Psychological Effects of Uniforms on Patients
The psychological effects of uniforms on patients in healthcare are important but not often thought about. Medical uniforms are an integral part of any hospital and play a role in its success.
How Do Healthcare Uniforms Affect Patient Care?
While cleanliness and hygienic cleaning processes are important in medical uniforms for patient safety, they are also important for psychological reasons. Here are just some of the ways medical uniform impact patient care experience:
Promote Trust
One of the common psychological effects of uniforms on patients is trust that the patient is dealing with a professional. Hospital uniforms are iconic; most everyone can guess the profession of the healthcare worker they’re talking to just by looking at what they wear.
Trust is a valuable asset to a healthcare professional. Time spent providing treatment instead of convincing the patient they’re trying to help is far more valuable.
Provide Context
A 2015 study on patient perspectives of nursing uniforms found that uniforms gave patients context as to what portion of their medical service they were receiving. For example, if dealing with a doctor, they knew they were getting diagnosed or prescribed treatment. If talking with a nurse, they were most likely being generally monitored or administered to. That context can ease the mind of your patients and leads to more success and productivity in the workplace.
A patient that understands what’s going on to them will feel confident in their place at a medical facility. This helps keep patients more relaxed and allows your staff to focus on what they do best.
Improve Performance
Performance in various tasks can improve significantly in those workers with a quality uniform. While this is more about the effects on your staff rather than your patients, a good performance rate is also a great way to help your patients come to terms with and not dread whatever brought them to the hospital in the first place. Imposter syndrome, or doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud, is something that occurs no matter the profession. This can easily be overcome in the case of healthcare workers because their uniforms are so unique to their profession that they feel like they’re in the right place. This drastically improves performance and patients’ outlook on your operations.
Ensure Cleanliness
Dirty uniforms are a very quick way of posing a variety of risks to your patient, let alone causing them psychological distress. Achieving the opposite should be the goal of any healthcare facility. Clean uniforms go a long way in making patients feel comfortable with the facility they’re in and whatever procedures they may have to endure.
Why Our Uniform Service Succeeds What Can Our Uniforms Do?
Northwest Health Care Linen has a unique approach to the commercial laundry business. We understand the importance of cleanliness and professional appearance in a professional medical setting, and provide uniforms that satisfy professional needs and personal preferences.
Northwest Health Care Linen Focuses on the Patients
When it comes to medical uniform service, Northwest Health Care Linen is the best place to go for all because we understand there’s more at work than garment cleanliness. Give us a call at (360) 647-2974 or reach out to us here for more information.
