# Some Of My Patients Get In Bed Fully Clothed! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2003, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910 "2003-01-06T09:20:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/21 "2003-01-06T21:04:58Z")
I have the _opposite_ problem - I work for an ambulance service and I often send vehicles to move patients from one hospital to another only to find they have _no_ day clothes. They’re in hospital, often for quite a while, so all they have to wear is a nightshirt and a dressing gown (bathrobe, for the Americanally inclined). You’d think they’d at least have a pair of trousers or something, but no. Just bedclothes. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/22 "2003-01-06T22:24:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aenea \* > \*\*I recently had to take my 1 year old to the hosp for sever upper resp. infection. I got to hang out with the pediatric RT a lot during all of that. He was a really nice fellow who took the time to explain what he was doing, and I found myself quite interested in what you folks do for people. \*\* Thanks. I really enjoy my job, especially working with the little patients. 🙂 Your nick reminds me of a word I sometimes (unfortunately) have to use in my line of work: **apnea**. It means “absence of breathing”, and it kicks those of us who work in ER Trauma into high gear. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/23 "2003-01-06T22:56:38Z")
My health problems require that I wear the Dreaded Paper Gown a bit too often at the doctor’s office. I came up with a solution: I started bringing a bath robe. Just as “accessible,” considering that the types my Dr. use are the same style. I’m warmer, and a LOT more comfortable. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/24 "2003-01-07T03:42:09Z")
Another sweats and t-shirt sleeper checkin in… just cozier I guess. When I went in for my allergy testing I had to wear one of those stupid paper gowns… I froze for a freakin HOUR! Freezing and not being able to itch( oh sory thats SCRATCH!) a back wide itch is not a good thing… I dont peel down unless directed… and I can peel pretty fast if necessary ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/25 "2003-01-07T05:30:58Z")
If I were in hospital during the day, I’d want to be dressed. I think lying around in those thin gowns for more than an hour or so contributes to thinking of yourself as an invalid. ---
**Author:** ![Jessity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jessity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jessity)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/26 "2003-01-07T05:59:40Z")
Ugh… Hospitals, doctors… Ugh. The last time I spent any serious time in the hospital, I was getting my gallbladder yanked out. Story time! I go in for my surgery. Supposed to be there at 11 a.m. Orderly type person takes me to. . . where ever it is they take you before surgery and make you take off your clothes and junk. Scary, scary, scary. I’m in tears when I get back there, not from the pain but because I’m just scared to death of having surgery. My nurse comes in with my lovely gown and some papery booties and tells me to put them on. I do, and I hop onto the bed and continue to cry like a 22 year old baby. They decide to give me a sedative or whatever to calm me, 'cause I’m nearly hysterical at this point. I don’t like doctors or hospitals, and this whole mess just makes me nervous to some wicked extreme. Sedated, I’m on the bed in my ‘comfy’ gown, with a blanket that is the thickness of a sheet to warm me for FOUR HOURS before surgery. For a while, I talk to my mother about silly things, and I’m feeling good. Then my sedative begins to wear off and I’m getting nervous again. Finally, a nurse-type person arrives to take me to surgery. I’ve never had anything done other than getting my wisdom teeth removed, so I dunno how this is all supposed to go. I get out of my bed and into the wheelchair, and she rolls me back to the doors of Hell itself. Okay, not hell because the temperature back there was sub-zero. But you get my drift. The icy blast of air turns my legs purple, and soon nurse-type person gives me a nice warm sheet-style blanket to cover up with for the ride to the operating room. Once we arrive in the OR, I know I am doomed. Absolutely without a doubt, I’m doomed. I don’t WANT to see this stuff. I’m petrified. Shaking and crying and ready to keep my bad gallbladder full of stones until it kills me or whatever it does if it gets that bad. She wheels me to the execution table, and tells me to hop up. As I hop, my gown flaps open. She sees my underwear. She tells me I’m going to have to take them off. Somewhere close by are the guy who’s going to knock me out momentarily and my surgeon, who is wearing cowboy boots. Not only am I terrified, but now I really do want to just die. And so, in front of these men who I _realize_ are going to see me naked (I assume?) momentarily, I remove my underwear with as much grace as I can muster with tears streaming down my cheeks, snot flowing freely from my nose, and goosebumps all over my purple, freezing flesh. End story time! Anywho, I’d rather have them have to cut the clothing from my body than wear those terrible gowns. Actually, I’d rather never step foot inside a hospital again. But… that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![ratty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ccd318/32.png) [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/27 "2003-01-07T06:23:01Z")
