To wonder why you would say 'No' to student doctors/nurses helping/observing your care?

[Whatsnextforus4]

DD has been quite poorly in hospital with bronchiolitis. She's on the mend now and We can go home today.
Since we've been in hospital the care has been fantastic were so so appreciative of the nhs.
We've been asked alot if junior doctors and student nurses can help and observe our daughters care and obviously have said yes. 4 doctors checked her over for discharge today and while it took longer it was 4 sets of ears and eyes ensuring all was ok all overseen by a qualified doctor.
DH got talking to a nurse and she said alot of people do refuse to let them in.
AIBU to wonder why anyone would decline as those are our future doctors and nurses and they will never learn if they can't see and do ALL of the illnesses and problems that they will have to deal with. You can only learn so much from a book.

I'm fine with someone observing. However, when I was in labour I was given (with my consent) a student midwife, supervised by her boss. She completely messed things up and the labour went spectacularly badly so that I nearly lost the baby and suffered serious health complications. I would be very wary now of agreeing to a student leading the care.

Also, like pp, I have had a student fail to take blood from me and I was left with a bruised arm for three weeks.

I would agree to a student making a diagnosis and suggestions for care, but I am now quite scared of letting a student do the actual hands on care.

It's extremely easy to consider why someone would say no.

Really, took me about 10 seconds to come up with about as many reasons.

Same as arethereanyleftatall, I said yes to students when in labour with DS1 and apparently it turned into a roomful by the end. I was completely off my head with gas and air by that point and didn't give a damn

And the student midwife was just wonderful. When the monitor belt was uncomfortable, she took it off and held the monitor on herself while talking me through it.

I've had a student GP as well; he probably whimpered silently when I brought him two unusual issues which had him on the phone to the supervising GP in the next room for both, but he managed well.

Overall, I've had really good experiences with students.

I always said yes.
Until they asked me if it was ok for students to come in after I had my child.
I ended up with legs apart checked up for some pelvic floor issues/tearing/bladder issues whilst bleeding everywhere and so many pair of eyes that they struggle to to fit in that small room.
None of them introduced themselves, told me where they were in their training etc..
I’m not easily embarrassed but that went way over what I felt as ok.

So now my answer is yes only if I can feel confortable enough.

Fwiw I suspect your dc found it much harder than you to be prodded, looked at etc... by 4 people rather than one or even two.

It’s a very personal thing and PPs have pointed out the valid reasons people decline.
I was very set that I didn’t want students involved with my labours and births. My first birth was very traumatic to me and part of the trauma was having forceps in theatre with a group of strangers (male and female) whilst I was half-naked and my legs up in the air. I struggled massively with the lack of dignity and privacy even with necessary staff, so for future births I wanted as minimal HCPs as possible so would not want students sat ‘observing’ and watching in the room.

It also winds me up how many women say they weren’t asked for permission when it comes to students

Slightly different, but I work in healthcare and have had a number of my colleagues involved in procedures etc over the years, including major ops & childbirth. It's a bit surreal looking at someone in a meeting & thinking "they've seen my innards" but it's a small hospital in a small town so quite hard to avoid!

YABU to 'wonder why' when you're really just being sanctimonious.

These AIBU to wonder why... and AIBU to not understand... posts are so insincere. The OP's own strong opinion is usually obvious from the start, and rarely changes. Just be honest and say 'I think people who do X are insufferable/selfish/ignorant: gather around me, all ye who agree, so we may revel in our superiority'.

As LeftRightCentre said, I don't think it's a huge stretch of imagination (or empathy) to understand why people may want privacy during medical procedures. There's a fine line between explaining why practice and observations are necessary for the medical community, and guilt-tripping people into situations where they feel vulnerable and unhappy.

Actually for that same birth I had a student so the forceps delivery.
I was away with the fairies due to the pentidine. But I remember vividly the MW stepping in several times to correct said student/registrar.
And no the experience wasn’t great.....

It's very unusual for people to say "no". Some patients with interesting clinical signs become fatigued by all the student attention (particularly around exam time) and will say "no more today"! Occasionally patients want to limit the number of people they see, particularly those that aren't directly contributing to their care. Young men with penis problems often don't want to see female medical students. Women in labour will decline to see male students around half of the time.

Quite funny that your title is about 'observing your care' when it's actually your daughters care you're talking about.

I usually say yes, but for my third baby’s birth I became really distressed at the thought of extra people in the room as it reminded me of my second baby’s birth when there were prob 15 people present due to his condition. I hadn’t thought it affected me until that moment!

