Of Nursing, Nudity and Public Perception

[hagiospneuma]

In one thread in this forum, I read where many of you were concerned about the public's view of the nurse's image. One nurse made a statement to the effect that "we have worked long and hard to shed the stereotype of the 'sexy nurse', 'nurse as stripper' image."

However, while Mediaography can desecrate any profession and make it fodder for sexual fantasy, many nurses are sowing the seed to their own destruction. It appears many nurses are directly contributing to the very image that they themselves want to be eradicated.

For instance, nurses see and deal with patient nudity all the time. New nurses apprehensive about the specter of seeing naked bodies are met with many reassuring comments such as:

"I've seen more body parts than I care to mention...no big deal..."

"I have seen hundreds of memberes, and they all look the same and none are impressive."

"You get used to it..."

Etc.

It's clear that nurses can be trained to "get past the nudity" so to speak and do their job without embarrassment to themselves or to the patient. If they couldn't deal with the nudity, they would be of no value to the patient or to the nursing profession. But I would like input from other nurses about the choices they make both in and outside their places of employment.

I have reference to a thread where nurses asked if it was OK to pose nude. To work as a stripper. To be a dancer at the local club. Instead of warning about the possible damage to the nurse's professional image or emotional health, most of the responses seemed to be more concerned about the BON regs concerning "moral turpitude". Still others made statements such as "What we do outside our places of employment is our business..."

Oh, really?

On one level, you are absolutely correct. If you want to be a stripper (it's legal, dont'cha know) you can be, I guess. The concern was more for the stripper's safety than what damage it could cause emotionally, and the damage it could cause to the "professional" image of nurses in general.

Medicine has always had two components attached to it by public perception: Mercy and Morality.

Nurses enter the field from all kinds of backgrounds. Not all hold the same world view or religious beliefs. Some have high morals... some have none at all, it seems. But don't you think that your view of nudity and your behavior outside of the work place can influence your actions in the workplace?

If a young lady with a beautiful build wants to pose nude for a photographer on the side, what harm can it possibly be to her career, right? If it was just fine and dandy, why go through all of the trouble to hide her second profession? Why the BONs concerns? If it is OK to be a stripper on the side, why not get business cards printed up and hand out to patients when they get better? I chuckled when one response said that stripping was *NOT* equivalent to prostitution. (Funny thing is, the word from which we get our English word *Mediaography* is the Greek word MediaEIA. And if you do a lexical study of the word, stripping and posing nude, indeed, are considered "prostitution." You are in a sense "prostituting" yourself when you have such a low regard for your own privacy as to let anyone see you for prurient purposes. No self respect... just putting it out there for just anybody. Doesn't a prostitute do the same thing?)

If a patient recognized the stripper-nurse (Wait! Is this not the image we are trying to eradicate? This ain't fantasy, myrtle, it's actually happening!) at the hospital, don't you think that if this young lady was tasked with giving him a bed bath that it would set up an awkward environment? Wouldn't it be a little hypocritical to warn the patient about his sexual remarks when she was putting it out there for him just a few days before? I know, I know, she is now a professional and must be treated like one. (Would hate to run afoul of the nurse regs concerning a bed bath, after all.)

Don't you think that our own view of nudity influences how we see the nudity of others?

Here's a post from a thread I recently found:

"I think Media is wrong, wrong, wrong. But I have heard nurses talk about it at the nurses station. Where they keep their movies hidden. Where they put their sex toys. How often their husbands cruise the net looking at Media. One nurse brought her vibrator to work and put in one of the batteries belonging to one of our tele units in the vibrator and showed it off. She also tells these disgusting stories. Not around me anymore of course because I am a 'prude'."

Let me ask the female nurses a question: since there have been reports of female nurses bringing Media to work and being actively involved with it, how does their viewing of Media affect their view of the male patient population? If centerfolds are posted in the staff bathroom (as it was reported to have occurred at a hospital in Arizona) how can these nurses wash their hands and glance at Mr July in all of his glory, and then go and give a full body bed bath to their male patient? Or insert a catheter? Does this not affect how you see the patient? His genitals? His body? Is this fair to him? I don't know of any patient who would want their nurse (whom he is trusting) to see him as a sex object or be the object of a mental "peep show."

