With reference to your editorial (Rejuvenated image, BCMJ 43[7]:378 [9]), I certainly agree that the wearing of uniforms by nurses (with or without the “nerdy” caps) would do a great deal to raise respect, by patients as well as visitors. It might even strengthen their arguments for better pay! As you say, nowadays nurses are not recognized as such, unless they wear a stethoscope around the neck.

I would go further and suggest that respect for, and recognition of, doctors diminished, when they abandoned the white coat. Should we not return to that respectable and recognizable “uniform” in wards and hospital corridors?

—R.W. Dunn, MD 
Surrey