Examined by your employer?

So, if you work in a medical office and your sick, or call in "sick...." How does that work?

Do they say, "well come on in and we will take a look at you?

How do they handle that?

Would you want your co worker to examin you?

We are allowed to be poorly! Surely they will know we know we are too ill to be seeing and dealing with patients. We can't come into contact with patients if we have a stomach bug, have severe colds/flu etc. people that come to see us may already have weakened immune systems so are more likely to pick up and germs and virus' we may be carrying. I've called in sick because of infected sutures before and that wasn't an issue either. Having the qualifications and knowledge we do, we are considered able to say we are sick 😃

Well I have had pretty extensive experiences in both happenings actually. So I will tell you what I know has happened to me and my co-workers.

Depending on the hospital setting, if you call in sick most of them want you to come in and report to the ER, they say its to make sure you don't have something that you might be able to pass along to everyone.....and so that they can get you better faster so you can get back to work. I however personally feel they do so because it's a little embarrassing for you to come intro your place of work and might possibly have to expose something to our c o-workers, meaning your skin, but sometimes it s also more hasstle to drag your butt into work sick or not sick, so it's just easier to not to call off and just go ahead and report to work. But on the off chance you really are sick, the ER is the best place for you a lot of the times because they can get the IV fluids running in you faster which again, often makes you feel better faster.

Now when it comes to working for a private doctor office, that can go one of two ways depending on the dynamics of your office. First let me say that if you work in a nursing home or home care setting and you call off, there is no recourse. You just call off and that is pretty much the end of it.

But back to the private office. Depending on the dynamics of your office. If you work in a large practice, multiple doctors say 5 or more, chances are if you call in sick you just call in sick and that's the end of that too. Once in a while maybe one of them woud want you to come in and be seen by the NP or something of that nature but not usually either. Now if you are sick for more than a few days then they might insist you come in to be seen or go and be seen by someone else.

Now when you get into the small doctors practices where the office dynamics are more family oriented, again, it can go either way, but usually when you work for a small practice and you call in sick the docs want to see you right away. So no matter how sick you are, you usually wind up dragging your sorry tush up into work anyway and getting seen by your boss or someone else in the office. This puts you in line for the most or potentially most embarrassing situations. However, with this being said anyway, chances are you doctor with them anyway so chances are t hey have seen you all before as it is.

This exact thing happened to me when I had my very first job working for Dr.Smith when I was 16. I tried to call off work because I have hurt my back and could hardly move. He made me come in there anyway and he ended up putting cortisone shots in my lower back on both sides. I was only 16 and he was over 70 and my boss. I had to drop my pants and bend over his antique exam table. Scary then, hot now, lol. The shots hurt if I rememember correctly, but I sure felt better soon after. So whatever he gave me it helped for a bit. He also made me stay the rest of my shift and work. Dr. Smith was a one man show, one exam room, one office, one doctor, one receptionist. He retired a few years later. He did have something in his office I would have loved to have had though. He still autoclaved all of his syringes. He used new needles, but one of his 3cc glass syringes had a clear barrel but a really pretty cobalt blue plunger. I would give my paycheck for that syringe today, lol.

Anyway, I still know a lot of private doctors offices where there are only 1-3 doctors working in them and if you are one of their employees and you call off sick they expect you to be there first thing in the morning because they want to examine you. And again this depending on how close you all are could be a double edge sword lol. I wouldn't mind it but nakedness doesn't bother me a great deal these days.

But I will also say this. In this circumstance I would think that the docs have the upper hands. If they insist on seeing you and you really are not sick, its pretty hard to pull the wool over their eyes and you will get busted pretty quickly and easily. I would emagine in most doctors offices employee call off rates are pretty low. But that could be just a guessl

Mashie

I have had the situation of calling in sick handles differently.

While in the Navy, I had to report to sick call, however, if you are staff in that clinic, you will probably bypass the corpsman and go right to the doctor running the clinic that day. I once went in with epididymitis, and that was a bit embarrassing because the corpsman (in this case, a female) who checked me in knew why I was there, and the doctor that day was a really hot female whose khakis fit her every curve. When I was sent home, the Nurse and Chief corpsman knew the reason/ (This lead to an erotic dream that haunted me for months I plan to write it down and post it one of these days.)

In civilian life, at both the hospital and the nursing home that I had worked at, calling out wasn't a problem. Depending how long you are out, you might need to be checked out and bring in a note saying you were fit to return to work.

My experience has been that in the hospital, you report to the ER, do not pass go; or you do not collect your paycheck. If it turned out not to be an emergency situation, they send you to the Employee Health Office. At the PCP I used for a long time (a 2-3 doc practice), he would send you to the ER (this was pre-"urgent care" unit days), or ask to see you, depending on the symptoms you reported.

This would be one of my worst nightmares come true, though I recall an experience back in highschool when I was volunteering for the adult daycare program (they had alzheimers, special needs, adults with disabilities attending) I went to school that day not feeling 100% and went through my day in a haze. I had that volunteer just before lunch, and was sitting in the room, helping out, not feeling good. One of the attending nurses noticed and felt my forehead, noted that i felt hot, and next thing i knew she stuck a thermometer in my mouth. i was like uh.. what?!?! then she sent me to the nurses' office (prob cuz i had a fever), but i just wandered down to lunch a few minutes early lol.

Depends on the illness. I've called in sick with a cold and flu etc but when I was pregnant and had spotting it was straight to the ER by order of our clinical director. God no about having a co worker do an exam. We're all pros but I'd rely rather not

What Mashie said is basically my experience. BUT call in one too many times, and you're GONE.

They will tell you to come and get any belongings you have there. No explanation on the part of the boss (doc or the office manager) is necessary.