Other things such as mentioning member sizes at the nurse's station or in the lounge are, of course, unprofessional. If we are supposed to be professionals in every sense of the word, and we are just fine and dandy with the nudity that happens every day, how can a nurse ever comment on a patient's size if she sees hundreds and "none are impressive"? Seems that some nurses are either still lacking in maturity, or their fascination with the male form is professionally hidden beneath their scrubs. As long as the patient doesn't know, it shouldn't matter, right?

When someone speaks down about nursing, they are met with "We are professionals and want to be treated as such." When they are caught acting unprofessionally, they simply say, "We are human."

In closing, if we want to fight for our rights to do and be anything we want outside of the medical environment, can we really complain when our choices contribute to a negative public perception?

Looking forward to your feedback and comments!

Thanks...

[Delicate Flower]

You are male, right?

There are exceptions of course, but on the whole, humans are sexual beings. Nurses are humans. Although we don't engage our sexuality at work, we don't necessarily lose it entirely. Part of being professional as a nurse means being able to take care of a patient's body without betraying our own thoughts, prejudices, and judgments regarding that body.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

You are male, right?

There are exceptions of course, but on the whole, humans are sexual beings. Nurses are humans. Although we don't engage our sexuality at work, we don't necessarily lose it entirely. Part of being professional as a nurse means being able to take care of a patient's body without betraying our own thoughts, prejudices, and judgments regarding that body.

This.

Based on your post, OP, where are your sources of such information?

I have yet (and highly probable not) to engage in Mediaographic conversations with fellow coworkers nor have had a Mediao spread be visible in my employ, so I don't get using these small percentage of examples that you use as the "norm", when it isn't.

Also be aware that even at AllNurses, not everyone that posts are ALL nurses ; you are going to get differing opinions from non-nurses as well.

[hagiospneuma]

I agree that we are sexual beings. And nurses do not deal with patient nudity the same way. I have heard of nurses becoming desensitized to the nudity that they see. I also agree that as long as the caregiver does not engage in anything but clinical care and professional behavior (at least outwardly) then the patient has no right to complain.

But other parts of the post have not been answered or addressed. Thanks for your input...

[hagiospneuma]

I am glad that you do not engage in such behavior but you are but one nurse in a sea of thousands! I never said any of this was the "norm" only that it has occurred... but I believe based on anecdotal evidence that it occurs more than we'd like to admit.

Just because you have never seen this does not mean it isn't happening. Take a look at patient modesty blogs. All stories are not made up.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I am glad that you do not engage in such behavior but you are but one nurse in a sea of thousands! I never said any of this was the "norm" only that it has occurred... but I believe based on anecdotal evidence that it occurs more than we'd like to admit.

Just because you have never seen this does not mean it isn't happening. Take a look at patient modesty blogs. All stories are not made up.

I'm not in a sea of thousands...

I've been in this business for almost 15 years; I've gone to work hundreds of shifts as a CNA, LPN and now RN; these "Mediao sessions" have not occurred; when the focus is on the pt and the work needs to be done, the aspect of professionalism is maintained more than you think it is.

And where are your links? If you are going to start a conversation about A subject, the most you can do is set up a link to it; I'm not going to search a pt modesty blog; seriously? What for, when I'm in this business, and have worked in settings that have maintained professionalism, and go to a site that has subjective information that may be skewed; I'll leave that to you to provide the specific links, THEN I will provide an additional perspective.

[nursel56]

I think you are grossly exaggerating the degree to which this is an issue and I'd like to see links to the threads you pulled from to create your narrative. Most of your problem seems to be related to what someone who works as a stripper or looks at male centerfolds in the break room thinks about her male patients. That is something nobody but the person who owns the mind that might or might not be thinking those thoughts has any way to know.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I think you are grossly exaggerating the degree to which this is an issue and I'd like to see links to the threads you pulled from to create your narrative. Most of your problem seems to be related to what someone who works as a stripper or looks at male centerfolds in the break room thinks about her male patients. That is something nobody but the person who owns the mind that might or might not be thinking those thoughts has any way to know.

