Common to practice physical exam on classmates? I'm going to Rochester...

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Julessophia

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I'm starting med school (at the University of Rochester) in a few days and someone in my family jokingly told me to "be ready for taking my clothes off in front of my friends to practice physicals". This person went to physical therapy school years ago and apparently this was common practice then.

To be blunt, I'm terrified. I understand the need to practice clinical skills, but I did not expect to have to have such things done on me, in various states of undress, in front of classmates that I'm going to have see for the next 4 years. I'm a pretty modest person in general (the kind who doesn't even wear a bikini) and to make things worse, I have a lot of abdominal scarring from surgeries. I'd really prefer that my classmates and professors don't see this.

Does anyone know if this sort of thing is still commonplace and does anyone know anything about my specific school (UR?). I could have sworn they said we use standardized patients, but now I'm not so sure if that's the ONLY thing we use... For those of you that do practice on one another, do you have to take off your clothes?

Please note, I have no issues with practicing these skills on standardized patients or anyone who volunteers. I just don't want to have to divulge my medical info to my classmates and be exposed myself, in front of them.
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No one ever examined my intimate body nor vice versa among my classmates. You might practice eye and ear and joint exams and the like with each other, but anything sensitive such as breast or genital exams or anything that required removal of normal clothing was done with trained and willing SPs, for us.
 
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And if it ever comes up that some session says "wear shorts and a tank top," and that bothers you, just don't. Someone else will.
 
We did practice heart/lung/abd exams on each other on one occasion, with the tell tale 'wear shorts and a tank top' recommendation. If you don't want to, just don't wear appropriate clothing to be examined, or when asked simply say you don't feel comfortable being examined.
 
J DUB said:
We have done ultrasounds on each other. You did not have to participate.

Girls were in their bra. and Guys pulled their shorts down to the pub hair for the bladder.

There are usually enough folks willing to get naked. No worries.
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I remember doing lower extremity msk exam tutorial. One female showed up in loose fitting short shorts and no underwear. Certainly she realized that we could see her intimate parts as she volunteered to be the knee and hip exam model.

OP, a lot of the exam practice is extremities, heent, non-belly. As has been suggested, just wear clothing that gives access to parts you are willing to have classmates see.
 
I like to give my classmates surprise rectals. Practice makes perfect. :thumbup:
 
Surprise rectals are the best part of med school IMO
 
I'm starting to think SDN is hiring someone to make these ridiculous first posts to keep us entertained.
 
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There are some places where students have to practice GU exams on each other! That's completely inappropriate IMO. I wouldn't worry about it, from my own experiences and the experiences of friends at other med schools, this is pretty rare.. The most we did at our school was rectal exams
 
Rothbard said:
There are some places where students have to practice GU exams on each other! That's completely inappropriate IMO. I wouldn't worry about it, from my own experiences and the experiences of friends at other med schools, this is pretty rare.. The most we did at our school was rectal exams
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Joke?
 
Yes, I thought it was the norm to practice the basics of the physical exam with your peers...?

If you are referring to if you are going to give rectals and breast exams on your classmates....there are standardized patients for that.
 
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Rothbard said:
There are some places where students have to practice GU exams on each other! That's completely inappropriate IMO. I wouldn't worry about it, from my own experiences and the experiences of friends at other med schools, this is pretty rare.. The most we did at our school was rectal exams
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Yeah, same here. We practiced the DRE's on each other but I can't imagine doing a pelvic or testicular exam on a classmate. I doubt any school in the country still does that.
 
IJL said:
Yeah, same here. We practiced the DRE's on each other but I can't imagine doing a pelvic or testicular exam on a classmate. I doubt any school in the country still does that.
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This seems ridiculous. Practicing DREs on each other? Really?
 
Is this something new? I did not know schools in the US have people do rectals on classmates. :eek:
 
In the first two years when we were learning skills, we practiced the heart, lung, abdominal, and extremity exams on each other. Third year, we did ultrasounds on each other.

I've also gotten paid for being an ultrasound model for residents and attendings, and for being an exam skills patient for second years.

For the GU and breast exams, you learn on special standardized patients. For many schools and most skills, you won't learn on your classmates first, but you may end up practicing on them in order to get technique down for the OSCE.
 
URHere said:
I agree with what most people here are saying. It's common to practice looking in each other's eyes/ears/mouths. Doing pulse/cardiac exams, abdominal exams, and MSK exams should also be expected. The most invasive thing we've had to do on other students is IV insertion, and plenty of people opted to just do their own if they were uncomfortable being prodded by other students. A few of us practiced art lines on each other, but that wasn't exactly sanctioned...

You'll be fine.
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The OP is from 2013. I'm sure she knows by now...
 
Not sure here either im going DO (starting next year) and in the OMM lab they made it seem like we will be examining each other very thoroughly. Not sure how far we go with it?!?!
 
Whats up Doc! said:
Not sure here either im going DO (starting next year) and in the OMM lab they made it seem like we will be examining each other very thoroughly. Not sure how far we go with it?!?!
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Pelvic diaphragm release is the furthest we went. Which is pretty far if you are uncomfortable with human touch. But getting comfortable with touch is probably one of the best benefits of OMM class. By the time you finish second year you will be less awkward with human contact than you had ever thought you'd be.
 
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GUH said:
Pelvic diaphragm release is the furthest we went. Which is pretty far if you are uncomfortable with human touch. But getting comfortable with touch is probably one of the best benefits of OMM class. By the time you finish second year you will be less awkward with human contact than you had ever thought you'd be.
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lol had to google what that was, it didnt actually look that bad but thanks for the heads up!
 
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