Early in our time as the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital (BCCFH) COVID Contingency hospital I started wearing a bow tie to work every day. My co-director Dr. Jim Ficke and I made the decision together and it became something of a trademark for us as we worked in the various testing, vaccination and treatment sites across Baltimore and Maryland. We joked with the staff that if anyone had a complaint, they should tell them to look for one of the guys with a bow tie. We got plenty of feedback from our patients. But it was largely compliments about our team rather than criticism. Several of the other executive leaders also wore bow ties as they came on board. They thought it was part of the uniform.
The tie is part of a larger set of lessons about professionalism that I have been learning throughout my health care career. A med school professor told me that he never wore blue jeans to the hospital because he didn’t want to create too casual an impression with patients. Since then, I haven’t either. I started wearing bow ties as a medical student when I decided on a career in pediatrics because I thought they were less likely to get urinated on than a neck tie. (The latter have been suspected of carrying pathologic bacteria. Though disputed, it’s another reason for a bow tie preference). Continue reading
Henry V 4.3 