Pockets in Scrubs

November 22, 2011 2:17 PM

I just started volunteering at a hospital and got my first ever set of scrubs. The pants have two pockets on the butt, as one would expect, but one of them is inside the pants, and one of them is outside. I find this arrangement totally fascinating and intriguing. Is there some reason for a pocket inside the backside of scrub pants, or did I just get a weird pair?
posted by ocherdraco to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (10 answers total)

Response by poster: I should also note that I attempted to ascertain if other people's scrubs had this configuration, but couldn't tell, since most shirts cover that area.
posted by ocherdraco at 2:18 PM on November 22, 2011

It's because they're reversible. I'm not sure why they're reversible, but Yahoo Answers (if you trust them) says it's so the hospital laundry doesn't have to bother turning them rightways out.
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:21 PM on November 22, 2011

Yeah, I was just going to suggest that they could well be reversible. If nobody else posts with a definitive answer, I'll ask my mom (she's a nurse).
posted by anaximander at 2:23 PM on November 22, 2011

I don't know if it's an "off" pair, however I have to say, if I ever saw a doctor or nurse reaching inside his/her pants to grab, let's say an ID, I would be a bit grossed out. That is weird. Intriguing, but weird.
posted by AlliKat75 at 2:23 PM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's for reversibility. This is helpful even if it's not an industrial laundry situation because it makes it (somewhat) easier to hide clean-but-set-in stains from blood, iodine, etc.
posted by charmcityblues at 2:32 PM on November 22, 2011

Best answer: Like others have said, it's so they're reversible and never have to be turned right-side out. When you're washing lots of an lots of scrubs all the time, it's a real pain to have to turn them right-side out when (unlike, say, a pair of jeans) you have to look closely to tell whether they're inside-out.

Bonus: Put your pants on, notice which side the (outside) pocket is on. (Right side, IIRC.) Take them off, turn them inside-out, then put them on again. The outside pocket is still on the same side as before. You don't have to know whether they've been inverted from their original orientation because the functional pocket is always on the correct side of your body. Magical.

(Assuming you didn't leave stuff in the pocket before inverting your pants.)
posted by katieinshoes at 2:33 PM on November 22, 2011 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: I have magic pants! Awesome! Thanks, guys.
posted by ocherdraco at 2:44 PM on November 22, 2011 [22 favorites]

I used to keep my wallet in that convenient inner security pocket when I worked a scrubs- required job.
posted by rockindata at 4:23 PM on November 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

^^ That's the most important thing: everything important goes on the inside pocket. When you bend over things (eg. your expensive iPhone) will fall out of the shirt pocket... they're slippery!
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 8:15 PM on November 22, 2011

Along the same lines as the slippery pockets, I've known surgical staff to use a large safety pin to pin their jewelry (such as wedding rings and watches) to the inside of the front shirt pocket. It allows the jewelry to be on your person, but the pocket supports the jewelry and the safety pin keeps the jewelry from sliding around in the pocket.
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 12:11 AM on November 23, 2011