Clinical Skills - getting comfortable with each others' bodies

[kbeachworth]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I'm a first year med. student and we justed finished our first course in "Foundations of Clinical Skills" and it was a pretty interesting experience. We had groups of 8 people of mixed genders and learnt cardiovascular, respiratory & gastrointestinal exam basics on each other. It was pretty wierd coming to class dressed in a two piece swim suite underneath ready to expose ourselves to each other. Although we all tried to maintain a professional attitude to each other I found times where it was extremely difficult. I partnered with a guy for a lot of the time and there were moments (eg. palpation of apex beat, femoral pulses) where things where a little to close & personal. I guess we don't 'exposure' ourselves anymore than we do at the beach, but it the touching and closeness that is a little difficult to handle at times. I am pretty comfortable with my body but I think some the guys were getting a little turned on at times, making me particularly uncomfortable. My girlfriend (in another group) was asked by a male if he could practice breast examination on her (out of class) in return for scrotal examination practice - she refused!

I think these sorts of labs are required because it is impossible to practice on real patients when you don't know the basics. I think, however, that it must pretty common for people to feel uncomfortable and for other to people to 'advantage' of the situation in these sorts of labs.

-Kylie

 

[sorcerer]

I like you have recently finished a similar course. I think it is important to TRY and remain professional even though there are times when boundaries are pushed.

We to had mixed gender classes and although somewhat uncomfortable at the outset, everyone got used to it and after a while everyone in my group were quite comfortable 'sharing' their bodies around the room.

I think it is quite important for the classes to be of mixed sexes for several reasons. Firstly, you need to get comfortable examining the opposite sex because you'll be doing it for the rest of your life. Secondly, certain aspects (eg. finding the apex beat) can't be learnt properly without learning on the other sex. In our group the tutor taught us some techniques for examining the female apex beat in a professional manner and I think these skills will become important in later practise on real patients. Thirdly, it is important to learn what if feel like to be examined.

We also learnt some practical procedures in our labs including EKG and injections! Of course, injecting your partner was totally optionally, but we learnt how to find the correct landmarks and most of us were quite happy to have a go. This was the lab that required the most exposure as we had to remove our shorts (not our underwear though!) for the dorsogluteal and ventrogluteal sites!

-Peter