In OMM lab, your classmates are your patients. I mean get reall...it's not we're all sitting around with coolers full of beer stripping to the disco tunes or doing the "big nasty" in the corner. My Lord, the standard attire for OMM lab I guarantee you is provides much more coverage than the standard bikini for a day IN PUBLIC at the beach.
As someone above pointed out, those of us who possess bodies of chiseled steel or would potentially grace the pages of a high-fashion mag are extremely rare...I sure as hell do not fall into either category! As with many guys, I am an ex-football jock who when the training regimens receeded, the eating habits did not! And, I'd make one hell of a bearskin rug!
I was a tad nervous at first, but quickly lost that when I saw that I was no more uncomfortable and no more of a "freak" than anyone else in the class. Besides, all of us fat & uglies could have easily kicked the @$$es of the 2 or 3 beautiful people!!
Seriously, most everyone will be nervous about it. But, it will quickly pass. You will learn to adopt what I call my "clinical mind set". You will do extensive exams of many people's most private regions, many of them will not be clean and a few of them will be gorgeous.
It will be no more acceptable or appropriate to pinch your nose and yell YUCK when doing a rectal on an unclean, homeless alcoholic any more than it would be to whistle your approval at the appearance of the local college cheerleader coming in for her annual "female exam". This same rule will apply when you do your first trauma -- when some 17-year old partier has wrapped his car around a tree and is oozing blood, brains and other parts are a dangling and you are taking part in trying to save his life -- now is NOT the time to cry, lament or get nauseated cause you got blood & gore up to your elbows -- YOU MUST HAVE YOUR HEAD INTENSELY IN THE GAME.
This is part of becoming a professional. Although it may not be an expressed goal in the OMM syllabus, I can assure you, beginning this transition among friends is far easier than starting it out on the wards. With you buds, you can poke fun, commisurate and have beer & a smile over it. Your patients will not be so accommodating -- they will expect you to already be a professional before you touch them.
They want to believe you are beyond worrying about getting cooties from touching someone of the opposite sex, staring at the mole they have on their @$$ cheek or the fact that their back is hairy enough to make a rug out of it. They want to be seen as a person who has entrusted you with their most precious possession -- their life. And, they want to know that you're not gonna go laughing at their anatomy over a beer later on...again, this is professional development in its infancy. Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity cause not everyone gets to do so.
