Medical examinations for school and university

School examinations became an accepted method of insuring that basic medical attention and hopefully care and treatment, would be given to children from poor and impoverished families. Poverty directly results in lack of medical care and worse health. Not only because of lack of money to pay for medical care, but also because of lack of awareness that prevention is the best policy when it comes to ensuring that people live longer and healthier.

Many families in the past could not and even now still, can simply not pay for such care or have an antagonistic attitude towards any kind of advice or do not understand the notion of prevention. If adults feel that way about their own health then so be it. They are presumably old and wise enough to know the consequences. Children, however should be protected from such narrow minded attitudes, especially since many medical conditions can be better treated when young and in a developing stage. That is why governments in the 20th century mainly, started mandating medical examinations in schools. Schools are the easiest and most rational places to ensure that no child is overlooked. It is also more cost effective than trying to track down all children in any given area.

The prevalence of TBC, malnutrition in many forms, vitamin deficiencies, calcium deficiencies and the resulting skeletal disorders - not only can they be of great distress and a health danger to the person so afflicted, but in the case of infectious diseases such as TBC, can also be very detrimental to the overall health of the community.

Early diagnosis, early treatment, prevention of serious infectious diseases - that is the rationale behind school medical programs and examinations.

Refute this and not only children, but society in general pays the cost for near-sightedness and an exaggerated sense of privileged individuality.

Why otherwise has the median life expectancy risen so dramatically in the last century in countries with organized medical care (of which school examinations are a primary part)? Our grandparents were statistically lucky to live into their '70's, if even that. Now a 90 year old is nothing out of the ordinary. This didn't come about because of the aggregated wisdom of individuals acting independently of each other in regards to medical issues. But because of coordinated programs that mandated medical care and examinations starting at an early age.

I think you miss the point, schools do not treat children!! They inspect, examine, and it stops. the do not refer or suggest treatments. the school physical for sport in the US does not offer a treatment it offers a way for a child to do sport and have no legal course if their child comes to any harm. As in the oil industry a medical fitness certificate does not offer treatment, it's a standard that if you get injured you again cannot sue the installation or oil company. Please show me how the forced cursory processing of children has helped society. The Dickensian notion that if you line up a bunch of children humiliate them, and give them brimstone and treacle somehow it will be good for them. There is no poverty level that I am aware of in the US or North Western Europe that prevents a child getting access to medical help. My argument is the methods incorporated, the systematic unnecessary scrutiny of children, in degrading and humiliating situations the lack of sensitivity and ensure privacy, modesty and diginity. If its that important to do it then all the aforementioned issues should be addressed and not the ego or power crazed thirst of out of control School Principles who have the attitude that if it was good for them it's good for you. Again empathy here for vulnerable and innocent child, who really does not want to be stood naked, next to a mature person of the opposite sex or one of there peers, is a genuine fear. It was always one of mine, why is this hard to get through. Why is it the most common fear mentioned in all of the posts on this forum, why has it become, the source of a lot of confused feelings about sex, nudity and the relationship between patient and practitioner. I feel because it was handled very very badly, just once for the individual, usually at a young age and as a result of a traumatic medical experience. Read what happene in the case of 50 or so forced pelvic exams of young 12 year old girls without parent consent or consultation in J. T. Lambert Elementary School in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, the damage is done.

The Dickesnian notion that if you line up a bunch of children humiliate them, and give them brimstone and treacle somehow it will be good for them. There is no overt level I am are of

School examinations are not designed to humiliate children. Nor are they given brimstone and treacle - whatever kind of allegory that is supposed to mean - placebos? Rather, they are examined to see if they have any serious conditions that need medical attention. These findings are then passed on to parents for further action (hopefully).

The historical rationale is that not all families can afford medical examinations. And that some families are too short-sighted or stubborn or whatever to even go to the trouble of having their children examined.

Humiliation in schools comes in many forms, from bullying, from being of the incorrect gender or sexual preference, from all kinds of peer pressure, from physical punishments (in the past now hopefully). And little of this is to any benefit to children.

A school medical examination may indeed be humiliating to a degree, but at least it does serve a charitable purpose - to prevent medical conditions from worsening or becoming untreatable or debilitating or costly as the years go by.

And it's also a good starting point to develop a medical fetish ... (time for a chuckle) ...

I only ever had a very brief school medical at primary school, probably age 6 or 7 but can't remember, very tame, no real undressing, just lifting shirt up, pants down etc.

I had a girlfriend who went to school in Scotland and she told me about her school medical in secondary school when she was 16/17ish and it sounded far more thourgh, she had to undress to her knickers and had a breast exam done. Apparently the dr didn't make her take off her knickers but had a brief look down there, not anything detailed down there though.

