According to an article in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, yes…at least, until the backlash started.
A group of dedicated researchers investigated young surgeons’ social media accounts, and shockingly found some had posed inappropriately in undies, “provocative Halloween costumes” and scanty swimwear. Outrage over this Puritan tut-tutting has overshadowed the paper’s other findings of unprofessional conduct related to controversial political/religious/social utterances, posing with booze or drug paraphernalia, appearing intoxicated, HIPAA violations etc.
People are shocked, shocked that their vascular surgeon could be preening in a bikini, Speedos or other unsuitable attire (and undoubtedly scouring Facebook pages of their local M.D.s so that they can be shocked by specific examples). When news of the retraction broke, I couldn’t resist checking the paper’s authors, and was amused to find that one of them had posted a photo of himself on Facebook wearing a weird hat with furry earflaps, sporting a goofy expression. Most unprofessional.*
Yep. Pictures in bikinis or revealing outfits in their time off or sharing images of partying in that same time off is NOT in itself something that relates to lack of professionalism – you should really be worried about irresponsible alcohol/drug use or HIPAA violations or offensive/hateful expressions, or frankly, just the notion of “do we really want everyone to know everything about our lives?” – that would have been a sensible question by itself.
But this is an interesting angle – for a long time now people have been saying “these young people, posting all they do on the networks, wait 'til they get real jobs…” Well, surprise, surprise. Some of them got real jobs, and they are in a position to say “you got a problem with that?” and make it stick. I like that.
(And please… I’m sure plenty of MDs of the pre-TwitGramBook generation only remained respectable pillars of the profession and the community because they managed to stay just this side of their extracurriculars being inserted in a police report…)
When I was young, anesthetists mostly didn’t die or get sick (apart from associated drug abuse), but they did have a disproportionate number of female children compared to male children – a sign of poisoning.
I think modern anesthetics are less toxic, and modern theaters are better ventilated.
One of the beauties of the job is that you can wear any kind of clothes you want – because when you get into work, all hot and wet from the run/bike/swim, the first thing you do is shower and change into theater blues.
When I saw the title, my first thought was “that cannot be sanitary. Hospitals allow surgeons to wear bikinis in the OR? Not even Grey’s Anatomy lets that happen!”
Then I saw that it was on their own time - and there, who the hell cares? Beach attire at the beach makes sense.
I still want my surgeon wearing surgical scrubs & gloves & stuff while operating on me.
Well I guess a bikini is better than what Ralph Northam was wearing.
I’ve seen some videos that appear to be real nurses taking naked selfies at work in the hospital and stuff like that, not sure if these women were caught or posted it themselves. There was one where the woman was like flashing the doctor every time he was looking away from her. Now that may be just a tad unprofessional.
Heh. While I was backpacking in Australia, a friend staying at the same place actually had a -successful- job interview as a nurse, wearing a bikini.
Not as bad as it sounds- the backpackers was very close to the beach, just past a few shops, and it was pretty common for people to just walk up that little bit of town still wearing swim wear (not just the backpackers, locals also nipped into shops for snacks and things in beach wear). She was on the way back from a swim, noticed an ad in an employment place for nursing staff, and just stuck her head round the door to ask if it was still vacant. Not only were they still looking, but the interviewer from the agency was in, free, and offered her an interview right there and then. Friend did suggest going back and getting changed into something sensible, but they just waved that away, said it wasn’t necessary, and proceeded to go through a totally normal formal type interview with her sat there in a bikini and towel… She did say it felt pretty surreal, but yeah, she got the job. I think there was a pretty major shortage of qualified nursing staff at the time.
Now former coworker posted a video of herself at her birthday party in her LinkedIn profile, giving a toast. She was already on leave for mental health related issues, and a number of people found it quite unprofessional.
If it was the same video, but on FB, no one would have said anything. LinkedIn and FB are really not the same, even if there may be many of the same contacts.
Whatever someone does on their free time, as long as it is not harming someone else, is their own business and should not be part of a yearly review or anything else regarding their competency to do their job.
Who cares? It’s surgeons in bikinis. Seriously, with what these folks are going through these days, I don’t care if they unwind by singing the Klingon War song.
When I saw this thread I thought it was about surgeons posing with unconscious patients during surgery while wearing bikinis which would be shocking, unprofessional, and dangerous, and that perhaps we’ve gone too far if that is now considered inappropriate to call out. Then I clicked the link and realized it was about surgeons with pictures of themselves at the beach??? WTF?
I want my doctor to be competent, interested in helping me, knowledgeable about drugs and treatments. I also like it if the doctor is NICE to me.
Notification to The Journal of Vascular Surgery:
Mind your own goddamned business. If physicians are competent and caring, and they don’t set fires, deal drugs, beat up old people, exploit children, or kick dogs, NOBODY CARES.
Go check your own closets. You probably have some embarrassing skeletons hanging there.
The few pictures I saw of the young women in bikinis were tasteful. Their choice of swimwear covered all necessary body parts, and looked a helluva lot nicer than what the denizens of WallyWorld are wearing.
Don’t those people have COVID crap to keep them busy?
There are a lot of websites now where people upload their own adult content. It seems like it would be dumb for someone to upload a video they took at work but if they are stupid enough to take those photos/videos at work in the first place then it might not be that surprising. At the same time who can know for sure, I realize revenge porn is a thing, it’s not something I’ve sought out but there’s probably always a chance of that for any video that is amateur in nature.