Chaperone use during intimate examinations in primary care: postal survey of family physicians

Abstract

Background: Physicians have long been advised to have a third party present during certain parts of a physical examination; however, little is known about the frequency of chaperone use for those specific intimate examinations regularly performed in primary care. We aimed to determine the frequency of chaperone use among family physicians across a variety of intimate physical examinations for both male and female patients, and also to identify the factors associated with chaperone use.

Attitudes of Physicians to the Policy of Mandatory Use of Chaperone in Clinical Practice

“…According to our findings, the use of chaperones varies greatly by type of examination with the whole body as well as pelvic and breast examinations the most likely to be observed by a chaperone. This was corroborated by previous published studies [6,15]. Using a chaperone has been shown to add both a layer of protection and acknowledgement of a patient's vulnerability [9,15].…”

“…However, our study captured only specialist doctors within 5 years of clinical practice and it is not impossible that the association may differ if our data included older practitioners. However, other previous studies did not report any age-related differences [6,13,15,17].…”

Chaperones and intimate physical examinations: what do male and female patients want?

“…Several reasons have been suggested for the inadequate use of chaperones including, inter alia, the shortage of nursing staff to act as chaperones, 15 and a general lack of awareness. 16 This is certainly an area for improvement in our health care setting.…”

Exploring the characteristics of public reproductive health services in the Islamic REpublic of Iran from the perspective of unmaried women: what needs to be changed?

“…Studies in other countries have shown that women are generally less interested in visiting service providers of the opposite sex for issues related to sexual and reproductive health (13). In addition, male personnel and physicians do not feel comfortable when doing examinations or taking women's history, and they use a chaperone, a person who accompanies them during physical examinations, much more than women physicians (26,27).…”