Medical Volunteer

Does anyone know if it is possible to volunteer to do a naked exam for a college class or group of interns? I would be willing to do it and possibly make a little money. Are there ways to search for this in my area? Please let me know. Thanks.

Standardised patient is the term. Medical schools across the country hire them at different rates depending upon how intimate the work is, i.e. genitalia or not. Some schools hire actors who learn parts, mimic patients with medical conditions who play them out to see if the interns figure out what they have or not. Some use average residents of the community who provide feedback to the interns on their approach to examining patients. The exams are watched/recorded. For males, there is sometimes the option to become the person who trains doctors on how to examine the penis, scrotum and prostate. Imagine doing that for several hours, several days a week and getting paid.

I have heard of medical schools hiring women to be models for pelvic exams but have never heard of hiring males.

They often just use each other, but I know my local medical school hires actors to be patients. I don't know if they are examined or just interviewed.

I've volunteered for medical studies before; since they were not "real" they were a bit more fun. One I did not do was a study for a blood pressure medication that needed twice-daily testicular exams. I imagine some folks here would jump at that, but I think I would have suffered severe and lasting damage from embarrassment. Plus, I was worried about taking any drug that might do damage; I limited myself to "proof" studies on equipment or drugs that we knew were safe.

I did a feeding study just before I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. In retrospect, I'm sure I messed up their data a lot and they probably threw me into the reject pile. We were trying a new high-fat enteral feeding solution developed for AIDS patients, and we were the healthy college students comparing normal diets against two formulas.

I got really sick from the high fat and had a lot of accidents. We also had do a couple exams, daily weights, and blood draws every few days. A lot of urine and stool collections which were not a great time as it's seriously inconvient to haul all the collection stuff around campus all day. Just before a stool collection would give us red or blue dye capsules to time our stool, and so it came out bright red-orange or green. I ended up with green stains on my underpants when I did not make it in time.

It was kind-of fun going through it in a group, where you could talk about what they just did to you in the other room without being rude, 'cause all of us were there for the money (and a month with no food bills helped a lot as well).

Another study I did they had me change into gowns and mapped my brain under MEG...did it every week or two for a few months. When they upgraded their gear, I had to stop as without my glasses on I had to squint to read the screen I was supposed to follow, and my head muscles were too "noisy". But that was kinda fun. They were going to give us all DVDs of our brain working, but they screwed up and lost all the data (and I think their funding). I liked that because I got to go into this big outpatient lab and strip down to a gown, put on the disposable footie socks, go through all the medical stuff but I was not a real patient, it was all sort of pretend.

I would walk down the hall in a gown with a tech holding a giant bundle of EEG leads attached to my head and people would stare at me. It's so different when it's not real!

I was a University student for 12 years, so a lot of opportunities.

I also participated in drug and other medical studies in Manhattan. One was at NYU, a study of the effect of taking a drug on the brain which necessitated their using a gel. They drew blood hourly. What they didn't tell me was that there was not hot water in the lab so when the session ended, at the end of a long day, I had to try to get the gel out of my hair with freezing cold water. Another was a metabolism study at Mount Sinai, the weirdness being the doctor (female) behind the study's fetishism with shoes, she had boxes and boxes and boxes of shoes in the very tight working area.

You should check out the nearest university that has a medical school. It sounds like you may make a good standardized patient. But a word of caution, don't think for a minute that you can just show up and then expose yourself as you please or you'll be out the door in a minute. If you can take the role of SP seriously, you can have your desire to be examined by 22-26 year old young men and women fulfilled, contribute to the quality of care provided by future doctors, and make good money while doing it.

I am a 44 year old man that has been participating as a Standardized Patient (SP) for about 10 years now. We are trained to portray patients with a set of symptoms that should lead the medical student examining us to the diagnosis intended by the professor teaching the medical student. Standardized patients will see 5-6 student doctors in rapid succession during the quarterly Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) tests which are intended to confirm the students skills match what they are being taught in class. The student is allowed 15 minutes to take a medical history and perform the exam. Each SP will portray a single case over and over during the OSCE. The SP fills out a checklist after each encounter "grading" each student on their interviewing and physical examination skills. The role of SP pays between $15 and $20 per hour.

Besides acting as a regular SP, I also work as a "Patient Model". Not to be confused with a model patient; one who is very compliant. A patient model does not portray a patient with symptoms but is a living "practice dummy" for the student doctors to perform the complete clinical physical examination. This is the second level of SP classification. These physical examinations may be a complete head to toe exam similar to what one would receive for a pre-employment or insurance physical exam. The exam may also be a head to toe exam conducted by the physician / professor in front of a classroom full of medical students for demonstration purposes. Another type of exam is the male genitourinary / rectal exam and female breast / pelvic exam. This last type of exam is usually conducted by a physician and 4 of his or her students in a small exam room with the SP. The physician conducts the exam first while the students observe. Then the student doctors each get a turn to perform the exam. These exams are usually taught at the beginning of the students 2nd year of medical school. I was a patient model for these exams about 6 months ago (in March). Now you have to understand that these students are at the beginning of their second year of medical school. That means most of the students are 22-23 years old. A big part of my job is to make the student feel comfortable laying hands on patients and gain confidence in dealing with people much older then they are. Each SP is usually seen by both male and female student doctors for each case portrayal regardless of the case or the gender of the SP. Patient models make between $35 and $50 per hour.

The third and last SP classification is “GenitoUrinary Teaching Associate” or (GUTA). The teaching associate usually works with one male and one female student doctor at a time in 1 hour training session to teach the pelvic and breast exam on women and male genital and rectal / prostate exams on men. The GUTA will meet with the pair of students in an exam room and talk with them for a few minutes to put them at ease. The GUTA will ask which one wants to go first and it is usually the student of the same gender as the GUTA. The GUTA then instructs the student doctor on how to perform each part of the exam providing real time feedback and guidance for what they are doing right and wrong. The students then take turns performing the exam. GUTA roles pay between $75 and $100 per hour. Before you begin thinking you will get rich being a SP, understand that you will work only 4-10 hours per month; at best.

I just covered the overview of what the SP program is all about without sharing specifics of the encounters I have had over the years. If anyone wants more details about the program or specific types of encounters just ask. I cannot use names, locations, or be too descriptive about the students I have encountered in the past 10 years that might identify any of them or the medical schools I work for. I have to maintain the confidentiality of the students, many of them who are now doctors.

In the UK actors men,women, children are hired for OSCE's and med school interview stations.

and some med schools hire women for pelvic exams. not done much these days now. pay is rubbish if you get paid at all.-most med schools don't pay.

Given Mike's post, my posts and s.p. application and the fact that the only play doctor I experienced in Manhattan held the GUTA position Mike mentions there, it makes me wonder how many s.p.'s share the medical fetish.