The Positive Psychology of Wearing Uniforms

How positive is it to have a uniform? In some sectors, the evolution of business casual dress has been seen as a benefit, helping to break down barriers and encourage better co-operation in the workplace.

 

However, there is a psychology to wearing uniforms, and there are clear benefits to workwear being clearly defined, especially when it comes to dentists and other healthcare professionals.

 

Boosting Your Brand

A uniform can work as an extension of your brand. For private dental practices competing for patients, having a recognisable brand, and brand values, is essential in making them stand out from the crowd.

Uniforms work as part of the impression the practice creates; which means, therefore, that it makes sense for medical uniforms to match the overall tone of a dental practice.

Traditionally, uniforms might have been fairly undistinguished, and dentists themselves might have opted for a plain lab coat.

Now, however, the options are far wider, and more dynamic.

Pastelli UK’s range of modern dental and healthcare workwear has been designed to focus as much on style as functionality, because style is an important aspect of branding.

 

Who Benefits from Uniforms?

Modern medical workwear has both outward and inward facing benefits.

Outward is all about the impression that patients receive. It is about building a sense of authority and credibility, but also approachability.

This should reflect the changing nature of relationships between dentists and other healthcare professionals with patients, visitors and others.

Gone are the days when dentists or doctors were simply authority figures. Now much treatment and treatment planning includes a great degree of dialogue. How the professional appears can help set the tone of this dialogue.

Consequently, medical uniforms can reflect the personality of the wearer, even as they identify them as part of a practice or institution.

The other beneficiaries of uniforms are the wearers of them.

Wearing something to work day in and day out, and in some cases, for long shifts, should entail that the uniform feels comfortable, is suitably hardwearing, but also gives the wearer a sense of professional pride.

This is not just about a choice of colours. It is about the cut of a tunic or trousers, and what the experience is of wearing these items.

The benefits are practical and psychological.

 

Style Before Fashion

Fashion and style are not interchangeable terms. Fashion is what is on trend now, style is something more enduring, and more deeply in tune with the individual wearing it.

Can style, in this sense, apply to medical uniforms?

We think it can. Pastelli UK’s range of uniforms for healthcare professionals are about giving the individual a sense of style but also a sense of belonging at the same time.

“Style is beneficial for individual self-esteem. Stylish uniforms also benefit the organisation, institution or practice for whom the individual works because they help develop a sense of brand cohesiveness. In this way, uniforms add immense value.”

Joanne Hunt, Pastelli UK