See, now, I’m the complete opposite. It just never bothers me when health care pros ask me to strip and put on the gown. Sure, it’s weird and cold, but I don’t feel undignified or anything. I feel vulnerable, but then I feel vulnerable in situations where I’m comlpetely clothed. And it’s strange because I usually have big modesty issues. But for some reason, in a hospital or doctor’s office setting, I just lose all sense of shame. These guys see naked folk all day every day. I’m guessing they couldn’t care less what anyone looks like naked. In a bizarre way, it’s kind of liberating. Here I am, naked as the day I was born, and not one single person gives a hoot. They’re used to it. My unclothed state barely registers with them. I like to think that as medical professionals they’re innured to this kind of thing and are somehow “above” passing judgement. My aunt was an RN in a large urban ER. She saw naked people every day of her life, and never batted an eye. Even what most people would consider horrifying abbeations of the human form had no effect on her. So I’m guessing that while your butt eczema is to you a soul-stripping deformity which you would defend from prying eyes at the cost of your life, in the world of professional medical workers, it’s about as troublesome as a cloudy day. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/28 "2003-01-08T03:17:32Z")
See, we actually have the opposite problem at my facility. We don’t use gowns, just pajamas but some of the older gentlemen apparently like to be in the raw in bed. And quite often a number of them wander around the hallways with various, um, stuff, hanging out. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/29 "2003-01-08T04:59:29Z")
> [@](#): > > See, we actually have the opposite problem at my facility. > We don’t use gowns, just pajamas but some of the older gentlemen apparently like to be in the raw in bed. And quite often a number of them wander around the hallways with various, um, stuff, hanging out. Good to see things haven’t changed in the ol’ VA. 🙂 When I do clinic, my patients don’t get undressed until I need them to. 90% of the time, I can do everything I need to do with the patient fully clothed, or minus an item or two. The only time I have anyone strip completely and use the gown is for pelvic exams, when I usually do a breast exam as well. Still, I do the history, as much of the exam as I can, and THEN ask them to get into the gown. (I use cloth gowns, too–I’ve never seen paper ones anyplace that I’ve worked.) I understand the folks who keep their clothes on. If I were in the hospital, I’d probably stay more-or-less as fully clothed as possible, except perhaps at night when I was purportedly sleeping. (The hospital is no place to get any sleep.) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/30 "2003-01-08T11:53:18Z")
I sleep in the nude but I’ll damned if I’d ever do so in a hospital! And why do you keep the rooms so damn _cold???_. Really. Every time I go to a hospital to visit someone I freeze my backside off even though I’m fully clothed! What gives with that? I dread ever being admitted to the hospital for two reasons: 1) I’ll freeze to death, or at least go hypothermic and 2) I’d be afraid to eat the food (No, no - it’s not what you think. I have multiple food allergies, I’m always afraid to eat.) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/31 "2003-01-08T14:01:39Z")
My clinic doesn’t require you to wait around naked. I asked the Dr. about it & he said that wasn’t done much anymore. Relief! How long does it take to roll up a sleeve, raise your shirt up, or just pull it off, or yank down your pants? If you have an appointment, or you’re going to be staying overnight in the hospital, why can’t they just tell you what you can wear? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/32 "2003-01-08T15:26:44Z")
Ok something has be bugging me about this thread and it is this. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Quasimodem \* > \*\* > This makes it kinda tough to do an ECG, since I have to pretty much unbutton things to get the elctrode pads where they need to go. Sometimes I have to call for a nurse to help with a lady’s very tight fitting jeans, if I put the electrode pads on the calves. \*\* Was she drugged and could not take her own pants off? Or was she in such tight pants that it took three people to get them off? Do you hook these things up while they are asleep? Is this going to happen to me when I get a sleep study done to check out my snoring? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/33 "2003-01-08T19:30:07Z")
