What's the deal with medical scrubs?

[Weetabix]

They're not attractive except on some women who would be attractive in anything, so they must be practical.

Are they:
- easy to clean?
- comfortable?
- durable?
- cheap?
- merely a professional uniform so you can identify the wearer's profession?
- something else?

If they're so practical (and I assume they must be), why don't other professions/trades wear them?

Would they be practical in any activity outside the medical profession?

[rightisright]

I have a few pairs of drawstring bottom scrubs. They are very comfortable for wearing around the house. But I don't venture out in them.

[Greg]

Cheap, easy to clean, disposible if needed, non-shedding/linty, shows instead of hides dirt/stains/wet spots.

They're strictly functional in purpose. They've also become associated with relatively high status professions, so human nature being what it is they've also therefore become a uniform/signalling devices.

Wearing them out and about unless you have a good reason to would mark you as a poseur.

[Cobar]

I have seen painters wearing scrubs

[BDK]

Kitchen whites are similar.

More than one judge has threatened a doc to show up dressed for court or face being in contempt.

Bit like why every doc wears a stethoscope - and gives biochem types chills. Not as bad as ties and never laundered lab coats though

[randy]

Had a set when in college. Very comfortable. Wore them for lounging around the room and occasionally as pajamas. Something quick and easy to throw on when the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night. Missed them when they wore out, but never bothered replacing them.

I've seen them used to provide post-decon wear for responders/victims in HAZMAT type situations for many of the reasons listed above

[PawPaw]

My wife is an RN. Wears scrubs and a lab coat daily. Cheap, easily cleaned, often color-coded to denote specialty. (For example, surgical staff normally wear green). Wife-unit has four or five lab coats that are laundered regularly.

Colors change, depending on the hospital or office. No standardization at all, except that surgical types normally wear green. I am told that the length of the lab coat used to denote status. The longer the coat, the bigger perceived status of the wearer. Not so much anymore.

Folks not in the medical business who wear scrubs are poseurs.

[Aesop]

Are they:
- easy to clean?
- comfortable?
- durable?
- cheap?
- merely a professional uniform so you can identify the wearer's profession?
- something else?

No.
Yes.
No!
No.
Mostly.
Yes.

They are adult pajamas, and as utilitarian as BDUs, inside a hospital.
I don't wear the effing things outside of work. (Because they're positively ghastly for any other purpose.)

And the other group that wears them aren't poseurs.
They're inmates.

[dfwmtx]

I was wrongly under the impression for years that medical scrubs were made with paper to make disposal by incineration easier.

[Aesop]

I was wrongly under the impression for years that medical scrubs were made with paper to make disposal by incineration easier.

Only at Wildfire.

For the rest of the world, who buys their own scrubs on their own dime, the only good ones for men are made by Dickies, surprising absolutely no one.

(Note to All Other Scrub Makers: "Unisex" isn't, unless y'all stupid bastards start leaving enough material in the crotch and seat to allow for those of use with an actual package there to wear them without doing the lower half equivalent of a wet t-shirt contest 24/7, and/or ripping a new exit in the seats, any time we squat or bend, to be able to take a crap pretty much anytime without even doffing them. Just saying. Fucktards.)