September 2, 2008

• No Scrubs

  This is the first of the choose your own adventure posts, wherein I answer questions YOU have asked about what it is like going through medical school

  This is in response to TheBlackSpiderman, who asked “Do you wear your scrubs outside of work – and if so, does it aid in picking up women?

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  Prior to entering med school, I had a lot of preconceived notions about what it was going to be like. I think it is fairly safe to say that most people have an archetypal image of the med student, head down in an anatomy book somewhere in the back corner of a coffee shop, and of course wearing scrubs.

  For two years before going to med school, I worked as an opthalmic technician, and my daily uniform was scrubs. I absolutely loved them…they were comfortable, they came in a variety of colors, and they made me feel like a grown up, an honest to goodness part of the medical profession. A vain egotistical part of me secretly harbored the hope that people who saw me walking around outside of work wearing scrubs would think I was on my way somewhere important to save lives, a surgeon in transit. For one of my birthdays, a girlfriend purchased me a pair of scrubs with my name embroidered in, and i would wear it even on days I had off…going to class just to be seen, like others would wear an armani suit or a louis vitton bag.

  As I have gotten older, (and deeper into the medical profession) I have come to see how naive and foolish those earlier ideas were. I would wander around thinking people might confuse me for a doctor. That girls would see the scrubs and think oh, medical student let me go up and get to know that charming, handsome gentleman.

  Turns out, not so much. You know what people think when they see a med student? Debt. Mountains of it. Not quite the sexy turn on you thought, is it? You know what I think when I see scrubs outside of a hospital setting? Not surgeon-anyone in a hospital operating room does not leave the building wearing scrubs as they are usually disgusting, covered in blood, bone, and whatever other germs were floating around. Instead I am thinking an exhausted resident on call, or maybe an ER doc, and they wear scrubs that are twice as gross as anyone else because wearing suits and ties in an emergency setting is just ludicrous.

  As I come closer and closer to crossing the line between almost doctor j and actual doctor j, I could care less who sees me wearing what. It has little to nothing to do with the work i actually do, outside of being comfortable for long hours on call. It has been said clothes make the man. Well its about time this man starts making the clothes. But not in a literal sense, i would hate to put all those child laborers out of work.

  • 12:24 pm
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