Medical Halloween Costume Ideas

Purchase a uniform from a medical supply store near your or online. For a doctor, wear a white, doctor's coat over a button-up shirt and tie. Hang a stethoscope around your neck, and carry a clipboard.

To dress up as a nurse, pick up a white nurse's uniform from a medical supply store or some scrubs in a medical or second-hand store. For a few extra laughs -- or grimaces -- wear a disposable bouffant cap, a puffy hat reminiscent of a shower cap that many in the medical profession are now required to wear, often to their dislike. An EMT outfit is similar but may require a trip to a uniform store rather than a medical supply outlet.

Adults only: Tailor the doctor or nurse's costume to be more revealing and form fitting, and you can be the stereotypical sexy nurse or doctor. Depending on your sense of humor, and that of fellow Halloween partygoers, you might say things like "Want to play doctor?" and wink.

Add a bit of Halloween creepiness to your otherwise wholesome costume by splashing yourself with a little -- or a lot -- of fake blood. Immediately that vanilla getup becomes pretty dark.

Or be a zombie doctor, nurse or EMT with the help of face paint and a lumbering gait.

Create a costume based on a play on words, and you'll be an instant ice-breaker. The medical field offers plenty of possibilities for costumes based on figurative language. For example, express "funny bone" by carrying a fake femur bone and using it like a megaphone to tell bad stand-up jokes. If you want to be Dr. Feelgood, dress up in a 70's leisure suit with sunglasses and a stethoscope around your neck. Don't forget to offer jelly beans as your feel good pills.

For costumes based on medical games and technology such as Operation, and the X-ray machine, begin with a box that you wear around your torso. Glue all of the flaps shut, and cut a hole in the top and bottom big enough for you to slide it over your head, chest and hips.

Design, paint and wire a box to work like a real game of Operation you'll be rewarded with plenty of compliments. The electric system in Operation is similar to a buzz wire game. Using a tracer projector, transfer the image of the game to a cardboard box big enough to fit around your torso. Then recreate the game, using tinfoil, paint and batteries.

Another possibility is decorating a box to look like an X-ray machine that lights up like a skeleton rib cage at the press of a button and you'll impress a lot of partygoers. Draw a rib cage on the box you're going to use and then fill out the image with Christmas lights. A simple button and batteries can turn the lights on and off for an "X-ray."

Another way to create a unique medical costume is to choose a specialty, and purchase or create a prop to symbolize it. Carry a a brain anatomy model, such as the types sold in children's toy and educational stores, and you're a brain surgeon. Carry a baby doll, and you're an obstetrician, a fake foot, and you're a podiatrist.