You really have no understanding about this matter do you because if you did then you would know that under theatre scrubbs all that is worn is underwear not street clothes the theater scrubb clothes they wear cover their underwear there for preventing the transfer of bacteria where as if your laying on the operating table and you are having surgery your underwear is in direct contact with your skin allowing easy transfer of bacteria into open wounds. If you want to increase the chance of a super bug infection and a longer stay in hospital or even death then in ahead and protest about being allowed to wear your underwear, there reasons are only measured set to protect you the patient against further problems.
I agree. You are covered the whole time DURING the surgery. Just not when you are being transferred off the gurney on to the operating table and being actually positioned. That is when you are butt naked top to toe for all and sundry to see.
Good Day:
Hospital personnel are supposed to DO NO HARM first & foremost.
If a patient is having surgery and the surgical site is neither the breasts, buttocks, rectal or genital areas, then the patient should without question be provided with clothing to protect their privacy & modesty during surgery if they so choose.
If the hospital won't provide it, then the patient should without question be allowed to wear a pair of clean cotton briefs or panties and a sports type bra to protect their privacy and modesty.
The end result of any surgery is for the patient (not the hospital staff), to have the best possible outcome.
You cannot have the best possible outcome when the patient who doesn't want their privacy invaded to such a raw level is told from the time they go to pre-op that all the clothes have to come off.
Pre-op doesn't want to argue with the patient anymore as they already upset them enough by telling them over and over the underwear has to come off due to the sterile environment and in case we need to insert a urinary catheter. The patient’s blood pressure goes sky high, anxiety sets in and now your patient goes into a defensive mode to protect themselves. Pre-op figures let the OR deal with it now.
So pre-op has done a masterful good job so far of assuring this patient will not have the best possible out now.
So now the patient is rolled into the operating theater.
After they get inside first thing the "team" does is take the poor excuse for a gown off the patient before they are transferred to the operating table, leaving the patient fully exposed for everyone in the room to see. Please don't insult our intelligence. Everyone in the room takes a look see.
Alas, the nurse sees the patient left their underwear on. The nurse goes to the patient & tells them again that the underwear must go! Patient gets upset and says no way.
Rather than having their patient blow a gasket right then & there the nurse tells the patient okay okay just relax while we transfer you the operating table.
Patient is transferred to the operating table where anesthesia goes to work & knocks the patient out cold.
Now the OR sniper team goes to work.
First thing they do is get rid of the patients underwear whereby shedding the patient of their last vestige of modesty & dignity even though the patient said no to removal. Next put in a urinary catheter just in case. Even after patient said no.
Now, while their getting the room ready for the procedure EVERYBODY takes a peak at the patient before they have a chance to get the private areas covered.
Don’t dare say it doesn’t happen.
Case in point. Syracuse NY, nurse at University Hospital loses nursing license for taking pictures of a male patients private parts with her IPhone camera then distributing the pictures to her colleagues at work.
So surgery goes on without a hitch. After the surgical site is closed, the nurses take the urinary catheter out of the patient before they wake the patient up.
Patient will never know they had the catheter (unless someone on the OR staff tells the patient), because the OR staff used their favorite drugs for the anesthesia. Versed & Propofol. Both drugs cause the patient to develop anterograde amnesia so they won’t remember a thing from the time they went to sleep until the anesthesiologist wakes them up.
So patient is woke up & transferred to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit.
After the patient has had a little while to get their bearing back they feel a cool breeze underneath their hospital gown.
They check & find out that the OR staff took their underwear off after they were put to sleep.
Patient’s blood pressure starts rising.
They start thinking to them self, what else did they do to me while I was unconscious?
Blood pressure continues to rise & they get nervous.
The surgeon stops by to check on their patient & give them the surgical results. Surgeon notices the BP is high and asks the patient how they are feeling.
The patient calmly asks the doctor what happened to their underwear that they went into surgery in. He tells his patient he doesn’t know as you were already prepped for surgery when he entered the OR.
He doesn’t offer to find out what happened because he knows. He’s just not going to say.
He tells his patient to relax that he will check in on them again in a bit then leaves leaving you the patient who is supposed to be concentrating on getting better, wondering what the hell happened to you.
A little bit later a nurse (who talked with your surgeon beforehand) walks over to check on you & low and behold, she has a pair of underwear in her hands.
Now, hoping you have anterograde amnesia from the anesthesia, she says you might feel more comfortable if you had these back on so I went and got them from the clothes you took off when you got here. You put them on.
What she doesn’t know is you know full well, you went into that OR with those underwear on.
Your mind starts to think. Who took them off me after I said NO. How many people saw me completely nude? What kinda jokes did they make about me? Don’t anyone dare say no jokes are made. Case in point the female anesthesiologist who got caught on tape making jokes about a male patients privates during a colonoscopy.
Your anxiety level goes up and all you want to do now is get the hell out of there. You’re no longer thinking about getting better. You become depressed. You put on a good show in recovery so they let you go home.
