The Role of Colored Scrubs in Patient Care: Building Rapport and Enhancing Communication

Colour colour, which, colour, have you played this game when you were a kid? 

Little did you know that there is an entire psychology behind colours that big brands use to win their customers? 

But not only brands but hospitals use colour psychology too for their benefit. 

The use of coloured scrubs has been a new thing in the medical world ever since the advent of scrubs. 

Nowadays hospitals use different colours and it has had a significant impact on enhancing patient communication and building rapport with the patients. 

Here are the role coloured scrubs play in patient care and enhancing communication :

Identification and differentiation

The role of coloured scrubs is a big factor in identifying and differentiating nurses from doctors, doctors from interns etc. 

Interns are provided different colours, nurses slightly different colours than interns and doctors or surgeons are told to wear a different colour of scrubs

This helps in the identification and differentiation of different medical professionals 

Professionalism and branding 

If there's one thing we all hate, but need to keep at it is professionalism and branding. 

It's in the hospital setting too. Every hospital has a set uniform policy that you just need to follow, and not following it will be a big question on your professionalism and work ethic. 

Branding of the hospital also plays a huge role. Your scrubs have the name and icon of the hospital where you work. This helps in identifying the hospital staff from the other patients and visitors. 

Visual appeal 

Coloured scrubs give a visual appeal. We all want something visually striking to forget the one thing that is annoying us in the present. That's why we’re addicted to scrolling, we want one visually appealing thing after another. 

Coloured scrubs are visually appealing to the person who wears them, and the colour they wear can calm down their patients, relax their anxiety and make them feel good about themselves. 

Improved patient interaction

As said above colored scrubs has the power to impact your psychology. If you wear a colour that is cool and gives off a serene vibe, then it’ll impact your patient interaction. 

If you wear a colour that gives off a vibe of danger, then it’ll ruin the patient interaction. 

  • The Importance of Color in Healthcare Settings 

    Healthcare settings use coloured scrubs not only for identification and branding purposes. Here are the reasons why they use it: 

    • Psychological impact 

    As said, the good colours of your scrubs can improve patient relationships. As it has a positive psychological impact. Most hospitals use only such colours that leave a positive psychological impact on their patient. 

    • Visual stimulation and distraction

    A good colour gives visual stimulation and distracts the patient from his/her worries. Imagine you barge into the hospital donning your blue colour of scrubs, and the patient goes extremely silent. 

    That's what a good colour is. It distracts the patient from his/her current stream of thoughts and lets them relax, by giving them visual stimulation. 

    • Understanding the Psychology of Color in Patient Care

    Psychology of colour is a huge topic, but it is widely used in patient care. 

    Have you noticed why most hospitals have common colours like white, blue, and green? Because it leaves a positive impact on patient psychology and improves their health.

    Here’s how: 

    • Blue

    The colour blue is said to evoke feelings of calmness, serenity, and peace. It reduces your blood pressure and anxiety and lowers your stress. 

    So, the next time you go into the hospital, wear your blue scrubs and start calming down your patients. 

    • Green

    The colour green is said to provide a feel-good feeling, it gives a refreshing effect and improves the sense of well-being of the patient. 

    So, when you’re donning your scrubs next time you know to prioritise blue and green scrubs. But we’re missing out on the most important colour. 

    • White

    White is said to impact your psychology positively, bring you peace, and promote clarity, focus and peace of mind. White is the colour that leaves the maximum positive impact on the patient. 

    You can’t wear a white scrub, but you can wear a white pristine lab coat that calms down your patients. 

    But beware few patients also have anxiety because of the white coat syndrome. 

    So, here’s how you can improve your patient communication by wearing the right colours of scrubs.

    Remember to go for the best colours like blue scrubs, green scrubs and white. Those will look good on you and also make the patient feel good about themselves.