Posted on 07/30/2014 12:46:11 PM PDT by Q-ManRN
As a pediatrician, I have one, straightforward professional obligation: to safeguard and support the health and wellbeing of my patients. In my case, those patients are children, but you could change the age range of the people coming into the office and apply that statement to any medical provider.
Asking about guns in the house is no exception. When I ask parents if there are firearms in the home, and if so how they are secured, it is for the sole purpose of keeping their children safe.
Physicians in Florida are being threatened with a law that, if enacted, will seriously hamper their ability to do their jobs. The Firearms Owners' Privacy Act, passed in 2011, would subject medical providers to fines and a potential loss of licensure for asking patients about gun ownership or recording that information in the medical record if it is not “relevant to the patient's medical care or safety.”
Gun advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association have long opposed the AAP’s efforts to strengthen gun laws. But the Florida law has no effect on gun ownership or access. Its insidious reach enters into medical offices and chokes off the free-speech rights of the people trying to work there.
As much as the NRA and its ilk want to deny it, having a gun in the home is a risk factor for serious injury or death. Acknowledging that fact is not the same thing as taking the gun away. The Florida law seeks to “protect” gun owners from even having to be informed about truths they’d prefer to ignore, and seeks to cast medical providers in an unflattering light for having the temerity to question them.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
That's about all I need to know--doesn't even have the guts to use his own name. Oh, and good to see he's an expert on gay rights . . .
Well, there's his problem right there. He doesn't even understand his own purpose.
Rightly understood, his one straightforward professional obligation is TO PROVIDE MEDICAL CARE.
Period.
What will they write in your record if you tell them where to go? Does telling them where to go put you on the "bad" list?
Actually, yes, I’ve been asked about bathtubs (whether I leave my kid unattended) and about access to sharp objects. Also things like safety gates on stairs, covers for electrical outlets etc.
There are some really dumb parents out there, so I don’t mind having a pediatrician ask about such things. So long as there is no documentation of it.
Guns are different because of the political effort to ban them. Doctors are, increasingly, agents of the government. In that regard I don’t want them to be asking let alone documenting. If I felt that the 2nd Amendment was seen as absolute and was properly protected, I’d probably feel differently.
Does this pediatrician also ask teens about their driver training? Does he ask about swimming lessons? Does he discuss the danger of lightening, or hiking in the desert without enough water, or any one of 10,000 other NON-MEDICAL ways of getting hurt?
I doubt it. This is about gun-grabbing, and trying to shame people into getting rid of their guns.
Now, if he asked because he wanted to recommend a high capacity 45 automatic, or to discuss the advantages of shotguns vs repeating rifles vs handguns for keeping safe in the home, then I’d believe him...
Beautiful!
Your freedom to say what you want is protected.
Your parents have the right to have guns.
It's nobody’s business.
Thank you very much for sharing those facts! I should not be surprised since the article was obviously political bashing the NRA, etc.
Charlemagne on the Fox said “Info about the author: Russell Saunders is the pseudonym for a pediatrician in New England. He is also a contributor at Ordinary Times, where he writes about medicine, gay rights ...
That’s about all I need to know—doesn’t even have the guts to use his own name. Oh, and good to see he’s an expert on gay rights . . .”
Dr. Saunders exemplifies why these limits are necessary with political statements like “As much as the NRA and its ilk want to deny it, having a gun in the home is a risk factor for serious injury or death.”
*************************************
If he wants to talk RISK FACTORS for serious injury/death .... so is a hot stove or an electrical socket. So is a compost pile with sticks in it (my little brother jumped into one out of a tree and ended up with a stick stuck in his forehead, just missed putting his eye out). So are FAMILY PETS - how many kids are bitten by dogs/cats & scratched? You can get some nasty stuff from pets. So are STEPS and bunk beds. How about sharp knives in the drawers & baseball bats? How about kids who hang themselves with belts, bedsheets, rope, etc.? And it goes on and on ..... Dr. S is full of B.S. as to his motives, IMO.
Elaine and Uncle Leo got on that list.
NYFB- I love it and plan on using it on a number of forms from the Feds and State.
I have noticed that too. We healthcare professionals need to remember our professional standards like leaving our personal political convictions at home.
iacovatx wrote “I remind the “good doctor” that the NRA is an organization devoted to safety whereas the Amer Acad of Pediatrics seems increasingly interested in political advocacy and less and less interested in childrens’ health.”
He didn’t speak to her alone. She wanted to ask for birth control pills and we (me and my daughter) had a nice long talk about it after we left the doc’s office.
He didn’t push the privacy issue either. He was even older than me so I believe he agreed but was attempting to do as “instructed” by those in charge.
Axe away pal.
I got nuttin to say.
I do. Two little words. The second is You.
Can you guess the first?
Or, let me take my limited 8 minutes to lecture you on guns, ignoring the health condition for which you originally visited.
I blew up at a pediatrician once when she asked about guns, I told her it was none of her business. She proceeded to lecture me on guns. Excuse me, don’t use the limited time we have to lecture me on politics - take care of my sick kid.
Good for you!
“My pediatrician never asked us about firearms because he left his political views at home where they belonged.”
Do you also believe that Pharmacists should be required to fill prescriptions for abortifacients, or do you think they are permitted to excercise their political views at work?
“Asking about guns in the house is no exception”
Do they ask about lawnmower safety?
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