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by manarth6 hours ago |
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upvoteby zabzonk6 hours ago|
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> Coats weren't white for anyone to write on, and clinical staff didn't routinely write on their clothes.

I wasn't a medic, I was a microbiologist. And I can assure you we did write all over them.

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upvoteby manarth6 hours ago|
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    > "I can assure you we did write all over them"
You and your colleagues deliberately chose to carry a magic-marker (and no paper), in order to deliberately write on your clothes, rather than the more simple expedient of paper and pen/pencil?

This seems irrational, inexpedient, and inappropriate for anyone delivering any aspect of medical care.

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upvoteby zabzonk5 hours ago|
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Yes, we did all that - we had to carry markers to label culture media in containers such as petri dishes and universal containers. You can easily misplace a notepad, but its hard to lose your labcoat.

I did say we were sloppy.

We were not in contact with any patients and at least in the UK, no-one that is ever wears a white coat these days.

I find it somewhat offensive that I am lying and/or unprofessional about this.

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upvoteby manarth5 hours ago|
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    > I find it somewhat offensive that I am lying and/or unprofessional about this.
It's an extraordinary claim, which usually would require extraordinary proof. I've also worked in UK healthcare, albeit in a patient-facing role rather than a back-office or technician role.

The whole process would raise so many questions.

    > "You can easily misplace a notepad, but its hard to lose your labcoat"
Surely if notes were taken on a labcoat, these would then have to be copied into a more permanent form? As you've said, the coats are washed, which makes the coat a very short-term data-storage device.

I have a whole bunch of white t-shirts, and wear a white t-shirt pretty much every day. It's never once occurred to me to write an appointment-time, a phone number, or a shopping-list on my t-shirt.

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upvoteby throwaway1737385 hours ago|
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I don’t find it hard to believe. I’ve written tons of notes on my arms and hands when working product support. When I briefly framed houses we would do all our math and diagramming on lumber. Either studs in the wall or scraps from the floor. You write on whatever you have handy.
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upvoteby infinitewars5 hours ago|
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I think it makes sense, notebooks are hard to sterilize.
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upvoteby manarth5 hours ago|
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    > notebooks are hard to sterilize
Washing / sterilizing the lab coat has the same effect as erasing the data written on it.

There isn't a library of lab coats which contain notes written on them, for future consultation.

A notepad page is also easier to permanently sterilize (via incineration) than a lab coat.

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upvoteby NicuCalcea4 hours ago|
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The commenter acknowledges this: "I was always impressed that the laundry managed to get them pristine white again."

I think it's pretty clear they were taking ephemeral notes, not using them for long-term archiving.

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upvoteby infinitewars5 hours ago|
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The labcoat is a kind of L1 data cache.
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upvoteby manarth4 hours ago|
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NB: The original post said:

    > "our coats were were from white"
Which appeared to be a typo.

The understanding of the original post was "our coats were white because", which implied the purpose of the coats being white, was to allow them to be written on.

The post was edited to read:

    > "our coats were far from white"
Which has a very different meaning. Still questionable, but changes the context from "it was expected that we would write on our clothes", to "we wrote on our clothes".
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