The Sophomore Council’s ‘intellectual tripe’
To the Editor:
As a parent of a student, I subscribe to Student Life to “keep up with” the conversations on campus, and truthfully, to compare it to the “intellectual tripe” that was pedaled in my day–the late sixties–anti war protests, “free” love, drugs ala carte, etc. etc etc. There is indeed, nothing new under the sun. I applaud Erika Sabbath’s (pseudonym?) objection to the sophomore newsletter that was so sophomoric as to attempt to “shock “a response from readers, or not shock, as the case may be. Yawn. My “honors” English class “studied” pornography as an art form. What a crock. The truth is: Some things are sacred. God. Sex within marriage. Agape Love. Seek these. Or you will find life is not worth living in this world or the next.
Pamela Jordan
Spirit Lake, Iowa
Pelvic exams: in the name of medicine
To the Editor:
We are a group of graduating Washington University Medical Students who were greatly offended by your recent editorial, “WUSM must ask how it institutionalized sexual assault.” While the decision of the medical school and hospital to obtain additional consent for student pelvic examinations under anesthesia is true, your depiction of the practice as equivalent to sexual assault is both ill informed and offensive. In a typical gynecological surgery, the patient consents for both the operation and an exam under anesthesia – the patient never is misled in this aspect of the case. The attending surgeon performs the exam to document the findings in a setting more comfortable to the patient; the residents and medical students on the surgical team perform a similar exam in order to learn how to discern and recognize atypical findings and tumors. Because patients with pathology, such as tumors, are rare, the examination under anesthesia is a critical element of our training. The exam is conducted professionally, under the guidance of the attending physician. Rather than look at the patient as a “convenient practice dummy,” as you wrote, we appreciate the patient’s willingness to teach us and help us to become better doctors. To imply that as students, our exam is lascivious and dirty, on a par with sexual assault, is simply wrong.
Furthermore, we do not learn how to do pelvic exams on unwilling subjects. We first learn on a paid volunteer; then, we hone our skills in clinics, with patients who have consented and are awake throughout the duration of the exam, while under the supervision of an attending physician. The exam under anesthesia is done by students competent in the examination techniques, but with less experience in recognizing pathology. These examinations are conducted with extreme sensitivity to the patients’ modesty and dignity. Additionally, pelvic examinations under anesthesia are only performed on patients who are having pelvic surgery; medical students are not running into every fracture reduction or appendectomy and performing a pelvic examination.
Yes, performing the exam does not directly benefit the particular patient being examined. However, each patient in a teaching hospital knows that certain procedures will be undertaken to further the knowledge of future physicians. By coming to a teaching institution, patients receive cutting-edge technology, and care by attending physicians at the top of their fields; in return, they consent to resident and medical student participation in their care – whether it be by listening to their heart, suturing their surgical wounds, or performing additional examinations. It is only by examining multiple patients, under the guidance of experienced physicians, that medical students and residents can become proficient and skilled. All of us have worked extremely hard both to get into medical school, and throughout our training. To imply that we conduct ourselves in a manner anything less than professional is both incorrect and insulting.
In five weeks we will graduate and become resident physicians. If we were to graduate without the ability to detect ovarian, uterine and other gynecological pathology, that would be a true travesty.
Suzanne Albrecht, Jason Anast, Karen Burgner, Arianne Chavez, Andrea Chao, Deborah Chen-Becker, Keri Clifford, Michael Cohen, James Connelly, Lauren Daniels, Carrie Daymont, Joanna Fair, Paul W. Frohnert, Peter Gabriel, Eric Hatfield, Inna Hughes, Ilya Iofin, Ganesh Kamath, Alim Ladha, Amy Lawson, Eunice Lee, Kerith Lucco, Heather Mahoney, Carlo Martinez, Tracy McGregor, Staci Mesher, Yosuke Miyashita, Avinash Patil, Kelli Pettit, Jeremy Prager, Brent Ragar, Rachel Rich, Elizabeth Somsel, Mark Stover, Kristen Terrenzi, Marcus Torgenson, Kavita Warrier, Kristen Wenger
WUSM 2003