They discharge you but you go home a completely different person. Your trust in the medical community is gone forever. You never get back mentally to the person you were before you went into the hospital.
Their words DO NO HARM first & foremost are that just words. They have no real meaning these days.
The hospital destroyed this patient’s outcome all because they had to have the patient’s underwear off.
They should be proud.
This scenario happens all the time all over this country in our hospitals.
Until the people take a stand & force regulators to take notice & force new and/or additional rule changes on the medical establishment, nothing will change.
Right now the only protection we have is to remember to write on the informed consent form that you knowing the consequences of your actions do not at any time authorize anyone to remove your underwear for any reason nor do you authorize the use of a urinary catheter of any type to be used on your body for any purpose at any time. Sign it. When everyone signs the forms make them copy it then & there & you personally hand your copy to someone you trust that’s with you. Don’t let hospital personnel tell you they will make sure so and so gets a copy.
You should ask that you have a copy of all the applicable consent forms at least three days before anything will happen so you have the time in a no rushing environment to go over the forms so you really know what they propose to do and can write in your no consents.
By doing it this way you take the chance that they won't do the surgery because they don't want you making any rules.
All for a pair of underwear. Hospitals are getting pettier all the time.
The hospital & doctor had choices. When the patient said no, the doctor could have come back three ways.
1. Okay, you can leave them on they won’t get in the way of the surgical site. Patient happy, good outcome.
2. Patient has to lose the underwear or no surgery. Nobody’s happy.
3. Ask the patient, would it be doable if we rescheduled surgery with a same gender team. Provided surgery can be put off. Win win for everyone.
Hospitals are supposed to be working towards becoming more patient oriented and friendly.
They need stronger regulations to help them along this path as they don't want to let go of "it's our way or the highway"..
Regards to all,
NTT
Good Day.
Take a look at colonoscopy. The US system looks at it with dollar signs not how can we get our paying patient thru this barbaric procedure in the least harmful and comfortable way.
So you go for the test. Someone greets you then a nurse takes you into the back area.
You're handed one of their famous Johnny gowns & told to take everything off & put it on & get into the bed. At this point, if this were done in the UK, you would be handed what they call a pair of modesty pants to put on. EVERYONE male or female get the pants to protect their privacy & modesty. Rarely will a US facility offer less give you a pair of colonoscopy shorts for the test.
A male should be allowed to use a jockstrap or male or female should be allowed to wear a pair of boxer shorts backwards for the test if they don't mind losing the shorts afterwards. People aren't dumb. They'd bring a 2nd pair to change into after the test. Colonoscopy is a CLEAN procedure NOT a STERILE procedure. Some sort of privacy/modesty shorts should be allowed.
To protect themselves these days most doctors bring along a chaperone for their protection. Heaven forbid you should ask if your spouse can be present during the test to protect your interests. Your test will be cancelled right away.
Most facilities won't allow the patient to feel comfortable & safe. They tell ya don't worry, we've seen it all before many many times. You'll be covered the whole time & only the clinician running the scope will be around your backside during the test.
What they fail to tell ya is due to the layout of the room, your uncovered backside faces a door to the hallway whereby at any time for any reason someone could come in. It has happened to patients before.
Heaven forbid we make the patient feel as comfortable & less threatened as possible. The US is in this to make money so the quicker it's done the faster we can get the next piece of cattle in the bay.
Now, US doctors have figured out the quickest way they can get you in & out is by using drugs. Their drugs of choice are Versed & Fentanyl or Propofol by itself. If they use propofol, they have to have an anesthesiologist or a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist present at all times during it's use.
They give you versed for two reasons. It makes you more compliant for them & it causes you to have anterograde amnesia so if they didn't give you enough fentanyl for the pain or things didn't go as expected during the test, you really won't remember it because of the versed. They're moving more towards propofol in the US because it's fast acting, has less side effects, and still gives the patient anterograde amnesia like the doctor ordered.
Why are US doctors so afraid to do a non sedated colonoscopy on a patient? The UK does it. Use a short acting pain killer like Remifentanil for pain mitigation if needed instead of fentanyl. If you train on use of the pediatric scope, it's smaller than the adult scope & is more tolerable for the patient. That with water infusion instead of C02 would make your patient feel more comfortable & maybe willing to do the test again when needed.
Healthcare is supposed to treat each patient with dignity and respect so stop with the "it's our way or the highway" routine and if they want to wear underwear backwards because it makes them feel more secure in a hostile environment, let them do it or provide the shorts.
Working together we can make a system that everyone likes.
Regards to all,
NTT
Needs to stop.
To have sterile undergarments to wear during operations whether they be reusable or disposable would add extra costs to already over stretched hospital budgets that would then be passed on to the patient the same goes for all same sex theater teams so would you rather pay the extra that's the question and if you are then why not go full private healthcare where you have more say and you can have your modesty undergarments. A high majority of people needing any kind of care have no problem with this matter of being naked in the operating theater or having opposite sex doctors/surgeons/nurses performing different procedures on them. It is more down to the fact that you have the issues with your body and being naked around others rather than hospital procedures.