The color code of emergency workers’ outfits is not chosen at random.
Most people have probably never wondered why hospital staff always wear a uniform that ranges in color from blue to green. It must be said that this is not what patients are most concerned about when going to the hospital to undergo an operation. A broken arm or cracked rib is worrying enough. Precisely, the American tiktoker Hunter Norton – who depicts moments from his daily life as an intern at the hospital – has found the answer to this question! Imagine that the color of the blouses is neither the result of chance nor a collective “fashion faux pas”.
First of all, according to him, green, the color of hope, “would help doctors on the front line”. And the young doctor continues the joke by asserting that if roses are red, the coats certainly could not be… More seriously, according to a publication published in 1998 in an American media, this practice is the norm in hospitals since the beginning of the 20th century, after a surgeon swapped his white coat (symbol of cleanliness) for a green one, thinking that it would be softer and adapted to the vision of caregivers.
In a production that he films for his Tik Tok account, our student dressed as a surgeon takes up this idea and asks himself why he would swap the green of his emergency doctor outfit for red. The answer then makes sense: “If we have blood on our red coat, do you think we will notice it easily?” Another advantage of the colors of current blouses according to him: “Red on blue or light green, it doesn’t really look like blood anymore.” A way to make the job a little less unpleasant?
Red would actually be quite embarrassing for doctors, quite simply because this color would be too similar to that of blood. If the explanation may make you smile, this color could delay the work of surgeons, especially when the patient’s life is in danger or he is on the operating table. This idea is also supported by the student magazine Scienceline, which suggests a better contrast of green with that of blood. Furthermore, according to psychologist John Werner, who studied vision at the University of California, observing green would allow the human eye to better identify variations in green color and de facto, that of blood. Note, however, that in Australia, the coats are red, and that in the Philippines emergency workers have a uniform with an orange camouflage pattern. The question of the color of the blouses is therefore not completely resolved.