caregiver111

On TV I've seen trauma rooms that treated one patient. Is that what you're calling a trauma bay. The trauma room I worked in was one big room with 4 beds. They could treat up to 4 patients at a time. Each bed had it's own curtains. If a female patient was being treated and only medical personnel were in the room the curtains were left open. If the police or a second patient was brought in the curtains were automatically closed. If the patient was male the curtains were left open. In my original post In my second post a made spelling error that I corrected in the thrid post. it should have read "always leave them open for a male patient." in stead of " always leave n for a male patient. I forgot the ope in open. No I was not implying the nurses left the room at all. The pts were never left alone. And no I'm not saying every nurse in this country is stripping male patients for the pleasure of cops. I'm telling you what I saw.

Quote by ESME12 I am curious...where are you in obtaining your paramedic certification? I did received my paramedic license and I'm considering more advanced training in the medical field. Quote by macawake Why was the man who'd fallen down the basement steps just lying naked on the bed, it sounds highly unusual. Normally patients are covered, modesty is just part of the reason, maintaining body temperature is even more important. When I work I uncover the parts I need to see and examine at the time, otherwise the patient is covered. They had just finished catheterizing him when the police came in and they did cover him up within a few minutes. Quote by SionainnRN Umm you know the towel has to be removed from the females genitalia to cath her too, right? I've never seen a pt cathed with curtains open, EVER. So acting like it happens every shift every day is ridiculous Maybe where you and the other nurses worked male patients being exposed unnecessarily was not a common occurrence but where I worked it was standard practice. Only once did I see a nurse close the curtains for a male patient when police were present. It was easier for the staff to work with the curtains open so they didn't bother to shut them for male pts. Even with female pts the curtains were left open as long as there were no police present. I never saw a police officer knock on the door before he entered the room. I never saw anyone including male or female doctors place a towel on a male pt's privates or show any concern for a male pt's dignity when non-medical people were present. That was the accepted norm where I worked. I worked at this hospital for 9 months and saw dozens of trauma cases involving the police and I never once saw a police officer wait outside in the hallway. I know other medical personnel who work in different trauma rooms and they said that their situation was pretty much the same. To all of you nurses who have stated here that you do everything you can to ensure the modesty of all pts I applaud you. I personally have always been treated with great respect by female nurses and doctors. But to say that all nurses or medical personnel are professional and show the same concern for pts as you do is generalizing. There are many websites dedicated to medical modesty issues that feature male and female patient accounts of being treated wrongly by male and female medical personnel.

If you're worried about your own safety then having the police in the room should give you plenty of protection making it possible for you to close the curtains for male patients who where not prisoners. Surely you don't think every male patient brought in is a threat to you. There shouldn't be any reason then to expose them unnecessarily to non medical personnel. The towel covering a patients genitals must be removed in order to catheterize him so this argument that the modesty of male patients is always protected can't true. I only gave a few examples of the cases I witnessed but I saw the same thing over and over again which was the complete disregard for a male patient's dignity.

I agree if the police have a good reason to come back they should be allowed to. But at the hospital were I worked like many hospitals in this country the police did not have to have any reason to be in the room. They could automatically come back and watch. The trauma room staff did not like that either. When I mentioned that to some of them the answer was " they really don't belong back here ".

Since police are non-caregivers their presence in the trauma room is un-necessary and constitutes a breach of the confidentiality, privacy and modesty of all patients male and female. Many times a patient would be undergoing treatment in a private room that involved the police. Do the police have the right to just open the door and walk in and stand and watch. The answer is NO. The trauma room is no different. Very few patients were prisoners. In one incident a male MVA patient was brought in. One male and one female police officer came in and watched his entire trauma resucitation. There was another male patient who had fallen down his basement steps lying naked on the next bed uncovered with a catheter in place. The 2 police officers saw him as well. What about his modesty and dignity. Many hospitals today have the police wait outside and do not allow them in the trauma room unless they have a valid reason for being there. At the Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey they rarely allow police in the trauma room. That policy should be mandatory for every hospital in this country. Sometimes a female patient would being lying there naked and one or two male policemen who where involved with her case would walk in and they would see her before the staff had a chance to close the curtains. Even clerical staff or security guards were not allowed to stand and watch unless they had a reason for being in there. The clerical staff or sometimes a security guard would come back to get the patients name, emergency contact information and personal effects and then leave.

In my last post I made a mistake in the last sentence, should have been "the curtains were always left open when it was male patient". I was a paramedic student doing my clinicals at that hospital and was required to assist in the trauma room as part of my training. I'd be more than happy to name the hospital and city the but don't know if I'm allowed to. I agree all patients should be treated with dignity but that's not what I saw at this hospital. I talked to the medical staff and they didn't like the police coming back and standing around but were reluctant to tell them to wait outside. Only once did I see a nurse try to protect the modesty of a male patient. A prisoner was brought in handcuffed and placed on the trauma table accompanied by four male policemen and one female police officer. The nurse in charge said " lets do this right" and she closed the curtains all the way while they did the trauma exam. If the police absolutely had to be present when a trauma patient was being treated it should be the same gender as the patient. Female police officers are not the same gender as a male patient.

In answer to some of the above questions. For example if you were in a care accident or were the victim of a crime and you were taken to the trauma room for medical treatment the police would need to talk to you about the incident. Only a small percentage of the patients in the trauma room were criminals or under arrest. The first thing the medical staff would do is cut all your clothes off to examine your entire body. The rectal exam is necessary to see if there is blood in your rectum. They would need to catheterize you to obtain a sample of your urine to analyse and detect the presence of blood. This is known as trauma resuscitation and is done to all patients. The police should not be allowed to just barge back into the trauma room and stand around and watch this necessary but humiliating procedure. If they need to talk to a patient or collect evidence they should knock on the trauma room door and ask if it's ok to come back. When I say watch this procedure I am referring to male patients since they always close the curtains for female patients and always leave them n for a male patients.

While working in the trauma room in a large US city I witnessed this scenario of the double standard of modesty for male patients many times.The police would routinely walk in the trauma room and were allowed to stand around and watch as patients were put through the necessary but extremely embarrassing ordeal required in trauma resucitation. If the patient was a female the curtains would be immediately closed and kept closed until the entire trauma procedure was complete. If the patient was a male the curtains were always left open and the police officers which often included female officers were allowed to watch as the patient was stripped naked, under went a digital rectal exam and catheterized. Allowing the police especially female police officers to watch this is blatant patient abuse. I think people should consider suing the hospitals as this double standard of modesty for male patients is an extreme violation of medical ethics and standards of decency that are supposed to apply to all patients. Police should not be allowed to enter the trauma room in the first place without permission or be allowed to " hang out " there while patients are being treated.