Question for Current Med Students: Do you have to practice on each other?

[buffywannabe]

My mom just started nursing school and she has been telling me stories about how they all have to get in their underwear and practice skills on each other. Does this happen in medical school as well? For some strange reason I am fine being touched by my doc, but the thought of having a ton of people that I know seeing me in my underwear and touching me bothers me a ton! I will still do it (i will just have to be in another place mentally) but I kind of want to know ahead of time. Plus I am kind of not OK with my body right now so ugh! Also if this is done in medical school what do girls do when they have their period!!!???!??!?!?

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[Pills Of Soap]

i heard about this happening at D.O schools where they practice OMM, but i dunno about MD schools. i doubt it

 

[Depakote]

My mom just started nursing school and she has been telling me stories about how they all have to get in their underwear and practice skills on each other. Does this happen in medical school as well? For some strange reason I am fine being touched by my doc, but the thought of having a ton of people that I know seeing me in my underwear and touching me bothers me a ton! I will still do it (i will just have to be in another place mentally) but I kind of want to know ahead of time. Plus I am kind of not OK with my body right now so ugh! Also if this is done in medical school what do girls do when they have their period!!!???!??!?!?

For organized skill sessions we've generally practiced on standardized patients or models for the more invasive procedures. That doesn't mean I haven't checked out an otoscope, BP cuff, etc and practiced on my friends, but it wasn't required as part of the curriculum.

When I applied to DO schools, I do recall that the OMM portion of the curriculum involved students practicing on each other at the schools I applied to, just FYI.

 

[FloatOn]

I've heard that they use fake patients hired specifically for med students to practice on. These patients are used to getting touched and probed for money. Can anyone verify this?

 

[mmmcdowe]

Have to? Not at my school. Do we? Heck yes, gotta get good at drawing blood somehow.

 

[CoolWhipp]

They have to get in underwear and practice on eachother? This is the kind of curriculum change I've been hoping for, it's about time. Medical Student's unite, this is what we need.

 

[Depakote]

I've heard that they use fake patients hired specifically for med students to practice on. These patients are used to getting touched and probed for money. Can anyone verify this?

If you hear the phrase "standardized patient" that's generally what someone is referring to. A community member or actor trained to simulate a physical exam or just let you practice on them. Like you said, they generally have been doing this for a while and are used to having the students poke and prod them. They're a great resource and many if not most med schools utilize them.

 

[QofQuimica]

My mom just started nursing school and she has been telling me stories about how they all have to get in their underwear and practice skills on each other. Does this happen in medical school as well? For some strange reason I am fine being touched by my doc, but the thought of having a ton of people that I know seeing me in my underwear and touching me bothers me a ton! I will still do it (i will just have to be in another place mentally) but I kind of want to know ahead of time. Plus I am kind of not OK with my body right now so ugh! Also if this is done in medical school what do girls do when they have their period!!!???!??!?!?

We use standardized patients at my school; these are actors who are paid to pretend to be patients. The most invasive thing I have had done to me (with my permission) by a classmate was venipuncture (drawing blood). This only required that I roll up my sleeve to my elbow. I can't imagine that any med school would make you practice physical diagnosis skills on your classmates in your underwear. But if by some chance that happens, I think you'd be perfectly within your right to refuse to participate, or at the very least to insist on having a female partner. Even female patients have the right to refuse to have a male student in the room while being examined with their clothes off.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Yes, you have to hold your classmates testicles and ask them to cough. You'll all be a really close group by the end of med school.

 

[JonathanMD]

Prostate exams only.

 

[Desaad]

They have to get in underwear and practice on eachother? This is the kind of curriculum change I've been hoping for, it's about time. Medical Student's unite, this is what we need.

Co-signed.

Sounds a bit like the Playboy Mansion Medical School, but I'm certainly down.

 

[shiftingmirage]

We did practice on each other. The most 'invasive' thing we have done is when you palpate the abdomen. So partner lies on a table, lifts up the bottom of their shirt, and you move your hands around. We also did bp, glucose, oto/optoscope, listened to heart rate, breathing with shirts on (usually for breathing you listen under the clothing).

