# Are surgeons in bikinis a teensy-weensy bit unprofessional?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [July 26, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416 "2020-07-26T20:39:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/61 "2020-07-31T04:16:51Z")
> [@SCAdian](#):
>
> The picture she posted on twitter:
>
> [. . .] .
>
> Spoilered for folks who don’t like blood.
Well, in that case I do question whether it was professional (TWO doctors in bikinis?) – because she posted a pic of the patient? Did patient consent to having this picture taken, let alone posted on-line? Medical privacy violation much?
That pic reminds me of all the pics we saw a few years ago of krokodil addicts getting their flesh rotted right off the bone.
---
### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/62 "2020-07-31T12:53:17Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Well, in that case I do question whether it was professional (TWO doctors in bikinis?) – because she posted a pic of the patient? Did patient consent to having this picture taken, let alone posted on-line? Medical privacy violation much?
Two doctors or a doctor and a nurse that were swimming together when the accident occurred?
Don’t know about the consent for the picture, but my default assumption would be that the doctor is indeed a professional and got consent to post it. Plus the cropping/framing is such that I don’t think enough of the face is showing to id the patient.
Although I’m certain that since the story made the news that his name is out there anyway.
---
### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/63 "2020-07-31T16:14:07Z")
> [@Folacin](#):
>
> > [@Senegoid](#):
> >
> > Well, in that case I do question whether it was professional (TWO doctors in bikinis?) – because she posted a pic of the patient? Did patient consent to having this picture taken, let alone posted on-line? Medical privacy violation much?
>
> Two doctors or a doctor and a nurse that were swimming together when the accident occurred?
Something seems odd about this story.
If they were on duty & responded, none of the organizations around here, including USCG are doing water rescues in skimpy bathing suits. There’s all sorts of PPE they’re wearing. Google “USCG rescue swimmer” every image has them in at least long (lower thigh, cycling short length) bottoms & t-shirts, if not wet suits / dry suits.
If they were off duty & helped out an accident victim, good on them. The responding helo crew is competent & the docs in the ER on her day off are competent; there should be no reason for her to need to continue care unless she’s in some really backwater podunk area. Further, unless the helo crew knows her (which is possible if she’s an ER doc) there’s no way they’re letting her on to continue care. Further, if she was off duty, where did she get all of the equipment & medicine (morphine is a controlled substance; she shouldn’t just be carrying it in the trunk of her car)?
If there was an hour to stabilize him, surely she could break for a few seconds to put on scrubs. I don’t think I’d be comfortable hanging out in an ER, just from a temperature standpoint, in only a bathing suit.
---
### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/64 "2020-07-31T16:24:42Z")
In looking at the picture, I see another patient, being attended to behind a screen, a bike? (wheel), a guy holding what looks like his lunch, & a TV & a water cooler all on the far side of their ‘trauma room’. I guess it is a backwater, podunk hospital after all.
---
### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/65 "2020-07-31T19:42:35Z")
From above
> take you to my under equipped urgent care, stabilize you in 1 hour with an IV, oxygen, morphine, fluids, Foley, and put your open femur fracture in Bucks traction, fly you by helicopter to a local hospital
I would guess that the picture is from her under equipped urgent care - once she got to the hospital and did actual surgery, I’d assume she put on scrubs and etc.
---
### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/66 "2020-07-31T22:27:14Z")
If you are going to operate in a bikini, it should be sterile and put in the scrub recycling box following the surgery.
But it’s probably still a bad idea. You’d need longer gloves, for a start.
---
### Author:  [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/67 "2020-07-31T22:36:46Z")
Hmm, putting aside surgeons for a moment, is it professional for investment bankers to be seen off-the clock in swimwear?
What about lawyers?
What about computer programmers?
What about lifeguards? (Okay, maybe not lifeguards.)
If the answers to these are not “no”, then what makes surgeons special?
(Is it that they’re _women_ surgeons? Naah, that couldn’t be it.)
---
### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/68 "2020-07-31T23:16:02Z")
I’ve never seen physicians at Mount Abandon-All-Hope wearing scanty swim attire.
One time I was leaving the hospital around 10 p.m. and passed an OB-GYN on the way in who was wearing an evening gown (you don’t stop to change if your patient needs an emergency C-section).
---
### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/69 "2020-08-01T00:06:10Z")
I’m not saying I feel this way personally about a couple of photos of my doc at the beach but yeah if your surgeon especially moreso than say general practitioner or something, has pic after pic of jager bombs and Red Bull, smoking blunts or something.
Yeah I might worry a little more theoretically if my life could potentially be on the line, and they are poking around inside me I don’t want them nursing a hangover after chugging the bong water the night before.
The stakes are high for investment banker sure, but maybe not quite as high.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/70 "2020-08-01T20:33:21Z")
My employer has made it very clear that if any of us end up infamous on TwitFace (or CNN!) for on- or off-duty “conduct unbecoming” our occupation’s reputation for cool & sober judgment in all things, we will be promptly & unceremoniously unemployed.
