What Does a DPC Doctor Look Like?

“Is this how doctors dress now?” an elderly white male lawyer who works in my building asked me today. I’m dressed in jeans and a plain black short-sleeved shirt for my admin day. He was wearing khakis and a polo, by the way, dressed casually as one would for a day on the golf course. “As the owner of my practice, I can wear whatever I want” I quipped. Of course, I CAN wear whatever I want, but as a female physician, I will invariably be judged for it, no matter what I wear.

In medical school, unless we were wearing scrubs in the operating room, we were expected to dress up. We were on our feet for long hours, so high heels were quickly discarded in favor of more comfortable flats. Dresses, skirts and frilly blouses were, at best, cumbersome and, at worst, entirely inappropriate while performing various procedures. Eventually, I settled on a rotation of dry-clean-only slacks paired with simple tops and flats, which was both professional and suitable for all types of patient care activities, even if I wasn’t particularly fashionable. Even so, one of my female attendings in residency took points off my evaluation for falling short of her fashion expectations. 

During my five years in insurance-based practice, I was either pregnant or lactating for the first four, which significantly limited my wardrobe choices. Patients frequently commented on my appearance, mainly my age and weight. Occasionally, they would complain to the office manager about my clothing. It was apparently very offensive to more than one patient that I chose to wear maternity jeans in my ninth month of pregnancy when nothing else fit.

When I first started my Direct Primary Care practice, I was very careful with my appearance, knowing that patients are more likely to trust me as a physician if my appearance is professional, mature, and conservative. Once I had grown my practice to a sustainable size, I relaxed a bit into my natural style, which tends to be more casual, youthful and liberal, including pink and purple streaks in my hair. Patients still frequently comment on my age, weight, clothing and hair. Although many patients are complimentary, some of them chastise me for wearing unnatural colors in my hair or, heaven forbid, jeans.

For this reason, I often find myself dressing more conservatively for my Medicare patients and a bit more authentically when I have Gen Z patients on the schedule, although even then, I only wear jeans when I am feeling extremely rebellious. DPC is all about embracing a spirit of rebellion and authenticity, so I think I’ll wear jeans!