat and smart casual wear amongst osteopaths. However, when compared to other practitioner attributes, clinical attire does not rank highly.
- presented at
- European School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 2020
- Date Submitted
- 28.10.2020 18:08:19
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 16666
- Inst-Identifier
- 1229
- Keywords
- Appearance, Clinical attire, Clothing, Osteopaths.
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Hookway, M, “‘Compare the difference in attitudes of osteopaths’ clinical attire between tutors and students across different year groups in a teaching clinic. A questionnaire study’”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed April 29, 2024, https://www.osteopathic-research.com/s/orw/item/189