All this focus on consenting to even a flu shot but once you're out, you receive one of the most invasive exams a woman can experience without your consent or even knowledge, solely because some medical student needs to practice. This kind of invasion on an unconscious woman in any other setting would be immediately classified as sexual assault. But because it's in the hallowed halls of medicine, it's seen as completely acceptable. And these students are the physicians that treat and will treat us. It's the worst lesson in ethical medicine that I can think of.
Kudos to the reporters, patient advocates, and HHS staff that worked together to make this practice one that might lose the hospital money- the only thing C-suite hospital executives seem to care about- and hopefully extinguish it. I would prefer for it to be flat-out illegal, but this is a good first step.
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