Stupid things your school does/did

Nurses General Nursing

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Re: What age were you when you went to nursing school?

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Originally Posted by GraceNotes viewpost.gif

(I'll try this post again.) I am so apprehensive about nursing school! I am 51 and will graduate with a BSN in 2009 (starting in January, like you). We are expected to disrobe for male & female classmates to practice exams. Does your program do this?? I guess we'll see it all anyway, but doing this at my age is enough of a challenge...

Sounds stressful I'm 50 and have been in construction so I am in great shape. None-the-less I would be uncomfortable disrobing in front of the people I share so many other things with. Your school should think about hiring an artists model or get a volunteer an pay them with a professional massage or something. It seems as perhaps they are trying to get you to understand the being a patientaspect of our field. Their exercise,however, does not duplicate the true environmnet. There is no anonimity in this surender of trust. Sounds like your school or your instructor is out of touch.

This sounds like a good separate thread!

Oh, by the way I am 50 and just started LPN gragiate in a year.

Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.
Thanks for the advice. I will call and see what they say. How do I word it?! Do I ask what their policy is in regards to clinical assessments in class?! I don't think they would have the right to fail someone for saying no to any procedure as patients have that right and we would be acting as patients.

I would also think they run a big liability risk in regards to practicing IV, etc.

I would make a list of several questions/concerns to ask about the program. Remember, this is your education, you are paying for it, and you have the right to investigate into their policies and practices before you commit. Once you are in the program, you have to abide by their standards so it is best to go in knowing what will be expected of you.

A good way to get the answers is to question students who are already enrolled in the program you wish to attend. You can get a wealth of information this way.

We did not practice IVs/injections on each other. We had dummy arms. I went to a MA school before nursing school in which we learned venipunction and injections on each other. I think it is a liability issue and most schools do not do this anymore.

At my college they would give us assessment lists and we were to go home and practice on our spouse or significant other and report all findings not disclosing the person we used, using initials and that was our assignment. We did in class however learn BP's, ears, eye assessments, techniques of transfer etc... all with our clothes on.. I think that its unacceptable and unprofessional due to, as a student you get to know your classmates real well to begin with, its 2 long years with the same people.. Being nude that is over the top.

Specializes in Nephrology.

I cant even imagine having to do this in school. We never had to do such things with our classmates. And I can assure you I would not have done so. I understand the lesson that they are trying to teach but if they didn't think your that empathetic on peoples feelings would you really be there. I'm sure at one point in time we have all been the patient and know first hand how this feels, But I also know that I usually had a blanket or a gown on and that the person that was looking at me was already licensed. There are other was to learn these skills without making you feel uncomfortable in front of your classmates. Isn't that one of the first things taught treat everybody with dignity. I would have told your instructors that you'll take off your clothes right after they took off theirs. Maybe then they would think about it. My heart goes out to you.

Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

Waaaay back in the day (1983), we had to strip down to our underpants and let our class partner give us a bed bath. Old fashioned bed baths with bath blankets, and only side (or part of a side exposed) at a time. This was done in a closed room with curtains drawn around the bed, with the instructor and you and the classmate only.

Actually nobody much cared, once the instructors said it was segregated by genders, the guys did guys, the girls did girls. It was kind of fun, if your classmate had to leave the bedside to get something, and they left the siderail down, the teacher had you wrap in the blanket and lay on the floor. I was seven months pregnant, so the teacher really acted up when the classmate came back to the bedside.

The whole point was to teach you how to give a bed bath with dignity to your patient, and we all made sure we did it, as we didn't want to be lying there exposed, and made sure our partners did it right also. We bathed everything but, as the instructor said, "the in-between".

Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.

where i went to school, we had to do physical assessements on each other, including breast exams.

they, too, used the "feeling what it is like to be a patient" line on us, as though none of us had ever had a physical exam before. (well, by a peer, no, most of us hadn't)

we were separated by gender (well actually, there were only two men in our class...), and we didn't have to be examined in front of the whole class -- just our lab partener and the instructor.

there was quite a bit of backlash to this on our first day, though nobody quit over it. the clinical instructors for this class quickly quieted the dissent by telling us that in the np programs, the students had to do pelvic/rectal exams on each other.

sorry, i just don't want to get to know my classmates that well.

where i went to school, we had to do physical assessements on each other, including breast exams.

