why does the doctor use to wear the white coat when they are working ?

Question: why does the doctor use to wear the white coat when they are working ?
- Keywords:
  doctor,
  whitecoat
Asked by 954bmay29 to Peter, Jonathan, Grace, Doris, David, Ann on 2 Jun 2019.
- Grace Kago answered on 2 Jun 2019:
  
  I think there are a couple of reasons: it is to protect the patient, because a white coat makes it easy to know when one’s coat is dirty, meaning that it helps the doctor to maintain cleanliness/sterility between patients. Also, it is to protect the doctor themselves from spills while working (imagine if their patients are coughing, spitting, vomiting etc) on their clothes, that wouldn’t be good, would it?
  Lastly, the white coat is a universal symbol for a physician, so some people might feel more comfortable when their doctor looks “proper”.