I asked a doc friend of mine in India.
He said medical ethics states that male medical doctors and male dentists should have a female nurse when examining a female patient but in India most doctors do not routinely follow this as its not enforced unlike other countries.
Anyway..this makes a good read.
Chaperones and plastic surgery practice in India
Harinatha Sreekar, Shashank Lamba, and Ashish K. Gupta
Additional article information
Sir,
In this era of legal and ethical tangles involved in medical practice, documentation as has often been highlited is paramount. The presence of chaperones during intimate physical examination (especially if the patient is of opposite sex) is routinely followed in most centres. The chaperoning policy is influenced by a few medico-legal cases, where doctors, nurses or occasionally patients have behaved inappropriately and such instances are only highlighted by our gossip happy media. The US and British medical associations have the policy of offering chaperones to the patient before examination.[
1–
3] General guidelines are as follows.
- Female doctors should offer a chaperone to all. In most of the cases, the patient will indicate this is not necessary.
- Male doctors should offer a chaperone to all men. Again, in most of the cases, the patient will indicate this is not necessary.
- Male doctors should have a chaperone when they examine female patients. If a patient objects, they should ascertain the reasons why and consider whether a female colleague should perform the examination.[4]
Such guidelines though effective still have glaring lacunae. Such guidelines are lacking in Indian medico-legal documents.[
5] The mere presence of a chaperone is insufficient unless his/her name is documented in the chart. A simple method of doing it is by having a seal which has the Chaperone's signature indicating his/her presence during the examination. Such documentation adds substance in cases of misbehaviour. This is a simple method to prevent false accusations by patients. Such simple methods should be inculcated into teaching medical students during their clinical training and should become a routine practice.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
I could only quote the ethics in my country.
Though I am registered with the Indian Medical Council since my degree is from India but I didnt practice in India, so no idea if India follows the same ethics as my country.
But nurse chaperone is also practiced in other countries like Singapore and UK.
Not sure of USA.
Some part of culture is still a mode of safety.
Majority of women feel safer when husband or brother or father accompany us.
For eg I dont drive long distance unaccompanied by a male member of the family because in case of any emergency on the highway at least I wont be stranded alone.
Keeping up with times is fine as long personal safety is taken care off.
In some places where I stay women have a special parking bay if they are alone.
The parking lots are situated near the entrance and has security so that women driving to malls alone dont face risks of lonely far car parking bay.
The country I stay in maintains a good blend of modern and cultural practices.
India too has good cultural values for safety of women.
Personal safety is of utmost importance.