Cover Your Butt When Hospitalized

If you’ve ever been in the hospital, you know how miserable and undignified the experience can be, right down to the attire that hospital staffers make you wear—the infamous “johnny coat,” or hospital “gown.” But most patients never question having to wear a flimsy hospital smock that's hard to get on, makes us feel cold and leaves our butts hanging out.

What if you could instead wear your own pajamas or other comfortable clothing of yours during hospitalization? That just might take the edge off of a highly stressful experience, mightn't it?

Well, what’s to stop you?

WHO WEARS THE PANTS

There happens to be a new study on the question of hospital garb, and it turns out to be quite useful. Canadian researchers got doctors from five hospitals to record which newly admitted patients were wearing lower-body garments (anything more substantial than underwear or an adult diaper). The doctors also noted which of these patients were “eligible” to wear lower-body clothing—for example, the patient didn't have a wound or a medical device below the waist and wasn't incontinent. Doctors also asked these eligible patients whether they would prefer to wear regular clothing on their lower bodies during their hospital stays—or if not, why.

The results. Although 56% percent of the patients were medically eligible to wear lower-body garments, only one-quarter of them were actually were. Not only that, 77% of those patients said that they would prefer to wear actual clothing!

So overall, most patients can, from a medical standpoint, safely keep their pants on and maintain their modesty, dignity and comfort when in the hospital…and most patients want that option. So, why the heck aren't hospitals offering it?

DIGNIFIED CARE

Some doctors have actually suggested that patients are made to wear hospital gowns to intentionally make them feel subordinate to hospital staff. But the study authors think that there is no intentional degradation going on—rather, telling everyone to wear a gown is simply a protocol that no one has ever questioned. In other words, until recently, no one ever wondered why every patient had to wear a hospital gown or the impact of the gown on a patient’s feelings, hospital experience or recovery.

Wearing comfortable and dignified clothes can make a person’s hospital stay less stressful, and that may translate into a speedier recovery and an easier adjustment once a person leaves the hospital—or so doctors on the bandwagon for pants-for-patients argue. With continued advocacy by doctors, more hospitals may change their traditions about patient hospital wear—which may not even be tied into official hospital policies. That is, you may not need to assume that you must wear a hospital gown instead of other clothing or that you must go bottomless as part of the hospital experience.

The take-home message is this: You don’t have to wait for hospitals to come around on the point of what you can or can’t wear during a hospital stay. If you know you're going to be hospitalized for some period of time, talk with your doctor about whether you’ll be able to wear some of your own clothing during your stay—tell him that you want to—and pack accordingly. An advance discussion with the hospital is also not a bad idea to make sure everyone is on board with the plan. If you find yourself in the hospital unexpectedly and it's not an emergency-type situation, again, tell hospital personnel that you'd really like to keep your pants on, please. If, for some reason, a hospital won’t allow you to wear your own clothes but you are eligible to wear lower-body garments rather than a butt-bearing gown, ask a nurse for some scrub trousers—the pants worn by hospital staff when manning an operating room. They have closets full of them.

Source: Todd C. Lee, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine, department of medicine, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada. His research was published in JAMA Internal Medicine.