Trauma Naked?

[mark90]

I was in an MVA a month ago. Paramedics cut off my shirt, and strapped me on a backboard. When I got to the E.R, I was conscious, with no visible injuries, just a bit of a headache. Yet, I was almost immediately stripped completely naked. I laid there fully nude for what seemed like an eternity while I was examined. Then the nurse put a cup over my member and told me to pee. I wasn't able to, so they put a catheter in me.

I asked them to cover me several times, but the trauma team refused, even when i was given an ultra sound i was not covered up.

This just doesn't seem normal to me. Is this standard procedure or did I just get stuck with a bad trauma team.

Please help me figure this one out.

Thanks,

Mark.

[Farmer Jane]

Actually she did answer your questions--you just didn't like the answers.

You had two questions:

1) why cut off her panties when the only injury is to the head?

2) to whom do you report this abuse?

She answered your first question--you don't know that the only injury is the head until you look, and clothing can interfere with certain tests.

She told you this was not abuse, and why.

I can understand that you are concerned that her nudity was visible. I would recommend that you write a letter to the director of the emergency department expressing your concern. As for making a formal complaint, I think you should have some perspective: your primary concern should be that your girlfriend recovers. The BIG issue here is that she was giving proper medical care!

[madashell]

So, I am getting the idea that you think this practice is perfectly OK. Why don't we just build a glass enclosure in the lobby and deliver babies in there. Would be the same thing. Privacy curtains were there, but were not used. A choice made by the trauma staff, and a very unprofessional one I must add.

[vamedic4, EMT-P]

madashell...while I understand your point of view completely, you can rest assured that during a trauma there's no one interested in your wife's features, naked or not. It is incidental that someone may see her naked, but sometimes doors need to be open, curtains can't be drawn, and niceties can't be provided.

Sad as that sounds, we're talking about saving lives here. No one knew for certain that the injury was just to her head. Exposing her below the waist allows us to examine the pelvis - an injury to the pelvis can kill you if you're bleeding in there and we don't find it.

I hope your girlfriend has recovered fully, and that you never have to go through that experience again. You are, of course, free to write the medical director of the hospital, the other hospital executives, and explain her situation...that is your right. I'm just glad she got the standard of care that she deserved.

Me? I'd prefer to suffer a little indignity and be stripped naked than they respect my privacy and miss a life threatening injury. It's all about perspective. What's important to you, that she's okay, or that she was naked for awhile?

[Farmer Jane]

So, I am getting the idea that you think this practice is perfectly OK. Why don't we just build a glass enclosure in the lobby and deliver babies in there. Would be the same thing. Privacy curtains were there, but were not used. A choice made by the trauma staff, and a very unprofessional one I must add.

No one said that, or anything close to it.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

So, I am getting the idea that you think this practice is perfectly OK. Why don't we just build a glass enclosure in the lobby and deliver babies in there. Would be the same thing. Privacy curtains were there, but were not used. A choice made by the trauma staff, and a very unprofessional one I must add.

Read the thread again, quite a few of us, in fact a good deal of us stated this staff was unprofessional. You can't deliver a baby with a women's pants on, and you can't assess a trauma patient with clothes on, so being exposed is a given. How that patient is exposed should never compromise their dignity and the original poster was treated disrespectfully.

[bamagt]

This dude has a legit argument.

I agree completely with cutting your clothes off in a trauma situation. I understand being naked for a few minutes while you are being assessed. The point is you can have a curtain closed, a small sheet or something over you once this is done.

When I had my car wreck the dude started to put a foley in me (I was unconscious) with my sisters and girlfriend in the room!!!!!! My sisters don't need to see me naked!

People need to think before they do stuff.

But overall, I do agree with cutting every article of clothing off so you can be assessed.

[claybob]

madashell - What did you do or say when you saw your girlfriend so carelessly displayed like that? A similar thing happened to me but it was my mother. Can you imagine? I was furious!

[GadgetRN71, ASN, RN]

Obviously, no matter what the explanations given, even if they are rational and well explained, certain people just aren't going to listen. So I say, why are we trying to justify ourselves? We know we do what we do because we are trying to give that patient the best care possible. We need to assess the whole patient.