I never had a school physical exam only hearing and vision tests.

I was 13 and the nurse saw me in my underwear, I got a hard on and was embarassed!

Drafif - It's great if you enjoy having to strip naked in front of a stranger and being told what do during a thorough medical. It's the anticipation, embarrassment and feeling of detached intimacy.

In my town we do not have physicals exams.. you will go to docter when you are ill. We have som medical checking when you have 15 and 18 years but doctor didnt check penis.

Unfortunately, the only things we had done in school were eye and ear checks, and once the nurse went through and took everyone's blood pressure during class. No real exams, no injections, nothing exciting.

School examinations are unusual in Japan and asian countries, they haven´t any difference between girls and boys.

@Rockdoc and Elizabeth2010

I think you have to sort the wheat from the chaff here, that is the fetish stories and true experiences. I can see how my description might be seen as too intense or unbelievable.

But it is true enough as I remember it though forty years past it is not something you forget easily.

For one thing such an examination would never take place now, certainly not with an adult and child alone together.

I would only add that such nurses or examiners then were true professionals, simply doing their job, so examining in that way was part of it, likely nowadays construed as some kind of indecent or physical assault.

I can understand how and why I got aroused now and an erection is a perfectly normal and harmless body reaction. Nurses would likely have seen many boys in that situation and it would mean precisely nothing to them. Obviously being handled in such a way and with the penis erect, a boy is going to experience pleasurable sensations and ultimately enjoy the experience albeit in a strange and somewhat unusual situation.

@Rockdoc and Elizabeth2010I think you have to sort the wheat from the chaff here, that is the fetish stories and true experiences. I can see how my description might be seen as too intense or unbelievable.But it is true enough as I remember it though forty years past it is not something you forget easily. For one thing such an examination would never take place now, certainly not with an adult and child alone together.

For an 8/10 year old boy, a school medical examination as described wouldn't have taken place 40 years ago in the UK or 50 years ago even, believe me I've been there. The first and last school medical of this type was carried out at age 14/15 when boys were required to lower their underwear for their testicles to be checked visually. If the boy did became erect, and some did of course, then a procedure was in place for this. The head of the penis would be tapped sharply with a wooden instrument and the boy told to 'cool down' It happened to my friend...true story.

Dr Philip - The UK Play Doctor

Absolutely. I totally agree with you Dr Phillip. Thank you for your input.

Since dinamix maintains the account is factual and it's impossible to verify or disprove, then maybe there should be concerns as to how many others had been treated/examined inappropriately by the medical personnel described in the original post.

I only had the one school medical when I started school in 1988, and to this day the only things I can remember are having to unbutton my shirt for the doctor to listen to my chest (and her praise when I was able to do it up again), and some sort of developmental checks with building blocks. The rest has gone.

As Elizabeth suggests, I struggle to remember what I did three months ago, let alone twenty-five years ago!

For me, every age was humiliating. I never liked going, even when I was very little, probably 5. Our first pediatrician was a scary, scary man, and our 2nd one was a perv. My sis and I hated him.

I had never a school physical during my school years. Only a dentist visited sometimes In the elementary school.

I don't remember ever getting a physical in school, ('50's and '60's).

I participate as a volunteer nurse in school health screenings. We do vision and hearing tests, a screening for scoliosis and height and weight. All data is private and goes only to the school nurse who will refer children with abnormal findings to the appropriate professional after re-testing the child. We are very cautious to keep information private, especially height and weight from witch BMI is determined. We don't let children hear our measurements of other children.

We scean 3rd, 7th and 10th grade kids. I have never heard of a complaint from a kid or an adult.

I think we remember stuff that is pretty traumatic. For me, I remember certain physicals as being particularly traumatic and that's why I remember them at all. Actually for me that would be almost all of them. The worst one was the one I had after 5th grade when they the dr (male) looked in my panties for what I remember was the first time. Also I had just gotten my first bra though I don't think I had much for it, I didn't end up wearing it because I didn't want that man dr. to see it. Yes, I rathered he see my bare body than see me in a bra. That was totally traumatic. So through my life, every time I could get out of having a physical somehow, I did.

I somehow remember a trip to the doctor when i was 5 or 6 and my mom took me to the pediatrician because i had a fever.she undressed me completely (i don't know why )then dressed me up again and then took my rectal temp .i still remember being embarrassed as i was hold down by my mom and a nurse took my temp

I know my post had a lot of detail, but the reason is that it was a humiliating and scary experience, so it was all etched in my memory. Remembering details doesn't necessarily make something fake. I can also remember a lot of details about the car wreck I was in at 8 years old where we tumbled down an embankment. But with everyday minutia, I am very forgetful. My wife tells me something and I forget it 10 minutes later. I run across things in my drawers at home that I have no idea where they came from. Yet, I can sometimes remember exact quotes from people that they themselves don't remember, because what they said intrigued me, or made me think. We all remember certain things vividly and other things just aren't remembered.

