Background
Most patients feel uneasy about visiting a clinic and thus the trust on their physicians can be affected by the physicians´ attire, attitude and greeting. We aimed to investigate the difference between patients´ and physicians´ preferences to attires and greetings in clinics. Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey on 394 outpatients in a university hospital and on 169 doctors from five university hospitals. We questioned to the outpatients about their preference for physicians´ dress style, how to address them and the method of greeting. We also questioned to the doctors about their own attire, attitude and etiquette. Results: The patients preferred to be called 'OOO Nim' (54.0%), 'OOO Ssi' (29.2%), 'Hwanjabun' (16.2%) and 'Sunsaengnim' (2.5%). However, the physicians were used to calling patients 'Hwanjabun' (39.2%), 'OOO Nim' (29.6%), 'OOO Ssi' (24.5%) and 'Sunsaengnim' (1.2%) (P＜0.001). Both the patients and the physicians preferred physicians′to wear white-gown (70.3% vs 78.7%) in a medical office. Inside the gown, a shirt and a necktie (66.2% vs 71.6%) were favored in both groups. Compared to the patients, the physicians thought that their attitude (23.1% vs 45.6%) and their attire (49.7% vs 55.6%) had a great effect on their professionalism. Conclusion: We found that the patients wanted to be called 'OOO Nim', but 'Hwanjabun' was most commonly used by the physicians. Both the patients and the physicians preferred white-gown. We also found that the physicians′ attire and attitude were strongly associated with their professionalism. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:349-353)