Should they have that right? Darn good question. Do they that have that policy? Absolutely. Has it been used? You bet it has. Does anyone’s off-duty persona truly reflect their on-duty persona? Sure, some; but maybe not very much. Is swimwear, as such, proof of shoddy judgment or poor skill at anything? Not even remotely. Would the school board have a cow if they knew about my kindergarten teacher neighbor who does cocaine on the weekends and is a long-time successful FFN webcam-whore? Probably. Should they have that cow? Again a good question. Should her students’ parents have cows? Should they have a vote in the matter? etc.
Humans and their organizations be complicated things shot-through with contradictions and fuzzy boundaries.
Are those harrumphing old farts who wrote that JAMA article a disgrace? Absolutely. Have they been disgraced? You bet they have. And a darn good thing!
---
### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/71 "2020-08-01T22:20:32Z")
Nitpick: it was the Journal of Vascular Surgery in which that ill-fated article appeared, not JAMA.
Can’t blame the American Medical Association for this one.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/72 "2020-08-01T22:43:16Z")
Thank you. Should’ve scrolled back up to the top before relying on memory. :smack:
I (we?) really need that smiley back. I use it more than all the others combined.
---
### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/73 "2020-08-01T22:44:51Z")
People shouldn’t be having cows. Inter-species appropriation, y’know.
BTW, here’s yer :smack: smiley:
[ ](https://giraffeboards.com/images/smilies/addons/smack.gif)
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2020, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/74 "2020-08-02T11:14:57Z")
Seems maybe impolite to hotlink to Giraffe’s place, but thanks for the ref.
---
### Author:  [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/75 "2020-08-02T13:50:27Z")
What about 🤦♂️
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/76 "2020-08-02T14:06:26Z")
Looks more like peek-a-boo to me.
---
### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/77 "2020-08-02T14:21:15Z")
I can tell what the old forehead slap smiley is at a glance. The emoji, like most of the other emojis we’re offered, is too hard to see clearly; it’s a face with something blue in front of it, that’s all – and I only know it’s a face because I expect that from an emoji, what I actually see is yellow on top of a pale blur on top of a blue patch. If I mouseover I can find out what it is, but that’s not an improvement over plain text – worse, because the text would be visible without having to get my mouse Just Right.
---
### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2020, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/78 "2020-08-03T08:32:39Z")
[hijack, continued]
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Seems maybe impolite to hotlink to Giraffe’s place, but thanks for the ref.
Giraffe himself invited me to download it and gave the link. (He didn’t say specifically anything one way or the other about hotlinking.)
> [@Can we please have the old smilies back?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-please-have-the-old-smilies-back/912826/4):
>
> You can download it here if you want it: [https://giraffeboards.com/images/smilies/addons/smack.gif](https://giraffeboards.com/images/smilies/addons/smack.gif)
Later in that thread, he gave the link to all the rest of the smilies.
Take note! We experimented a bit with other smilies in that thread, including some of the animated ones, which we all agreed were smila non grata here. This led to a revision to the board rules to the effect that animated smilies are explicitly forbidden (and, IIRC, maybe even a bannable offense)!
ETA:
Note, like all other hotlinked in-line images, it only works on a line by itself. You can’t embed it in the middle of a line of text.
> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> I can tell what the old forehead slap smiley is at a glance.
And this. The old :smack: smilie (which I believe was custom drawn by a Doper for this board) was definitely more expressive in a way that the peek-a-boo version totally isn’t.
[/hijack]
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2020, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/79 "2020-08-03T12:40:54Z")
[Hijack]
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Giraffe himself invited me to download it and gave the link. (He didn’t say specifically anything one way or the other about hotlinking.)
> …
> Later in that thread, he gave the link to all the rest of the smilies.
I’d take that as in invite for the SDMB management to download it/them once and upload them to the SDMB servers to be served in our threads.
Not that **Giraffe** would do this but I know several smaller scale website operators who upon discovering hot-linking to their images would replace them with nasty porn pix. Which can lead to all sorts of interesting side effects for the selfish-folks doing the hotlinking.
If you don’t own it, don’t use it without both permission & attribution.
[/Hijack]
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416/80 "2020-08-03T12:55:57Z")
If I saw pictures of my surgeon at a typical fraternity keg party over the weekend, I would be concerned. If e was at such a party and I didn’t see pictures, I would still be concerned. This is because alcohol can produce measurable impairment even days after drinking, and I don’t want my surgeon to be even slightly impaired.
Wearing a skimpy swimsuit and going to the beach, however, does not produce any impairment, lasting or otherwise. Surgeons are humans, just like the rest of us, and do things for fun during their time off, just like the rest of us.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416.md?page=3)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-surgeons-in-bikinis-a-teensy-weensy-bit-unprofessional/916416.md?page=5)