A patient can come in with an obvious head injury but have a broken pelvis, or a splenic injury etc. Can you imagine how the poop would hit the fan if one of us neglected to do a full body assessment and that patient died? All because we should now be afraid to take the patient's clothes off.

Unbelievable.

[ITSSOSIMPLE]

Its disturbing that there is a gross lack of privacy provided to patients. At

the trauma center where I work trauma patients are completely covered

up with a blanket. Each area of the body is examined by lifting the blanket.

It makes perfect sense. If nursing cannot respect your privacy do you

expect them to respect anything ELSE about you! I recommend you complain to the Joint Comission. You won't get a response since this type

of complaint is similar to say a BBB complaint and it stays on record of

the facility for 4 years. Then file a hipaa complaint. Next, go back to the hospital and request your medical records. On the Emergency Room chart

lists the names of the nurses that were assigned to your care. Make a copy of this and file it as a complaint with the State Board of Nursing. A nurse that does not provide you with respect for your privacy is considered

a violation of unprofessional conduct with every State Board of nursing.

Next, file a complaint with the Ceo and the CNO. At my facility this is

exactly what happened. Patients were left lying naked close to an hour long after the examinations were done.

You can file the Joint comission complaint on line. For the Hipaa complaint

you can print the complaint forms online.

[middleager]

I am just in the looking into stage of nursing, about to finish one career and looking for somewhere to finish my working years. I am really interested in nursing as I have such a high opinion of what you folks do. Personal experience, in general nurses are among the most caring & compassionate people on the earth. So please for give me if I am an outsider and display that in this post..I am a newbie for sure.

The issue of quality of care vs privacy/modesty has been debated here and elsewhere often rather passionately. Providers can be in that catch 22 damned if you do damned if you don't. I think the need to remove clothing and why should be a given. While a minority may argue it isn't right to do so, I think the majority understand it is needed. The bigger issue at dispute is the manner or how it is done and a secondary issue is the right to self determination. Assuming one understands stripping the patient is required to do the best possible examination for the patients benefit, simple consideration for thier modesty should not be ignored and both sides should feel OK with how it happened. From the patient side, agreed you remove the clothes, pulling the curtain would take seconds, placing a blanket or if more exposure is needed to examin, placing a towel over "private areas" would take seconds, keeping people out who don't need to be there...police etc should not compromise the care the patient recieves and are at least doing those little things that make the patient more comfortable and show concern. Then there is the right to self determination. We all do things that compromise our health and well being, we drink, we smoke, we drive to fast, we eat fatty foods. We have the right to make these decisions, as long as a patient is cognicent and understands the consequences of thier actions, shouldn't they have the right to make that decision on thier medical care? I understand it isn't quite so easy with providers who are targets of lawsuits and lawyers. It's often a judgement call if they are mentally and emotionally able to make the call. But if the patient is able, and makes the decision to jepordize thier care by putting modesty infront, shouldn't they be able to do so...provided they are willing to accept the consequences and not later hold the providers liable for thier decision. Should be a waiver that would provide some protection AMA type forms. Maybe it's the law of natural selection in play, choose modesty over our advice and the weak link may be eliminated...sorry for the long post...and your profession is awesome, I hope to be part of it sometime in some capacity

[leslie :-D]

while i think we all support the necessity of a thorough head to toe, i am from the camp that it only takes a minute to safeguard a pt's dignity...

whether that entails pulling a curtain, asking a family member to leave or throwing a sheet over vulnerable areas, it ultimately takes little time to preserve modesty.

sure, i understand that everyone's in high gear.

but should that make us less sensitive to valid concerns?

while 'saving a life' will always trump other priorities, it can be equally as noble to save one's 'self-respect'.

such actions go a long way in enhancing credibility and respect for our profession.

leslie:twocents:

[TiredMD]

madashell - What did you do or say when you saw your girlfriend so carelessly displayed like that? A similar thing happened to me but it was my mother. Can you imagine? I was furious!

How come male relatives are always more concerned about whether or not their wives/sisters/mothers are naked than if they're medically okay? Those are some seriously screwed up priorities, gentlemen. I totally understand why so many charge nurses have a "no visitors" policy in the trauma bays.