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Recently, researchers found that half of the patients surveyed preferred that their doctors wear traditional clothing, such as a white coat, which has influenced an increasingly important measure: patient satisfaction. Many hospitals try to control another aspect of a caregiver's visual presentation: visible body art or piercings. However, a new study published in the Emergency Medicine Journal suggests that if a doctor has visible tattoos or piercings does not seem to be of much importance to the patients that they are treating.
"We were inspired to conduct this study because hospitals have many rules about what constitutes" professionalism "and some of these rules are exceedingly rigorous and out of date with the general public," Dr. Holly Stankewicz's residency Allopathic Emergency Medicine from St.Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and co-authored the study, told ABC News. "We tried to see in this case if patients really cared whether their doctor had a tattoo or a piercing, especially if it affected the way they were treated and if it affected their perception of their doctor."
STOCK / Getty Images In this study, seven emergency room physicians chose each day to wear one of three options: non-traditional (artificial) piercings, adhesive tattoos, neither one nor the other. the other, or both, for nine months.
A doctor had real "sleeve" tattoos on both arms, so on the days when he chose to have "no art or piercings," he was wearing a white coat for the cover. The doctors wore standard blue scrubs throughout the study period. Patients – all over the age of 18 – were then asked about their satisfaction with care, and specifically assessed competence, professionalism, empathy, accessibility, reliability and reliability of doctors. Patients were not aware of the purpose of the study.
Two of the doctors did not recruit enough patients in the study, and another dropped out of school because of the discomfort associated with wearing the art visible body. Only five data from doctors did the study – men, women, residents and treating physicians. A total of 924 patients were interviewed.
Sigrid Gombert / Exclusive Culture / Getty Images For all five doctors, there was no difference in how patients perceived their skill, comfort, professionalism or accessibility, whether they had a tattoo or a piercing or not. They were rated positively on all the qualities studied 75 percent of the time, and this showed no statistically significant difference between days when they wore a tattoo or piercing compared to the days they did not. have not done.
Similarly, the researchers found that odds did not change if patients were older or younger than 50, or between men and women. Of note, patients in the study were not asked if they had body art themselves, or if they disagreed with it.
"It was surprising to see that age was not an important factor." Some of the older patients did not even notice the tattooing or piercing, and they they did, they said things like "I like your tattoo," Stankewicz told ABC News.
Stankewicz believes that the study will help change the views around the body art.
"In our center, I think it was helpful to change perceptions in both the administration and the doctors and staff in general," explained Stankewicz.
Dr. Myles Spar is a doctor of internal medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine who runs a busy clinic in Venice, California, where many patients may have even tattoos and piercings.
PHOTO STOCK / Getty Images "This is an interesting study given the breakdown of the results of the survey by patient age.In my experience, I noticed that many older patients may have expectations more traditional as to what their doctor should look like, while the younger ones do not, "Spar told ABC News." It might also be helpful to know if the patients themselves had any problems. " body art or not. "
There were other limitations. For example, it is unclear whether doctors behaved differently on days when they wore tattoos or piercings. Known as the "Hawthorne Effect", this is a common problem that occurs in research when subjects are aware that they are being observed.
As such, it is quite possible that on days when the doctor was wearing a tattoo or piercing, they may have behaved more positively towards their patients, who then assessed them more favorably. In addition, given that two physicians dropped out of the study, there could be a selection bias: the doctors who remained in the study may have been more confident about their communication skills with patients compared to those who gave up. Regardless, Spar sees the results of the study as encouraging.
"The good thing about this study is that it suggests that perceptions are changing.At the whole, patients are turning to their provider as a coach and advisor to work with them and less as a traditional authority figure, "Spar told ABC News. "People recognize that there are excellent doctors of all kinds and from all walks of life.In my office, we recognize this and something as simple as having Fridays. casual, where we wear jeans, makes us more accessible to patients and so they are more likely to tell us what's going on with them.
Dr. Amitha Kalaichandran is a pediatric physician and works in the ABC News Medical Unit in New York.
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