Tag Archives: Tips and Advice

Power Dressing For Female Clinicians

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If you’re a female leader in medicine (or are heading down that path) there will be times when you need to step up your style to convey the appearance of the powerful, take-charge woman that you are!

So the next time you have an interview, presentation, important meeting or even just are having a professional headshot taken, follow these basic guidelines so that you can present yourself as a polished, skilled leader.

Skirt suit or pants suit

You can’t go wrong with a business professional skirt/pants suit, as long as it fits you properly. This is an opportunity to let your personal style show a bit more, and it can make a powerful statement if you go outside the box of traditional colors (think black, navy, grey) to opt for a bolder, more unique color like a burnt ochre, or deep plum – you can even play around with unexpected patterns like plaid or stripes, as long as the color palette is muted and still professional.

Crisp white button down shirt

If you don’t have this in your wardrobe already, bite the bullet and get one. This is not only perfect for professional settings, but it’s an extremely versatile piece that you will find dozens of opportunities to wear throughout the year.

My recommendation for purchasing a button down shirt is to not necessarily go for the most expensive or the cheapest option. You should shop for a middle-of-the-range shirt that isn’t absurdly priced, but is still made with quality materials, and take it to a professional tailor to have it fitted perfectly to your body. This simple step will make it look like the most expensive shirt you own!

Low heels or pumps

You should have at least one pair of nice dress pumps in your closet, but I would recommend against any heels higher than 3 inches. For one, they aren’t as comfortable, no matter how much you might relate to Sarah Jessica Parker’s affinity for sky-high heels. Secondly, super high heels can be distracting and don’t look as professional as a more modest heel.

Tailored lab coat with name & title embroidery

You worked hard for your credentials, so show them off by having them embroidered on your lab coat. And while you’re at it, get a lab coat that actually fits you – not the cheap, semi-see-through, unisex lab coats you might be used to. Even if you don’t think you’ll wear it in a clinical setting, you should have at least one professional tailored lab coat that will make you look polished.

Medelita offers quite a range of different tailored lab coats for female professionals, and they offer in-house embroidery services so that you can skip the step of taking it to a separate embroidery studio to have your name and title added.

lab-coats-for-powerful-women-in-medicine

Shop Fitted Lab Coats

Fitted Lab Coats: What To Look For

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Many doctors and medical professionals these days are turning their backs to the standard-issue one-size-fits-all unisex lab coats of the past, instead opting for styled, tailored, high quality white coats that speak to their high levels of professionalism. Choosing a lab coat that fits you well and looks sharp and polished is always a good move for a physician who is upgrading their professional appearance.

Because like it or not, the way you visually present yourself to the world does matter. It doesn’t make you vain or frivolous, it makes you smart. Studies have shown that patients definitely do notice what their physicians wear, and doctors who wear professional-looking white lab coats frequently cite higher patient satisfaction scores.

Men's Fitted Lab Coat

So if you’re shopping for your first professional, fitted white lab coat, here are some guidelines so you know what to look for:

Fabric

A high quality lab coat starts with the raw materials. If the fabric used to make it is poor quality, chances are the construction of the coat will be as well, and it is likely that the lab coat won’t make it past a few washes in the laundry before falling apart at the seams.

Look for performance fabrics that breathe and repel stains, with a bright white finish.

Fit and Design

This is probably common sense, but a unisex lab coat is not going to look good on anyone. The brand of fitted lab coat that you find should have separate styles available for men and women, because there are definite differences in proportion and design between the two sexes. The more styles there are available for either gender, the better, because you can bet that a lab coat company with many different styles is putting a heck of a lot of thought into every new style they introduce.

Sizing

Small, medium, and large might suffice for scrubs sizes, but if you can, try to find a brand of lab coats that offers blazer-style sizing. If you want your fitted lab coat to fit like a nice suit or jacket, you need this level of detail to sizes so that you look as professional as possible.

This fitted lab coats company offers men’s lab coats in blazer sizes (38, 40, 42, etc) and women’s lab coats in dress sizes (0, 2, 4, etc)

Slim Fit or Classic Fit?

This depends on your personal style. A company that offers these options is going to be paying a lot of attention to how their designs fit the wearer, so you can’t go wrong either way if you’re looking for a fitted lab coat. Generally, slim fit tends to be more contemporary looking while classic fit is a bit more traditional and not quite as close fitting to the body.

Women's Fitted Lab Coat

Dressing For Medical School Interviews

What To Wear To Your Medical School Interviews

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As if applying to medical school wasn’t hard enough, after you take the MCAT and tabulate all your extra-curricular activities, prospective medical students will likely face in-person interviews.

First of all, you should view your medical school interviews as an important milestone in your medical career, and look at this as a huge opportunity to impress the people who will be making a decision that could affect the rest of your life. It’s important to brush up on some interview tips and talking points, and review your resume so that you can talk about it professionally with ease. But you also need to account for how you visually present yourself to an interviewer as a prospective medical student.

Medical School Interview Outfit

Expectations for what prospective medical students should wear to their interviews will vary by school, region of the country, and even by the personal expectations of the individual interviewer. Given all these variations, it’s best to err on the side of caution and dress as professionally as possible.

Here are some tips for dressing for your medical school interviews:

  1. If possible, wear a suit. Girls can wear either a pants suit or a skirt suit.
  2. Dressing in dark colors tends to look more professional.
  3. Make sure that the shirt you wear under your suit is a lighter color than the color of your suit.
  4. Don’t overdo it with perfume/cologne, or accessories. Keep it simple.
  5. Try your shoes on before to make sure there aren’t any distracting squeaks when you step. For females, this also ensures that you are actually able to walk in your heels.
  6. Hairstyles should be clean and simple.
  7. For the most confidence, have your outfit tailored to fit you specifically. This will also make your clothes look more expensive.

The most important rule of all, for dressing for a medical school interview, is to be professional yet comfortable. Remember that how you present yourself visually will play a large role in determining others’ first impression of you, so you want to get it right!