You’ve heard the phrase “We’ve come a long way.” It was once used as a slogan for the women’s movement in the 1970’s. Now, it’s been adopted to describe the racial diversity that we see in today’s workforce. The phrase has become a cliché, granted, but cliché or not, the phrase has a lot of truth to it. If you compare today’s workforce to what America had just twenty years ago it’s almost unrecognizable. There is more racial diversity at our workplaces then at any time in history, especially in today’s knowledge-based jobs.
This is especially true if you look at the medical field. I’m not just talking about racial diversity either. It used to be that men were doctors and women were nurses. Today these lines are beyond blurred, they no longer exist. Today people of every sex, race, creed, color, shape, size and affiliation hold highly touted positions. This diversity has changed not only the way that the public looks at medical professionals, but also how medical professionals like to look. It used to be that lab coats were plain white, had one fit and only served one purpose: to keep of dirt and possibly hold a prescription pad.
To borrow a cliché line: lab coat lines have come a long way.
Now with a bigger variety of people needing medical apparel, the lab coat industry has found a need to evolve their designs. Lab coats now feature such necessities as breathable fabrics, stain resistant materials, deeper pockets for more equipment and custom deigns which allow for a more comfortable fit. All of this might not mean much for non-medical professionals, but for those in the industries these improvements have been a god-send. As my personal physician, who had been in the industry for thirty years, told me “You cannot imagine what these improvements have meant to us.” He said that old lab coats used to be so bulky and uncomfortable that you couldn’t wait to take them off. Now, he says, he often forgets he even has them on.
This explosion of diversity in the field has also meant that the plain white lab coat is also a thing of the past. Companies have begun to offer a variety of colors and embroidering for their clients. Expect to see more light brown, blues and soft pink lab coats in the future. As the workplace grows more diverse, different people want different things and the lab coat companies are more than happy to oblige.
Author Kim Green has friends in the medical profession who need comfortable clothing such as lab coats for work.