they, too, used the "feeling what it is like to be a patient" line on us, as though none of us had ever had a physical exam before. (well, by a peer, no, most of us hadn't)

we were separated by gender (well actually, there were only two men in our class...), and we didn't have to be examined in front of the whole class -- just our lab partener and the instructor.

there was quite a bit of backlash to this on our first day, though nobody quit over it. the clinical instructors for this class quickly quieted the dissent by telling us that in the np programs, the students had to do pelvic/rectal exams on each other.

sorry, i just don't want to get to know my classmates that well.

just curious...did the instructor bare her breasts as well to be examined?! did anyone flat out refuse?! did anyone refuse to be weighed or any part of any examine?! i am just curious on those points as well. i would have refused. actually i would have been a good model for cpr as i probably would have fainted and hit my head on the way down. lol

Thanks to all of you who helped me to calm down a bit. This thread was a great idea as it opened my eyes to things I had never even thought about. I am going to check things out tomorrow. I feel a little uncomfortable even asking, but better to be safe than sorry.

I have heard that one of the local CNA programs (for one school CNA certification is required) only uses dummies and then moves onto real life residents. That school also uses dummies for IV, etc.

Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.
just curious...did the instructor bare her breasts as well to be examined?! did anyone flat out refuse?! did anyone refuse to be weighed or any part of any examine?! i am just curious on those points as well. i would have refused. actually i would have been a good model for cpr as i probably would have fainted and hit my head on the way down. lol

no, i don't remember anyone quitting/refusing.

and no, no naked instructors for us.

however, we were told that the np program had been a female short, and the clinical instructor for that program had to be the "patient" for one of the male np students.

Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.
the clinical instructors for this class quickly quieted the dissent by telling us that in the np programs, the students had to do pelvic/rectal exams on each other.

sorry, i just don't want to get to know my classmates that well.

lol! me either.

does this happen in np schools now? i've never heard anyone speak about it. it seems very unusual.

Specializes in LTC, med-surg, critial care.

The whole point was to teach you how to give a bed bath with dignity to your patient, and we all made sure we did it, as we didn't want to be lying there exposed, and made sure our partners did it right also. We bathed everything but, as the instructor said, "the in-between".

Ha! We had to ask our "patient" if they wanted to do their own peri care and if they didn't know what that meant then we were allowed to say "Wash between your legs" but not actually do it.

I've been an LVN for almost two years but my instructor was older than dirt. We had to get faux bed baths wearing a t-shirt and boxers/shorts. The guys wore shorts over their boxers. It was all private and secluded from anyone else seeing it. No one really cared. Not the girl who was seven months pregnant at the time or the girl who had just had bypass surgery and had tons of extra flesh, she just wore sweat pants and the instructor didn't mind (although she's also the same person who showed me that she could wrap the excess skin from her upper arm all the way around while we were bored in ER :rolleyes:).

We gave and received one shot in lab. I had two guys in front of me and my partner. One stuck it in the others arm and just let go! The needle was just hanging there in the guys arm and the other one just stared until the instructor told him what to do. The one with the needle in his arm just started cracking up.

I took an IV cert class and had to start three IV's and perform three blood draws on actual people after practicing on the fake arm. My boyfriend actually came over and let me start two IV's on him myself! The RN program I'm in won't let us do anything on people other than patients. We pay for lab supplies in a bag every semester and they take out the IV's so we won't get tempted and try them out on our family.

Yep. In Medical Assisting program we did EKG's on each other, so chests were exposed. And practiced stapping on fetal monitors, so tummies were exposed. The four guy usually paired up, but not all the time.

I dont think you should be allowed to pass the nursing program without having these done to you.

I am really suprised that in some of your programs you didnt have to do this.

Ok like this my four year old needed a immunization but i dont remember atm. The nurse asked do you want me to give it to her in her arm or in her leg i said in the arm because the leg is insainly painful. and she replied wow i didnt know that.(what is she doing being a nurse giving injections)

Most nurses dont know that if you stimulate the injection site it reduces the pain level to a point where it dont really hurt at all. This is what gives people fears crappy nurses who never had to endure what they put their patients through.

If you feel uncomfortable getting in your underwear infront of future nurses you have no place expecting patients to do the same.

edit: the badword filter edits non bad words so had to change.

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