To Expose or Not To Expose, That is the Question.

[ERDoc]

I think the issue also has to do with anatomy. On a guy, the things you need to see are on the outside and are easily accessable. On a woman everything is on the inside and as I said previously, you don't have equipment to check. Obviously if there is a labia laceration it's a different story but even in that case, put a dressing on it and be done. There is not much else you can do.

[Chief1C]

On the fence. I've had several calls involving swelling of the male anatomy. The parts that aren't supposed to get bigger. None of them wanted to be physically examined, prehospital. It was obviously difficult to walk, and sit, so they called 911. Ice was about all they wanted. What do you do when the patient does not want to be exposed. Not that I had any extreme interest in seeing it first hand, but I felt like I would only be doing half of my tasks, if I didn't at least attempt to help. As for me, you ain't seeing anything, and I'll fight anyone off who comes near me with shears. Exit only.

[Happiness]

If I feel that I have to expose, I guess I will do it (havent had to so far)

So one incident we had here (they went to the hospital themselves) was a dog bite in the nono`s. 32yr old female petting pitbull, wham dog bit her.

Now in that case Im pretty sure I would have to expose the injured site, but I would ask first and if they said no please dont then I wouldn`t.... this is really a tough call and Im on the fence with it.

If it was a male pt and my partner was male I think it would appropriate to ask him to do the call and vice versa if it is a female. When Im on with our one and only male medic if it is a girly related call I will do it.

Maternity also kind of puts a wrench it the senerio because if you dont look you could end up in all kinds of trouble.

I cant even vote on this one

[PCP]

Tough call for sure. For me it all comes down to if the patient has suffered any trauma. If there has been trauma to the area then yes we should expose, but remember we want to maintain patient dignity and the pateints wishes. So if they don't want us to take a look then we dont and document that on our report. If the patient said they have not suffered any trauma in that area then I would just ask more questions and try to find out why they may be experiencing some discomfort in that area.

As Happiness mentioned this is a tough one. I dont care that it was going to be my last call of the day and I just wanted to go home, all my patients get the same treatment. I am thinking again that for me it depends on the hx of complaint and how they answer my questions and if I feel I need to take a look to get a better picture then sure I am going to look or as stated above in a previous post have my female partner take over the call if the pt is a female.

[Happiness]

OK I dont know wtf is going on in my world but everytime some new funky topic comes up here I seem to get it.

We didnt have a crew but I told dispatch I would respond to a code 3 and my ff husband would be my driver (Big Mistake on so many levels)

19 year old (called code 3 for a fall out of a bunk in cells). Get there are and the RCMP are looking at me funny as they said it was abd pain that they said. hummmm I will have to look into that one.

Get into cells and sure enough there is my pt drunk, stoned on something deny's everything. It hurts where they took out my apendix, really now thats the wrong side then comes out "OHHHHHH my left nut hurts", Ok well since your pants are off your ass and your hand is down your pants please explain to me what happened. He dosn't know (surprise) this pain just started to happen (Hummmmm it dosnt have anything to do with the fact your going to jail does it). Did the vitals everything is fine now from experience if your in extreme pain your BP will be elevated to some degree, did a verbal exam for example so since YOU already have your hands on your testical can you tell me if it is bigger than your right testical. Ohhhhh ya it's 10 times bigger than the other one. Hummmm I can see your testicals through your undies and nope its not 10 time bigger than the other one. Ok pal can you walk to my stretcher Up he gets and hops on not even a squeek of pain.......Now if a man's testie is in pain wouldn't he be doubled over or gimpy in some sort of way?

So I did vote today on this topic and I said NOOOOOOOOOO to expose (in this case anyways)

PS When I called Dispatch back, I said to HIM you know apperently your idea of code 3 is way different than mine and HIS response was "Did you cut and expose"

have a happy day