I work mainly ER. Many of the EKGs I order (and occasionally do) are on clothed patients. Most of the people I work with call them ECGs. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/34 "2003-01-09T18:55:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zebra \* > \*\*Ok something has be bugging me about this thread and it is this. > > Was she drugged and could not take her own pants off? > > Or was she in such tight pants that it took three people to get them off? > > Do you hook these things up while they are asleep? > > Is this going to happen to me when I get a sleep study done to check out my snoring? \*\* **Zebra** , I do not know what will happen to you when you have your sleep study done since I don’t do them, but I will answer your question by stating that I am a professional and conduct myself ethically at all times and I resent any implication to the contrary. For the sake of the thread and because I may not have gotten through, I will once again reiterate that these are patients who check into the hospital for an extended stay and choose to sleep in their clothing. All the time. I asked if this happened at any other hospitals, that’s all. I appreciate Y’all’s concerns about your privacy and the medical profession in general, but that was not the intent of the thread. Quasimodem ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/35 "2003-01-09T19:06:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shoshana \* > \*\*If I were in hospital during the day, I’d want to be dressed. I think lying around in those thin gowns for more than an hour or so contributes to thinking of yourself as an invalid. \*\* Am I the only one who thinks they’re comfy? I brought one home with me, actually. And I love staying in jammies all day 🙂 Being dressed is for wimps 😜 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/36 "2003-01-09T21:59:51Z")
**Quasi** I in no way ment to imply that you we acting in a non-professional manner. Again from your OP > [@](#): > > Sometimes I have to call for a nurse to help with a lady’s very tight fitting jeans This brought an image to my mind of you and a nurse pulling a womans pants off her, **while the woman being de-pants remained asleep**. I guess you ment that you had to awaken the woman and a nurse had to help her take the pants off. Maybe I misinterpeted what you wrote, but you really misinterpeted what I wrote. ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/37 "2003-01-09T22:52:41Z")
As a Labor and Delivery RN, I admit women to the unit, ask them to undress and put on the gown. Last week I had a young woman leave her underpants on and let me tell you, this makes doing a pelvic exam a real challenge. I know the rooms are cold—germ suppression is good in a hospital setting—and I offer heated blankets and socks. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/38 "2003-01-09T23:59:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Broomstick \* > And why do you keep the rooms so damn _cold???_. Really. Every time I go to a hospital to visit someone I freeze my backside off even though I’m fully clothed! What gives with that? Just WAG, but maybe it’s to keep germ transmition to a minimum? It seems like a cold environment might be less conducive to air-borne bacteria, and might even inhibit its growth on objects. ---
**Author:** ![Mith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mith)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/39 "2003-01-10T00:44:04Z")
Quasimodem being bulimic, i’ve had many ECGs. what’s the big deal? just ask them to disrobe. i don’t believe i’ve ever been in a gown or my jammies when i’ve had it done. perhaps, since they are AWAY FROM HOME, sleeping in some public type place… they don’t feel comfortable wearing their jammies. perhaps knowing that people are coming to poke and prod at them, the keep their clothes on, wanting to look “decent”. who knows? why does it matter? you’re a techician… not a doc or nurse. you don’t know if they just got in and fell asleep, or laid down for a nap, or are expecting someone to come by. ---
**Author:** ![jjrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@jjrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjrt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910/40 "2003-01-10T05:53:06Z")
First time I was in the hospital was for a tonsilectomy. I was 7 years old. The morning of the operation the nurses, my Mom, and sister were getting me ready. They already had me in the gown, but then they wanted my panties. That was one absolute no-no in my book. So the fight started, I fought with all of them for a good 30 minutes because they wanted my panties. Finally the doctor came in and he told them to leave me alone, it was hurting me worse to take my panties than to give up my tonsils. Wonder what happened to my logic of keeping my panties as I got older… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-my-patients-get-in-bed-fully-clothed/146910.md?page=3)