An older friend's father is a retired physician. Back in the day, when it came time to learn how to do a rectal, the med students got into a circle and examined the guy infront of them. It was an all male class, but still, that's more than I'd like to know about my class mates.

 

[Perrotfish]

At my school we practice only on standardized patients and also rather advanced dummies at the simulation center.

 

[schrizto]

In my high school anatomy class we learned how to take blood pressure on each other. We also had students draw blood from our anatomy teacher, which wasn't really supposed to be allowed but she said she was willing to volunteer to let us do it .

 

[LossForWords]

We use standardized patients for pretty much everything, but people do volunteer to practice the more *ahem* comfortable things like BP, ear, eyes, nose, pulse, that kind of thing.

 

[surftheiop]

My friend's dad said atleast when he was going to school it was really common to draw each other's blood and it was a "right of passage" of sorts.

 

[ChiDO]

We practice on each other during our H&P sessions to get used to doing the physical exams. Girls are usually in sport bras as the most "inappropriate" thing is listening to the heart/lungs on a female student..and then even then it's not that big of a deal.

We have standardized patients every few weeks (2-4) times per semester to go over what we covered in H&P and they are used for testing purposes as well.

I don't know how you get good at taking a BP under 1 min without practicing. Using your classmates is great because everyone can give input on how to do things better or if we don't know how to do a certain technique.

 

[teenmachinery1]

They have to get in underwear and practice on eachother? This is the kind of curriculum change I've been hoping for, it's about time. Medical Student's unite, this is what we need.

I just applied to 30 more schools after reading this thread. If you can play hard AND study hard at the same time..

 

[njbmd]

My mom just started nursing school and she has been telling me stories about how they all have to get in their underwear and practice skills on each other. Does this happen in medical school as well? For some strange reason I am fine being touched by my doc, but the thought of having a ton of people that I know seeing me in my underwear and touching me bothers me a ton! I will still do it (i will just have to be in another place mentally) but I kind of want to know ahead of time. Plus I am kind of not OK with my body right now so ugh! Also if this is done in medical school what do girls do when they have their period!!!???!??!?!?

We had plenty of patients to "practice" on and didn't need to practice on each other. We did run scenarios and dialogs with each other but we did not ever disrobe for educational purposes.

 

[beachblonde]

We do have to take our shirts off (keep a sports bra on for girls) for things like skin, heart, and lung exams. Because you can't listen through clothing, what's the point in practicing using your steth over somebody's shirt? I also see it as a lesson in humility, since our patients will have to remove their clothes and we do need an understanding of what that experience is like.

But really, it's not a big deal. Maybe at first it was awkward, but now I'm just like "look, I got a new pink sports bra! isn't it cute?"

 

[buffywannabe]

I also see it as a lesson in humility, since our patients will have to remove their clothes and we do need an understanding of what that experience is like.

I get this except for the fact that the patient is in front of one person and in this instance you are around a whole classroom of people. Also they are your peers which is very different than the doctor that you trust.

 

[ThaliaNox]

I know that at my school as well we have standardized patients to practice on, especially for the really embarrassing stuff like breast and genitalia exams.

However, just as an interesting side topic, my EMT class was an experience in humility. It was common to end up in your underwear in that class. Things like learning to take pulses all over the body, find the xiphoid process, do physical exams, trauma treatment practice, etc. The worst was "abdominal trauma." I was also one of the only females in the class, so it was quite awkward at times.

 

[mic2377]

In EMS, we practice on each all the time. Backboarding, abdominal exams, breath sounds, 12-leads, etc. We also were required to do 5 IV's and 3 IM/SQ injections on each other prior to the start of hospital clinicals. We came out looking like drug addicts.

It is a very "hands-on" field and not for the faint-hearted. According to my paramedic instructor, at least one person every class just can't handle it and ends up dropping out.

They have standardized patients for the more embarrassing stuff in med school. I can't imagine getting 20 pelvic or rectal exams in one day. It must take a special kind of person! I sure hope they get a day off afterwards. It is a valuable service no doubt.