What not to wear-Israeli doctor edition

I asked a doctor today, ‘do people respect physicians here?’ of course, nothing is coming out the way I want it to, even in my own language. He was like, ‘respect? What is respect? Respect can only be measured in how much you get paid.’ Which for Israeli physicians is apparently not a lot. My question was supposed to get at, although my words have failed me, what Dr. Clive kept telling us and exemplified in his everyday life. He showed us a study at the beginning of our wards that showed that physicians who wore a tie (or whatever the female equivalent of it is) and a white coat were more respected by their patients than in other outfits. I think they were looking for respect. I don’t think it was ‘intimidation’ or ‘felt looked down upon’ or fill in the blank, but I could be wrong. Anyhoo, in my American eyes, doctors here dress like shlumps. It’s gross. How can you go to work dressed like that? I mean, jeans with skulls on them (and dare I say, even WHITE WASHED jeans!!!), dingy sweaters, worn out sneakers that I wouldn’t even wear to the gym even if I did ever decided to go. And the attendings outfits are at least button down shirts, but they take that literally meaning way too many buttons undone. Pseudo-europe style, I suppose. Do patients really respect doctors who are dressed like that? Oh, and to make matters worse, the white coats here are really just bed sheets with arms cut out of them. It either looks like I’m treating patients or about to go trick-o-treating as a ghost. Made even worse by the fact that my bed sheet is a size large because it’s way too complicated to go down to laundry and try to argue it. Plus, once it’s ugly, you might as well go all out ugly and poorly fitted. But seriously, if I complained about how our US white coats need proper tailoring (which I did), then can you imagine my thoughts on this?
Tomorrow im wearing jeans so I can fit in. ill be incredibly uncomfortable. When in rome…