Can we have patient modesty ?

Well there were no “pretty young nurses.” They must all be in your urological ward !  “My” health assistants- no nurses there- were unqualified,,well into 50s and 60s I should think, and mainly on cleaning duties I think. I was publicly exposed nude “on the slab” waiting for the doc for about 5 minutes while the “staff”, cleaners included, studied me at their leisure. Not good enough- careless, thoughtless.

Hope all as well as can be with your blood clots treatment.

Charlie,

I guess the young and pretty may have made it all more palatable to me.  At my age, the urology ward is probably the only place that would happen!

I'm 5 months out from what turned into a week long stay and emergency surgery to cauterize 3 bleeders, resection the bladder neck and remove bladder stones.

Also needed 8 pints of whole blood to make up[ for what I lost. Final diagnosis on the hematuria was unknown causes. All's well that ends well. Regards,

Bob

Bob129,

Your account reminds me how well NHS still functions at the top level. Congratultions on recovering from a very major procedure, and trust all continues well. My concerns are at the lower levels of care, and how cost pressures have led to lower standards.

Wow, 8 pints of blood sounds a lot- you deserved the "pretty young nurses" !

Charlie.

Your suggestion is ridiculous. Many men do not feel comfortable with female nurses or assistants no matter how pretty or compassionate they are.  The medical industry works hard to train patients to lose their modesty in medical settings.

Some men are nudists. They feel quite comfortable disrobed in front onf anyone.

I'm not a nudist but when female nurses werere extracting blood clots from my bladder via my penis on an hourly basis, modesty was not even a remote thought. The same for when female doctors werere inserting a cath, and female nurses was injecting my penis with lidocaine. 

I had no thoughts of modesty whatever. I just wanted the pain to stop.

I would have gladly danced naked in the lobby for the pain to stop.

Bob120

The issue is not so much about modesty as it is about RESPECT. Those body parts that the nurses and doctors are touching are attached to a human being. Respect is and should never be a 'nonissue."

I agree, we deserve respect but some hospitals provide it and some don't. There's a very large gap in the way some hospital staffs behave and others. I've experiened the gamut, from hospitals where it seemed the nurses were out to kill you, to those to where you were treated like a slab of meat, to those where you got really kind and compassionate care. If you survive the bad ones, and find a good one, you are way ahead of trhe game. Consider in the US, medical errors and hospital infections is the third leading cause of death, with about 400,000 deaths a year attributed to medical errors, lethal side effects from prescribed drugs, and hospital infections. But then back in 1952 I nearly bled to death after my tonsils were removed and no staff looked in on me. My aunt found me covered in blood and summoned the nurses. So maybe it's always been this way and now we just have the internet to inform us of it.

Some men never get over these "notions"

More than 40 years ago while on all fours on the examining table, having my doctor examine my colon through some sort of device that resembled a drainpipe snake, I started leaking, so he called for his attractive young receptionist to bring in a box of tissues!

Guess I was desensitized during military training. The only baracks lights in the morning were in the latrine and there were no doors on the toilet stalls. SO while having a BM in the morning you were likely close to eye level with someone sitting cross legged on the floor in front of you trying to get a spit shine on his shoes. 

It is ridiculous when a male doctor decides to bring in a female chaperone for a male patient. Many men would rather to just be alone with the male doctor and/or have his wife present.

I am not sure if you were aware that you can wear colonoscopy shorts or boxer shorts backwards to only expose your rear and not your genitals. Check out http://www.patientmodesty.org/colonoscopymodesty.aspx.

 

Hi;

For my colonoscopy I did have those awful blue shorts with the flap. For a recent sigmoidoscopy it was just a trousers down knees up job. As I have said previously the safest most comfortable way is THE most important thing; with my sigmoidoscopy I couldn't understand why there needed to be 4 nurses looking at my bum. If some were student nurses then persmission should be sort just as if they were medical students.

 

I would never consent to a FEMALE CHAPERONE. There is no reason a doctor should do that to a male patient unless the patient has consented. If the doctor surprises the patient and just shows up with a female chaperone then walk out and refuse to pay for the visit. That is totally disrespectful to a male patient.

Hello Tron:

In the US there aren't many male ultrasound technicians. Most men, don't already know this fact & most doctors don't either & in turn don't relay this info to their male patients to warn them ahead of time as to what to expect when they send them for a scrotal ultrasound.

So he goes to the test without any prior knowledge thinking his doctor and the healthcare industry will respect his dignity then he comes to find out after he's told to strip from the waist down, put on a gown, and lay on the exam bed that the young lady that escorted him back to the exam room will be the one that preps him for the test and she's got a FEMALE chaperone with her for her & the facilities protection.

Mind you, it's not to protect you the patient, it's to protect the healthcare worker & their interests.

To keep you from balking about anything they will try to shame you into allowing them to do the test. They'll tell you not to worry as we've seen it all many times.

If you don't feel comfortable with having a strange woman seeing then handling your privates and another strange woman watching from the sidelines, this is the time to JUST SAY NO THANK YOU you want a male tech to perform the test. As you are still covered up at this point, you can ask them to leave so you can get dressed & leave also.

In the US it takes a little searching but you can find a male tech if that's what you really want. You may have to do some travelling but that's the cost of not just handing over your dignity to the healthcare industry.

Many men learn the hard way that you have to speakup before the process begins.

One way is to let your personal physican know ahead of time any male related tests and/or procedures must be done by and in the presence of only other males. You tell your physican you don't want any chaperones tagging along.

Then after the appointment is made & you are scheduled to go, call the facility ahead of time to verify your testing will be done by a male tech.

Then lastly, when you check in at the facility for the test verify when you check in that the male you requested is available as there might be times he's tied up & for their convenience, they will assign a female to do the testing. If this isn't what you want, ask how long the male tech will be & reschedule if need be.

Patients have to watch out for their own wellbeing as the healthcare industry has proven time and time again they sure aren't.

Regards,

Raffie