For the 17th consecutive year, a Gallup Poll for the Most Trusted Professionals found that 84 percent of Americans rated the honesty and ethical standards of nurses as “very high” or “high.”
Medical doctors and pharmacists were next on the list, rated at 67 percent and 66 percent, respectively.
Of course, being considered trustworthy doesn’t necessarily equate with being knowledgeable. This is especially true when it comes to knowledge about the foreskin.
The pediatric literature is clear: An intact foreskin should never be forcibly retracted. Yet, a national survey conducted in 2018 by Intact America revealed that a staggering 43 percent of intact boys have had their foreskins forcibly retracted by an adult at least once by the age of seven. Close to half of these forcible retractions were done by doctors, and nine percent were done by nurses.
In a medical malpractice suit filed last year against Children’s HealthCare of Atlanta (a large pediatric hospital), it was a nurse who forcibly retracted Leon Parks’ foreskin, and who – when told by his mother not to do that – insisted that she was putting the baby at risk for infection if she did NOT regularly retract his foreskin.
These findings – about the high esteem in which American nurses are held, and the irrefutable fact that nurses are not well-informed about foreskin anatomy and foreskin care – tell us how important it is to get the right information into the hands of the medical professionals who treat our children.
Intact America’s Made to Stick campaign is reaching out to professional medical associations and asking them to educate their membership. We are telling pediatricians and nurses that their ignorance of the facts – and the AAP’s own policy – is harming the very children they take an oath to protect. Further, we are putting them on notice that if they continue to push for forcible retraction of intact boys’ foreskins, they are exposing themselves to the same kind of legal jeopardy currently being faced by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, in the Parks lawsuit.
Stay tuned for more information about our Made to Stick campaign. In the meantime, download our “Foreskin Facts” and “Intact Care Guide” flyers. Bring this information with you to medical appointments and share them with your child’s caregivers.
Let’s help to give nurses (and doctors) the tools they need to truly merit the public’s trust.
