Ok NOW I need help!

[prettypea]

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Alright. Here goes. It turns out that the anatomy course in March expects US, poor vulnerable medical students, to actually strip down to our bikinis/underwear in order for our fellow students to check out... whatever.

Now, before I get flamed for not imagining or having compassion for what it's like to be a patient, I must just say that I don't have a problem stripping down to my skivvies for a nice little lady with a stethoscope, because I know the doctors see things every day... But I've only KNOWN these guys and girls for a few weeks! And I'll have to look them in the eyes for the following semester too (at least until I can transfer)! I don't even OWN a bathing suit! We also need to come "appropriately dressed" for the oral exam at the end of the course.

Is this a rite of passage in all schools' anatomy courses? If any of you have experienced this, I would REALLY appreciate a little word of warning/encouragement. Egad.

 

[DrMom]

We've done sports bras and scrub pants many times, but not what you're describing.

 

[sanoge7]

mind saying what school?!

 

[prettypea]

Dimply thighs and all, this is a medical school in oh-so-liberal-and-free-thinking Sweden...

So can I go ahead and guess that this is NOT the norm??? Or...?

 

[ckent]

We had this as part of the physical diagnosis part of our school as well. You can usually pick an all female/male group. You also can elect not to participate as a patient. It used to be that med students didn't have a right to refuse this part of the course, but these days, with everyone being so PC and hypervigalant about being sued, all you have to do is say no and you should be fine. It was a rite of passage at this physical therapy school that I once knew of (where you had to practice palpating structures on your classmates), but my school didn't make us do anything other then auscultation of the heart and lungs on each other. Even then, I suppose that it's possible to wear a thin shirt and ask your classmates to auscultate or palpate over your clothing. They should understand, they are going to be doctors after all.

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

When we learned the physical exam, we had same sex groups. I would be pretty PO'd if I had to allow some of the guys in my class to do a full exam on me. Yeah, yeah, doctors are supposed to be professional, yadda yadda. But there is no way I'd want the guys I see everyday to feel me up when they listen to my heart or to feel my femoral pulse. No thanks.👎

 

[Pickle Salt]

we did something similar for our clinical course. not a big deal. just wear a sports bra. we're all adults here, and we're all gonna see alot of ugly/pretty/etc. naked bodies.

 

[Megalofyia]

Pickle salt, was it possible for someone to wear a one piece bathing suit? I'm afraid I'd seriously blind someone with my stomach if I were to expose it. 🙂

Seriously thought I'm a very modest person I could deal with a one piece but I'm not so comfortable about the idea of sports bra and shorts.

 

[ItsGavinC]

What school is this? I should have (obviously) applied to medical school instead.

Bikinis? Way unprofessional, IMHO.

 

[ckent]

Bikinis unprofessional? Now that I think about it, at my school, during anatomy, we had a few female classmates who would change in the middle of the hallways walking around with nothing more then their underwear. Our school did provide men and women with a changing room to change into scrubs, but most people just didn't want to bother I guess. For guys, it was pretty universal that you wouldn't go to the changing room and you would just change in front of your locker. Now that our first year class is 60% female, I have heard from professors that they see a ton of first years changing in the hallways right before and after anatomy lab. These are major hallways too, where a lot of faculty walk by. Oh well, if it doesn't bother them, it shouldn't bother anybody I guess. While I don't think that it would be appropriate to be doing things like genital or breast exams on your classmates (which was once done at some highly ranked schools by the way, kind of an unspoken fact of medical school), I think that asking students to ausculate each other isn't innapropriate. Now that I think about it, only 2 of us in my group of four functioned as the patient. It's really not a big deal for one person who doesn't mind to be examined to be examined by more then one classmate. I guess that my point is that you should not be anxious about it. If you don't want to do it, no one should get mad at you and no one's education will suffer, there will always be someone else willing to volunteer (probably a guy).

 

[EPO]

Whoa, what school do you guys go to? Isn't this what standardized patients are for?

 

[citygirl]

We practice physical exam skills on eachother, usually in shorts and sports bras. Anyone has the right to not participate or to do same sex exams only, but we have been doing this on a regular basis so everyone is pretty much over any kind of embarrassment. We are also very respectful of eachother so that makes a big difference. Breast exams, pelvics and rectals will be done with standardized patients.

We also did several rounds of surface anatomy that required us to draw on eachother. Again, all voluntary but everyone participated.

I think this has helped us to be more comfortable touching bodies and seeing how everyone comes in different shapes and sizes. At this point its no big deal from a modesty standpoint and is a great learning experience.

 

[mpp]

Physical exam skills are practiced on each other at Mayo...you choose your partner (same sex or different) but practice a full exam except breast and pelvic on the females although some women didn't mind having their partner practice the breast exam. We had standardized patients so that everybody gets to learn the breast, pelvic, and genital exam on men and women.