They expect you to be there.

I thought you cant be seen by doctors you work for. I remember seeing that somewhere here once. I asked a nurse that once at the doctors and she seems shocked and said she has her own doctor else where and not at work.

You can definitely be seen by doctors you work for. Some choose not to do that though.

The GP practice my mother worked at asked her to change GPs so that she wasn't on their patient list, on the grounds that there was a conflict of interest for them if she ever had to be signed off sick from work.

Some people practice defensively.

Has anyone else ever been examined by their employer? To this day, I think this was one of my most humiliating experiences. A few years ago, I worked in a gastroenterologist's office doing paper work. One day I was complaining about some nausea and vomitting, and she told me she thought she should check me out. She walked me back to one of the exam rooms, and her receptionist and medical assistant both gave me very knowing looks/smirks on my walk back.

She had my lie down, fully clothed, and lifted my top up to just under my bra and started palpating my stomach...she worked her way lower down my abdomen and without warning, unbuttoned my pants, undid the zipper, and tugged my pants and pantis down to the top of my pubic hair. She kept palpating all the way down to my pubic hair, making little "mmm hmm" noises the whole time, and then thankfully stopped. I reached down to straighten my pants, and she touched my arm to stop me. "I think we need to do a gentle rectal exam- just a quick little peek to make sure there's no hidden bleeding or anything going on down below. Just go ahead and finish sliding your pants down to your knees- a little further- very good, now roll on your side facing the wall, and lift your top leg up to your chest for me." My face was burning as I lay there with my pants bunched around my knees and my bottom exposed. I could hear her pull gloves out of the dispenser and open a drawer. The next thing I felt was a gloved hand lifting my top cheek. She must have just stared for a few seconds, then said "Ok, on the count of 3 I want you to bear down like you're having a movement for me." I felt a cold slimy finger against my anus. "One, twoooo, threeee" I tried to bear down as she forced her finger deep inside me, and couldn't help trying to squirm away from her. She held my hip steady, and forced her finger all the way in and wormed it about. "Hold still, I'm almost done with this part." Finally she withdrew her finger, making me feel like I was having a bowel movement, and wiped some stool onto the little hemocult card. "Hmmmm- you're a bit impacted here, how long have you been constipated for?" "I, I don't know" was all I could stamer in response. I couldn't believe I was discussing pooping with my boss. "Well, I want to make sure you don't have any fissures, and I can't get a good look at you in this position. Go ahead and slip your pants off completely for me and lie back." My face couldn't have been any more red as I wordlessly slipped my pants and panties over my shoes and laid them next to me on the table, then went ahead and took my shoes off too, and kicked them to the floor. "Ok, lie back and bring your legs up to your chest...good...now open them nice and wide for me, big legs." As I spread my legs, I was very well aware of the fact I was giving her a full view of my genitals. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. She spread my labia open and slid her hands down, spreading my cheeks open. "Ok, everything looks nice and healthy here- I think we just need to get you cleaned out and take a little look in your bottom." She walked over to the door and called into the hallway for the assistant to get a Fleet's out of the supply room. Anna returned with the bottle and walked in to see me half naked. "Ok, will you take her to the bathroom and help her with this, and then get me set up with a flex sig?"

The medical assistant, Anna, mouthed "sorry" to me and handed me a gown. "Here, put this on and we'll do this quickly." With the gown on, I walked down the hall to our little rest room with her. "I should have warned you not to say anything about GI problems to Dr. D...she takes any excuse she can to take a look at people." Anna helped me bend over the sink and squirted the Fleet into me and told me to hold it as long as I could, then to go to the bathroom and go back to my exam room. After a rough few minutes, I squirted the enema out into the toilet and cleaned myself up the best I could and made my walk of shame back to the exam room. As I walked in, Anna and the doc were already in there waiting for me. "Ok, set the gown aside, and I'm going to need you to kneel at the end of the table with your knees at the very end, and lower your head down to the table. Good- now walk your knees apart as wide as you can for me...ok very nice." I heard more gloves and a machine click on, and felt her dreaded hands on my cheeks again. "Ok, bear down on the count of three...one, two, three" I felt Dr. D push her finger deep inside me again, this time, it felt much more gooey. She withdrew her finger and said, "Ok, here comes the scope." And I felt a long tube being pushed into me, and just burried my head in shame....in just a short period of time, my boss and coworker had seen my ass, my genitals, and had inserted things into my rectum! When she finally withdrew the scope, she told me I looked healthy and could get dressed. She said it probably was just a stomach virus, but to be careful about letting myself get dehydrated. I've never been so mortified in my life! In the subsequent weeks, she did often give me reminders about my constipation and asked me a few times if I wanted her to "take a quick peek and just a gentle little rectal exam" to make sure I wasn't getting impacted, but I refused each time!

Right before I left for a new position, we had a temp worker join the team. I was in the back exam area to go give the doctor some papers to sign off on, and she opened a door, giving me a view of the temp on the table with HER pants bunched around her knees.....it almost felt like it was an office initiation!

Anyways, sorry for the incredibly long post, but I think this doc was a little over-zealous in her exams and was taking advantage of the fact that new employees were too chicken to say no. Has anyone else been pressured into letting their boss or co-worker examine them?

Yes, as I work as a Standardized Patient and genital teaching assistant, examination and practice with my supervisors is part of the training and continuing education.

We didn't have to have ours check us if we were sick, she'd offer if we were injured. But, our yearly physicals were done by an employed nurse practitioner. This was back when i worked for a nursing home. I did have one of the sweetest supervisors though, got a bad scrape once and he cleaned it and wrapped it when it reopened.

Sleepless, don't apologize for the length of your post. I thought it was quite good, and enjoyed reading it. Keep up the good work!