Do you ask patients, "Which pronoun do you prefer?" when you first meet them?

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Do you assess pronoun preference when meeting new patients?

  • Yes, always.

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • No, never.

    Votes: 40 97.6%

  • Total voters
    41

drusso

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I got an email celebrating "trans-visibility day" and asking all doctors with staff privileges to assess patient pronoun preference.

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In med school, we were taught to ask every patient "do you have sex with men, women, or both?"

It's funny that nowadays that would be completely inappropriate because some people don't identify as a man or woman.

At my hospital we were also told at one point that every patient should be asked, as part of suicide screening, "Do you think the world would be better off without you?"

Some things that sound good to academics really has no place in the real world.
 
In med school, we were taught to ask every patient "do you have sex with men, women, or both?"
I did that like twice during residency and the looks I got were so mortifying...there were many cultural competency lectures that were helpful that I still draw from today, but that one was a swing and a miss.
 
In med school, we were taught to ask every patient "do you have sex with men, women, or both?"

It's funny that nowadays that would be completely inappropriate because some people don't identify as a man or woman.

At my hospital we were also told at one point that every patient should be asked, as part of suicide screening, "Do you think the world would be better off without you?"

Some things that sound good to academics really has no place in the real world.
Yeah, in med school I was taught to ask if patients were having "Penis in vagina sex, Penis in butt sex, or penis in mouth sex" because sex means different things to different people.

On the other hand, working in the OB ward I can say it's the rare unicorn when you have an adult married male and female couple who are each having their first baby, together, and are both invested in the baby. Worlds' gone crazy.
 
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Yeah, in med school I was taught to ask if patients were having "Penis in vagina sex, Penis in butt sex, or penis in mouth sex" because sex means different things to different people.
Offensive and gross.

Also assumes there must be a penis involved to be considered sex.
 
They added preferred pronouns to Epic a while ago. Some of my patients hated that they were asked. Others didn't care.
 
What’s up with the Easter and bunny subs/typo’s on everyone’s posts? I wrote anybody and anybunny came out instead.
 
What’s up with the Easter and bunny subs/typo’s on everyone’s posts? I wrote anybody and anybunny came out instead.

You know what’s funny? As an April’s fool joke SDN changes your password so when you type it in the Reply box all you see is ********** after you hit “Post Reply”
 
I don't ask but I'll refer to them however they want me to. I have a few transgendered pts. If they want to be called she, he, they, whatever it's no problem for me. Their right to do it and I'll respect them for it. I have too many other things to be concerned with and could care less either way. I don't even care if my kids choose to be transgender, gay, straight, whatev. Their sex/gender life is really none of my business.

On the other hand, pts can refer to me however they like. Some call me by my first name or Dr. first name. My staff at times doesn't like it but I really could care less. Please do, however, spell my name correctly on the check though.

Edited to try to correct my atrocious spelling/grammar.
 
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Nothing more than virtue signaling to ask pronoun to EACH patient. Chances are, if he looks like a man, it’s a he. If she looks like a woman, it’s a she. If the patient tells you that this is not the case, which is probably gonna be one in maybe 1000 encounters, then say okay I will refer you to as he/she/they/beep/bop/boop as you please.
 
I went to my PCP earlier today and she asked if I identified as a male. I guess that's a better leader than being broad and asking what gender I identify as?
 
It's always been the case where you might mistake someone's gender because of their style, clothes, appearance, etc. If you do, you apologize and change the way you address them.

I think it's complimentary to people when you correctly identify their gender/identity based on their efforts/appearance and probably even more so to a trans person.

I think for most people, questioning their gender is a mild insult.
 
How often do you use pronouns with your patients? Are you referring to them in the third person? "You" and "your" seem common in my conversation, "y'all" occasionally. His, her, their, and "all y'all" is quite rare.

I usually refer to pts. as Mr. or Ms. _________ on intro, but will often just say, "Hi, I'm Dr. Cowboy," if their pronunciation or gender isn't obvious. They'll invariably make a comment about my boots, and we get on to their complaints.

My N=1 Trans pt. goes by "Shayla," and said "I don't get into all that nonsense, I'm just 'Shayla.'" Shayla it is, moving on. *Name changed to avoid HIPAA violation real or perceived.
 
How often do you use pronouns with your patients? Are you referring to them in the third person? "You" and "your" seem common in my conversation, "y'all" occasionally. His, her, their, and "all y'all" is quite rare.

I usually refer to pts. as Mr. or Ms. _________ on intro, but will often just say, "Hi, I'm Dr. Cowboy," if their pronunciation or gender isn't obvious. They'll invariably make a comment about my boots, and we get on to their complaints.

My N=1 Trans pt. goes by "Shayla," and said "I don't get into all that nonsense, I'm just 'Shayla.'" Shayla it is, moving on. *Name changed to avoid HIPAA violation real or perceived.
More often my problem is walking into a room with two people of same gender around same age and I don’t know who the patient is. The other day I started asking the one lady questions (the only one who spoke after I opened the door) only to find out the patient was the lady not speaking!!
how am I to know if you let your friend/sister/partner/uber driver/ who knows speak for you????
 
Yeah, in med school I was taught to ask if patients were having "Penis in vagina sex, Penis in butt sex, or penis in mouth sex" because sex means different things to different people.

On the other hand, working in the OB ward I can say it's the rare unicorn when you have an adult married male and female couple who are each having their first baby, together, and are both invested in the baby. Worlds' gone crazy.

The bolded part is the human condition. Nothing new. That’s why men don’t have baby showers.
 
The bolded part is the human condition. Nothing new. That’s why men don’t have baby showers.

Men aren’t invested in their babies? Go on...
 
At least you're not Dave Chappelle



hard to watch

i read somewhere that it was policy in WW2 that part of the wargames scenarios was that they planned on american fighter pilots being able to easily beat the japanese in dogfights b/c it was believed that they were all nearsighted and had to squint all the time. ill try to find the reference


"At the beginning of the war artists portrayed the Japanese as nearsighted, bucktoothed, harmless children.[142] Indeed, many Americans believed that Germany had convinced Japan to attack Pearl Harbor.[143] As the war progressed, Japanese soldiers and civilians would be portrayed in films as evil, rat faced enemies that desired global domination.[144]

Sheppard, W. A:An Exotic Enemy: Anti-Japanese Musical Propaganda in World War II Hollywood,University of California Press, 2001, Vol. 54, N. 2, p 306
 
no i look at the chart no need to ask if youre trans five timee
 
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