Does school physicals take place in all counties and at what age ?

In Holland I believe it is when you are 7, 9, 12 and 14 years old.

In Switzerland the schools and the public health are under the responsability of the cantons. We have 26 differents regulations.

For example we have 3 mandatory and one facultative exams in canton of Bern.

I had mine at age 7 in the last year's at infant school before moving up to juniors. I found it very embarassing stripping naked before this strange man while he watched

We had nurses in school growing up but because of lawsuits and liabilities they don't any longer. The only time we went was for anual physicals that our schools required to play sports.

My nurse did this to me, my teacher held me still, it was a very traumatic experience

Well...

i had my school examination only in elementary school, at first grade and wen was going to leave elementary 4thgrade

in the first exam we were all in panties, and teacher call us by our name and we were headed for a empty (not used) classroom...

it was a female doctor, she searched our hair for parasites, watched our ears and nose, listen to hart and lungs, i we were boys

she put her hands in our little penis and pull a bit the foreskin, the girls lowered more the panties almost to the knees and with a little kness appart she

looked at the vulva, sometimes she touch them, sometimes don't, but always (at least at that age) were mixed girls and boys, and from others classes too

the second timewas quite diferrent, well the examination procedure was the same, but girls went to a female doctor, and boys to a male, at the time all

of us round the age of 9, 10,11, so i believe it was different because we were more grouwn up people

i assumed too that girls have the same examination procedure, of course i didn't see it, but assuming that the boys had the same from years before...

so i that age was a memorable time, great times with no malicia..

When I was a teen in France on the last 50's for middle school and first half of the 60's for the high school, we had each year a physical examination at the nurse office performed by a doctor, generally a woman, always assisted by at least a female nurse, sometimes two . It was really a cursory examination and we cannot skip it .

if we did not report at the day of our class physicals, we were summoned an other morning day with an other class.

at middle school, during the four school years, we had a thorough physical at the beguinning of the school year, generally after one week of school, and after that one we had at the beguinning of the other following terms an other physical examination less thorough and performed only by the nurse which included mainly a weigh-in, an eye's test and some other checks like a check of back curvature and last part a skin ckeck but no urine test or blood test .So we had each year three physicals.

it was a little like group examination since we had to undress by group of about 15, half of the classs, in a locker room before entering one by one in the examination room, and every boy must stay in the locker room until all the 15 boys had neen examined. In the locker room, we were supervised by a PE teacher generally authoritarian with a bit military manners.

in unversity or what we called in France "great schools", after high school, we had also an annual examination.

I attended a mixed junior school and a segregated secondary school. At age 5/6 we all had a medical in the class room boys and girls together with parents probably all mothers present. I really can't remember much about it but I know we all undressed (not the mothers obviously) and a nurse put something on are bottoms like a paste or jelly for what reason I can't tell you.

At secondary school we had medicals when we approached the legal school leaving age of 16yrs whether we were about to leave or not. I can remember queuing up in the corridor outside the room where the examinations were about to take place waiting our turns to go in. As a boy came out of the room the boy at the head of the queue went in and eventually it was my turn. On entering the room I saw boys dressing and undressing and a couple of screens at the far end where nurses were examining boys.

One of the other boys said 'you have to undress down to your underpants and wait your turn' he was already sitting waiting dressed only in his 'Y' fronts which were the norm in those days. We all changed and showed together for games so this didn't seem out of the ordinary so I stripped down to my underpants.

Eventually it was my turn and I made my way over to one of the female nurses she must have done all the usual basic checks but I can't remember the details but eventually she told me to drop my pants and for the first time in my life I had a young woman examining my penis and testicles. I was lucky and didn't react with an erection but one of my class mates got a full on erection and was told to stand in the corner until it returned to normal an attitude from the nurse which even to this day find quite shocking.

Hey as a nurse myself that does this job i can tell u it nothin to be ashame about it natural for children to go throw puberty an it own job as nurse to check there developing well an no problem. as far wat happen in there it depend on the person that come in. inbox me if u have any problem

I would have thought the nurse should have reassured the boy rather than make him stand naked in the corner of the room. I knew him as a class mate and he was the first in the class to develop pubic hair and had a good sized penis from an early age which embarrassed him when changing and showering for games and his erection became common knowledge around the older boys in the school and probably some of the girls in other half of the school. We certainly heard some of the details of their examinations though some bits may have been speculation.