Did you know that pockets first appeared around 500 years ago? The name pocket is derived from and Old French word meaning 'poke' or 'pouque', and similar to a pouch-type pocket. Back-in-the-day a pouch was fastened to girdles and belts of men and women alike and fast forwarding 500 years; today pockets are a necessity and an absolute essential part of our attire. Even in professional fields like medicine, it is surprising how much we take pockets for granted without realizing it, and in the process end up making them completely messy and filthy. This is why we have researched the best ways for you to stay organized by teaching you strategies that keep your lab coat pockets tidy.
Keep It Simple, Essentials Only
How many times do you unconsciously put whatever is in your hands, in your lab coat pocket thinking you will clear it out later but never do. Over time this same action may cause your lab coat pockets to be full of unnecessary junk, keeping you from finding the essentials you might have stored in it. Therefore, the first thing you need to understand in keeping your lab coats pocket tidy is to store ONLY ESSENTIALS in them.
Even though website like Just Lab Coats can provide you lab coats with multiple pockets, yet, depending on which department you work for, the essentials you carry might differ. This is why it is important to discipline yourself to stick to just the essentials. The most common essentials you, as a medical practitioner might carry could be a stethoscope, pen light, thermometer, alcohol swabs, cotton swabs, pen, writing pad and may be some candy. These items are in your pockets for a reason, and that reason is so you can retrieve them fast when you need them, without wasting time. Thus, by overcrowding the pockets you are prolonging the care that your patients might need.
Sorting And Compartmentalizing Saves Energy
After you have mastered the art of carrying only essentials, your next important step in an attempt to keep your lab coat pockets clean and tidy should be compartmentalizing what you carry in them.
By storing everything in your pockets in a haphazard way, not only wastes time when you need something; but can also damage some of the instruments. For example if you store thermometer in the same pockets as alcohol swabs and if the alcohol swab packets rupture, the liquid that seeps through might damage your thermometer. This can lead to a false initial reading and diagnosis, potentially becoming fatal to your customer. Just Lab Coats can help remedy this problem by bringing you lab coats with not just extra pockets on the inside and outside; but also by giving you lab coats with pen slots and bungee loops for extra compartmentalization of your pens, IDs and access cards.
The sentence compartmentalization of your lab coat pockets might sound like a word that required a lot of work; but it simply means that you assign your instruments particular pockets. These pockets of your lab coats can be set up whichever way you feel comfortable because the main purpose is to keep your important medical instruments safe and in within range to be pulled out when necessary.
Size and Weight in Lab Coats Matter
At work, nothing looks more untidy than budging pockets. Especially on medical professionals. It makes the patients feel like something is being hidden from them. This is why you should always arrange the contents of your lab coat pockets in a manner that does not affect its' size too much. What this means is that you can carry all your necessary medical instruments in your pockets by using weight distribution. Dividing the contents of your pockets and mixing some of the heavy items with the light ones, might allow your pockets not to bulge and look unattractive.
Everything Is In Its Place When You Assign Pockets
I know we have talked about compartmentalizing your lab coat pockets, but for certain things it is better for your functionality to simply assign particular pockets. This would help you in retrieving those items quicker when you need them the most. For example while its ok to store your writing pads and candy in your side pockets; it would be best for the sake of efficiency and productivity to keep your pen in your chest pockets. Not only will you know exactly where your pen is, but if you use a pocket protector, you know your pens are not going anywhere. It would be easier to keep them from falling out of your pocket and getting lost.
You can also assign your pockets according to weight, where the heaviest items and instruments are kept in the bottom pocket and the lighter stuff on top. Or you could do what I like. Being right handed, I keep everything commonly use in my right pockets and leave the left for items I use less often. Because we tend to favor out dominant side, assigning your medical essentials according to your dominant side results in a quicker response than your submissive side.
Wash With Pockets Out
After everything is done correctly in order to keep your lab coat pockets tidy, let's go back to a basic element of cleanliness; that is to wash your pockets the correct way.
When you work in a high speed environment like the medical industry, you might go days without out washing your lab coats. In all that time you lab coat pockets collect dust, residue, tissue and anything else your medical instruments might have come in contact with. This grime can gather in the seams of your pocket and make it rather gritty. This is why, every time you pull something out you might get nails full of colorful dust, or crumbs. And often enough the way we wash our clothes doesn't clean out the pockets either.
In order to keep your lab coat pockets tidy you need to get into the habit of washing them inside out. This will make sure your lab coat pockets are washed, rinsed and dried in a proper manner, leaving no residue behind. Only when our lab coat pockets are clean from the beginning, can make an effort to keep them clean and tidy. And now with the wide range in lab coats that is available on the Just Lab Coats website, you can also get your lab coats in the material that is functional and easier for you to manage.
Conclusion
In environments such as those of healthcare facilities, keeping something as simple as your lab coat pockets clean might not seem as pressing as saving lives. However, it is precisely because you come in contact with the ill that you need to take the extra precaution of keeping your lab coat pockets clean and tidy. Even if it's to rule out possible contamination factors; a clean and tidy medial professional is what we all want to see. We rely on the tidiness of our healthcare professionals in order to feel like everything would be ok. As patients, we link our wellbeing and outcome with not just our care takers competence, but also their external appearance. This is why we trust well groomed, fresh looking medical professionals over those that are towards the end of their shift. After all is an untidy medical professional someone you would want to take care of you? Therefore, if you want to get lab coats that would inspire you to keep them tidy and clean you should definitely visit the just Lab Coats website. When you see yourself looking all kinds of sexy and smashing in your lab coats; we are sure you will make the extra effort to keep them tidy.