Communication and Dress Code for Medical Students

University of Manchester  2004

All medical schools, clinical and non-clinical teachers and medical students must respond to the guidance from the GMC set out in ‘Tomorrows Doctors’, which sets the standards for undergraduate medical education in the U.K.  It has been shown that non-verbal communication is at least as important as verbal communication, so how a student or doctor appears to patients, relatives or colleagues means as much as what he or she says.   It follows from the GMC guidance that students (and doctors) must in professional settings:

•  Dress in a manner that adds to, and does not detract, from effective communication. How he/she appears as a student professional or a doctor is something all students and graduates must consider and respond to.   In general, male and female students should be clean and smartly dressed.  Thus the following are not permitted as they are deemed to be incompatible with effective, sensitive communication:      

o       Wearing a tee-shirt with slogans;

o       Visible body art;

o       Large amounts of body and face jewellery;

o       Revealing clothing that may be considered unacceptable by patients;

o       Covering most of the face. This is true not only in clinical settings but also throughout the educational elements of the undergraduate programme, which is built around group work with other students and tutors

 In addition, the convention of some clinical units may require wearing white coats or other approved clothing. Hair should be tied back if it interferes with, or adds risk, to a clinical interaction

·                    Students must be able to participate fully in communication and other skills training, discussion and assessment.  As well as adhering to the dress code above, it means being able to interact fully with patients, standardised patients, teachers and examiners of any cultural or ethnic background or either gender.