This was several years ago, so bear with me while I remember some details.
I had been admitted to one of the larger hospitals in my area. I was in DKA, recently found out I was pregnant, and was basically just waiting to get my blood glucose down. So, there I am, feeling crappy anyway, when a teaching doctor comes in with a bunch of residents without asking and tells them about my conditions. He then proceeds to ask me about another condition, which has nothing to do with the diabetes or the fact that I was pregnant.
I have mild excess facial hair, something a lot of women do. Normally, if I am at home, I groom it away and generally no one knows about it. This doctor pointed it out, asked me "has it been like that since puberty?", and then talked about me as if I wasn't there.
Is this standard practice at a teaching hospital? It made me very uncomfortable, and as a potential nursing student, I would hate for any patient to feel weird or like a sideshow. This was not my doctor. These were not people I knew. It wasn't the nurses who had been taking care of me a couple of days now. I, as a patient, was already feeling pretty crappy to begin with. This certainly didn't help me rest better or add to my getting better. What should I have done?