I’ve remembered my favourite students observing story. My dear friend was having baby number 3 when they asked if some student firefighters could observe. They have to see so many just in case they ever have to deliver a baby. She said yes, very earth mother not bothered about nudity. In troop 12+ young men who hand to stand there for hours. She said they were all desperately not trying to look where the action was. And when they came to introduce themselves they were all saying “hi, I’m Bill, got 2 months to go then I’m hoping to get onto Blue watch as that’s where my dad worked” etc. Truly weird. And she was gutted cause they didn’t stick around for a photo with the baby.

Had a wonderful student midwife doing actual supporting me - it was just the student doctors coming in for the birth that I objected to.

The patient can't cope with that many people around them.

Speak for yourself. I was perfectly fine with showing my backside to eight students when I had a seton put into one of my ano-rectal fistulas.

I said no to two male students when I had to be checked to see if my waters had broken. It was embarrassing enough having a torch shone up my fanjo without having an audience!
I agreed to a lovely student midwife though and although the trained midwife was with her, she did a brilliant job.

Totally understand people not wanting students, at the end of the day that's why they ask so you can say no.
I've never said no when asked. I had three student doctor (1 male 2 female) watch me deliver my 2nd dd. It was the first birth the man had seen and the two women had only seen one before. One of the women got very choked up and the man was very very grateful as lots of women had said no as he was male (completely understandable)
When they walked in the midwife really told them off for standing staring straight at my fanjo apparently they should stand to the side and peer round so it's not so intimidating.
When I was pregnant with my fourth I had a student have a go at giving me a sweep. We all ended up laughing as she was very nervous and far too gentle me and and the midwife were telling her "harder harder you can do it harder" then realised how inappropriate the whole situation was

Personally I wouldn't care but on (hopefully) rare occasions there are issues with confidentiality if it's a very personal issue. Students by their very nature are prone to chat about the patients they see and if they know your name that can be dodgy as they can 'out' you. They shouldn't do this, but human nature being what it is... I am speaking from personal experience as some students talked to me, an outsider, about a patient whom we all knew. And yes I did tell them they shouldn't have 'outed' the patient with identifiers. It was carelessness on their part.

I said no when a student nurse whipped my curtain open as I sat sobbing over newborn DD because the doctor had just told me there might be an issue with her heart.

It was incredibly bad timing and insensitive. She wanted to listen to DDs heart as practice and I was already so anxious and had just begun to calm myself down. I sent her away.

I’ve declined twice. Once was for myself when discussing a traumatic birth and future plans. It was emotional and I didn’t want to discuss with one doctor, let alone any more. I also didn’t want to be examined by a novice as was still in pain.

Second time I declined for my child as had seen the student attempt the minor procedure on another child who was screaming the place down. My child was already distressed and it just seemed a bad idea for all concerned!

I have said yes probably 20 other times so don’t feel bad occasionally saying no.

I am all for med students and nurses- my second labour was unexpectedly fast and during shift change (7pm) anyway- student obgyn fitted a closed canular and student midwife asked to attend me. Im glad I said yes- baby appeared at 7.13 as I stood beside the bed. The wee student was outstanding, caught baby and we had a hug and a laugh after. She told me it was her 22 birth and first upright. They gotta learn! I realise this is my view, i know its not always ideal tho

Depends on issue. I have accompanied people to appointments that have said no to this. It has either been for psychiatric issues or very embarrassing to them issues such as anal fissures or incontinence. I appreciate these are no big deals for Drs, but some people can struggle to even disclose to the Dr exactly what is happening. I supported one woman who it took a fair bit of specific questioning for the Dr to ascertain that she was faecally incontinent for example, as she kept using very vague language. She had said no to two observers being there.
Your issue OP is one that I am sure few people say no to having observers there for.

personally, I always say yes. In fact DS was delivered by a student midwife and whenever we go for monitoring for his heart condition (every 6 months), we always let the students examine him. There are 2 reasons for this - 1. I think it’s really important for students to get the opportunity, and 2. DS will have lifelong monitoring so we want him to be comfortable with being examined by lots of people.

I'm generally all for it but I don't think it's unreasonable for people to decline, everyone has different opinions and life experiences and the medical staff should be respectful of that.

I recently had a student midwife do a Doppler check on baby. I wasn't actually asked if it was ok, just told to get on the couch...15 minutes later she was still struggling to find the heart beat. I completely freaked out and asked if the midwife could do it instead, she found it in 2 seconds. I was then called a worry wort which I thought was pretty shitty of them considering I have previously miscarried, clearly written on the notes in front of them.

If you’re really ill or in pain or scared you just want it over with and don’t want a student fannying around taking twice as long and causing unnecessary additional trauma.