This.

Those examples are based on two (hypothetical?) perspectives which make up possibly 10% of nursing populace (even though I'm sure it's smaller) which is a stretch in the big scheme of things.

The OP also seems to be focused on particular thread that looks to only provide information from anonymous posters that may or may not be nurses or have subjective bias.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

People, nurses and otherwise, are all parts of a whole. An important aspect of being a professional in an occupation where boundries are a huge part of how a nurse interacts with a patient, there needs to be some sense of mutual trust and respect.

Trust and respect in that the nurse is non-judgemental in how they care for a patient. And the patient trusting that the nurse is going to follow a plan of care to the goal of highest functional level. There is no room in this for a sexual undertone. That any sort of undertone of a sexual nature comes into play is wrong on a number of levels. A nurse in this setting is the "contoller" of the theraputic encounter. We could go on and on about patient's need to control their enviroment and outcome. There's too many items on the plate than to make anything highly charged in a sexual manner. This is suggestive of nurse's inability to control themselves in a professional way. Which speaks to issues far beyond the patient at hand.

Morality and mercy are interesting concepts. And highly subjective. Just as there's many levels to a person, and a nurse, there are many levels to what morality/mercy mean. We live in a society of constant innuendos. So a prudent nurse is mindful of this, and sets up boundries accordingly. This is basic nursing ethics.

With all that being said, it is important to remember that although personal/professional seem to meld into one giant ball of wax when dealing with patients--and dependent on population, complexity--nurses are off the clock, therefore, on their own at the end of the day. No one controls what legal activity one pursues outside of the workplace except the nurse themselves. And in this country, we have the freedom to choose.

It takes some significant communication skills to be able to steer a theraputic encounter and set up boundries if the patient that you have in front of you was one of your regulars at the strip club. But the same could be said of the patient who you went out with 20 years ago. Or the one night stand from college, or a parent of the person whose heart you broke.....there's lots of strange situations a nurse can find themselves in. The key is to know when you can set up a theraputic relationship, and when it is better left to another nurse.

As adults we have choices. We need to learn to live with our choices, learn from our choices in order to live, and reconcile our choices as nurses.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I have made my observations based on other threads right here on allnurses.com, accurate info from the web and statements made by real nurses. To use your experience as a standard against which I must use links and other corroborating information seems a little short sighted. The quote that I used in my OP was from a real nurse posted right here on allnurses.com.

Whether it happens a little or a lot was not the real point of my post. The fact that it happens at all and why this happens was what the post was related to.

How do you know that the poster was a nurse? did you verify their license by their screen name??

Again, links please.

That's my point; HOW do you know I that this is such a "regular" situation we to the point it is so regular that there are "many" nurses engaging in this activity?

Jadelpn has brought up a very salient point about choices; we all make them; however most nurses are prudent enough to make the right choices; others may or may not; sometimes with no rhyme or reason, and we can not determine the why; that doesn't mean that such situations run rampant in the profession either.

[hagiospneuma]

My point is how our actions outside the work place can and does affect our relationships within the clinical context. What a nurse thinks about the male patient was but an example of the result of her actions elsewhere. Don't see it as a main problem.

[hagiospneuma]

You seem to be defensive and want quantitative data to disprove your own work experience. You do not represent thousands of nurses. You are but one. And I do not mean to take away from your input. However, what I have written has occurred and regardless of the actual numbers involved it is still a fact that this has happened. Yes, we are human. My post was to get opinions about the moral choices we make and how they affect the patient-caregiver relationship. Having to show whether a poster was a real nurse or not is silly. She was. I just didn't want to use her name but her quote.

If you want anecdotal evidence it is only a google search away. I know... they are not real people. They did not really see or experience what they saw... they were just subjective opinions... opinions which affect the public perception of nurses..