PRACTICE PARTNER
PRACTICE POINTS
The College often receives complaints from patients about physician communications. We regularly
present, in this column, themes and issues we see in the context of our regulatory work including
Complaints and Discipline cases.
A Sensitive,
Deliberate
Approach
to Draping
F
or some patients, the prospect of
disrobing for a physical exam can
be a source of fear, anxiety and
embarrassment. For that reason,
the College urges physicians to be sensitive
to patient stress and find the right bal-
ance between draping, in order to preserve
patient modesty and exposure when it is
necessary to access areas of the patient’s
body that need examination.
Recently, Drs. Jaideep S. Talwalkar and
Joseph Donroe, two internal medicine spe-
cialists from the Yale School of Medicine,
created a video published by JoVE Science
Education Database, which demonstrates
proper draping and gowning techniques in
order to minimize any misunderstanding.
Dr. Talwalkar told Dialogue that the
video was created to help students learn a
sensitive and deliberate approach to drap-
ing while learning physical examination.
“We hoped that by building sensitivity and
awareness of draping into our teaching as
part of the exam right from the start, we
will help students develop good habits as
they learn and practise. We want to be sure
that students do not compromise their ex-
amination out of concern for not knowing
how to drape,” he said.
The video makes clear, right from the
start, that the proper use of drapes is an
important component of correctly perform-
ISSUE 4, 2018 DIALOGUE
43