College Scandals Cause Doctors to be Watched More Closely

Larry Nassar is now a household name under the category of sexual assault. The scandal broke in 2017, but many victims spoke out saying that “This could have stopped in 1997.”

What has been affirmed through Larry Nassar’s scandal and the former Ohio State doctor, Richard Strauss, is that these doctors have taken advantage of the privacy and intimacy given to them in situations with young women. This has caused the universities and other organizations to call for more supervision, starting with the use of exam chaperones. In this case, there is another person from the medical staff that is to be present in the room to monitor the doctor that is working with an athlete.

Michigan State and Purdue University have adapted similar policies where they require a chaperone in the room with any team doctor or physician for their own protection. The chaperones are present even if the student does not specifically ask for one. This is a way for physicians to monitor what is going on at all times and makes it a lot harder for someone to be conducting inappropriate behavior.

“I think people are becoming a lot more protected and a lot more cautious about doing the right thing” said Chad Asplund, president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. Ashland makes it clear that this is done for the safety of the patient, but also safety for himself.

What is nauseating to not only student athletes, but people all over the country, is the fact that there are athletic trainers that have worked beside the doctors conducting the sexual assault and have not spoken out after being told about it. In the case of Nassar, it is reported that there were two trainers who were told of what was going on and did nothing about it.

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association has since responded issuing guidance to members and highlighting how to identify the abuse.

There are some colleges that think that it is too soon to make any changes, but this is something that will be talked about a lot more and have much more scrutiny over supervision of doctor’s.