Male nursing students can do assessments on the women?

Nurses General Nursing

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( sorry the heading ment to say CANT do not CAN do) Hello, this is my first post so ill introduce myself. Im a 25/m ER/Trauma phlebotomist and I will be entering nursing school this fall ( after a 2 year wait). I have pretty much made up my mind that the ER will be the best fit for me as im the type of person who can not sit still :). Anyway, I have several male friends currently in nursing school ( some first year some about to graduate) that have made it known to me that 1) I will, being a guy, have at most maybe 3 other guys in a class of 35 and that leads to 2) 4 out of the 5 friends said that they were not allowed to preform assessments on the other female students, however, the women where able to preform mock assessments on the men. Now correct me if im wrong ,but wont I be working on BOTH men and women in the hospital lol. This is not the first time I have heard of such a thing concerning instructors having this bent to the male students. I hope one day this divide that still seems to prevail even in nursing schools ( much less the real world setting) will disappear ,but for now what is your thinking about this? Thanks again.

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
so basically when im a nurse anytime i have to examine a females breasts or genitals for any reason i need to have a female nurse with me in the room at all time? does this work the other way around as well? or just with the male nurses?

for one thing, it is rare that a nurse (of either genders) has to closely examine breasts, barring them being part of the presenting dx or being on postpartum. if they are part of a dx, it is usually due to a surgical issue and there are dressings there, or they have a fungating wound/carcinoma, and the patient has probably had them examined by several male hcwers before you. the preferences would be known.

as a note, barring tx in military hospitals, everytime a male md has done any breast/pap exam on me, he has always had a female nurse presence, even though i have said that it is unnecessary.i have had two breast masses removed, and some lymph node needle biopsies, and nothing was ever even examined without a female present.

i offer to have a male nurse assist with personal exams on male patients, but most of them voice that they would be more uncomfortable with a male nurse presence than anything. but quite bluntly, unless one is dealing with a pt that is seriously incapacitated, quite elderly and incontinent, or has a dx related directly related to the genitals, the nurse's contact/exam is limited.

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Specializes in Looking at: ER-Trauma-CC.

I'm a second year student and have yet to be told by anyone that I can't assist or view something. My first day in OB I assisted with a lady partsl birth. It's just a given that as male nursing students (in my program at least) get to experience everything.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.
It's just a given that as male nursing students (in my program at least) get to experience everything.

Which is as it should be.

The guys in my class got to see & do everything too and I'm glad. I have said this before, as a female who has been a patient, I do not care whether you are a man, woman, or whatever else as long as you care and know what you are doing. Some of the best nurses I have ever worked with were men. I don't remember them ever having a female chaperone for foleys, suppositories, or anything else, and none of them ever had problems. I certainly never got anyone to come c me for the millions of foleys and suppositories I've put in my male patients. I think most people of both sexes realize that we are just doing a job & we don't get our thrills out of it.

All that said, I do think that if you wanted a chaperone (regardless of your gender) it would a very smart thing. In this day & age people will sue if you even look at them funny. I personally have never found it necessary for myself (much less now that I do mother/baby & by definition all I see is women) but I could very much understand if someone else wanted to.

Welcoming as many caring men into this profession as will join!!

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Specializes in OB.

I am a senior in nursing school, getting ready to graduate, and I have been to every single rotation in the clinical setting, and OB was my favorite, I was requested and asked to stay over with one of my patients, even asked to name the child and be a God-Parent, and with my interest and my experience I will be a L&D Nurse, a Male L&D nurse. As far as OB, in many large hospitals nurses hardly do checks, and many nurses prefer that Doctors do them, but like another poster said I don't ever recall any nurses doing in-depth assesments. I personally think that a Man can do well in any area, and all this foolishness about men not working OB, or only being allowed to deal with Male Patients is basically a whole slap in the face to men and the entire profession of nursing!

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I am currently finishing my OB rotation and experienced no alternative treatment. The only assesment skill that I could not perform were SVE (sterile lady partsl exams) which is the policy of the school (male and female students alike). I must admit that i had concerns going into the OB rotation regarding fair learning oppourtunities but have experienced in some regards a better learning environment than some of my female peers (i witnessed the most births and experienced more specialty rotations).

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we had to practice on each other during labs. For each skill we had 3 check offs and at least 1 of them had to be with someone of the opposite sex.

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I was a pt in the hospital a few months ago cared for by two male collegues. By the same token I went to school with a jerk who was arrested and imprisioned for sedating then molesting female patients. He worked ER. He'd report the pt was in excrusiciating pain to get a med order so he could sedate them. When the morphine or what ever was not enough to sedate he'd report the pain was still out of control and get anther order until he got the result he wanted in the woman.

My two male collegues who were my nurse were wonderful to me very attentive and very conscientious.

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I have no problem when a male collegue ask me to trade patients because he or the pt is uncomfortable. I have no problem doing female caths for my male collegues or just being present to protect thier liablilty. At the same time they are willing to do male caths and such for me.

Pt are entitled to insist on same sex for certain procedures if you ask me. Some times a female is already a rape or molestation victim and the idea of a male nurse is more than she can stand. And we do not kow all thier history. Understandable.

But for most care even the squeemish can handle getting care from a male that is not physically /sexually intemate.

As far as OB rotations most US women do not object to male nurses. THere are some cultrual differences and husbands but for the most part you should not have many issues put in your path.

I know a male CNA whom the patients in OB loved.

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Specializes in acute medical.
I was a pt in the hospital a few months ago cared for by two male collegues. By the same token I went to school with a jerk who was arrested and imprisioned for sedating then molesting female patients. He worked ER. He'd report the pt was in excrusiciating pain to get a med order so he could sedate them. When the morphine or what ever was not enough to sedate he'd report the pain was still out of control and get anther order until he got the result he wanted in the woman.

My two male collegues who were my nurse were wonderful to me very attentive and very conscientious.

That "jerk" (and that is a nice word to call him, I could think of less kinder ones) is the sort of person that gives nursing a bad name, not male nurses. That must have been so hard for all of the nurses in that hospital, let alone the patients.

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on my one of the female patients asked me one evening who was on night duty was it two nurses(meaning women) or would our only male night nurse.

I went tpo find out came ack saying it would be 2 female RN and one hcsw(cna) to which she told me that although the male nurses is very good and caring, she feels embarrassed when assisted by him to and from the commode and he normaly had that bay. It as case of patient comfort.

one of the male nursing students in my class has said at times ward staff have not encouraged him to provide care to all patients because he is male.

I have noticed that women don't mind homosexual camp male nurses providing care but male patients.

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Specializes in HCA, Physch, WC, Management.

I don't understand why this whole male/female thing is such an issue. I'm just as embarrassed about having a male do an in-class assessment of me as I am having a female! Same goes for being a patient.

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My school fully supported men in nursing as did the area hospitals. (I live in different local now but still excellent support for men)

It is interesting that your school asked permission of women students to pair them with a man for practice assessments. Our school stated that any student read man or woman could decline to have another student touch or view them.

Students who declined? Well non that I knew ever did. These assessments were always respectful. Like the above poster said breast and genitals were not included in these assessments, same sex or not.

If you have rape or molestation issues in your past please you need to work this out with a therapist more than you have already. The male world is not out to get you.

The poor man is generally more intimidated and shy about stepping over some invisible line we have laid for them than we are.

If you are seeing a male physician and you feel no reservations about letting him examine your genitals what in the name of creation is your problem.

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