Did you have to brush your classmates teeth?

[pixiestudent2]

I was on a nursing schools facebook page and saw pictures of them brushing each others teeth. Is this common to use other students for practice teeth brushing. I think i would feel REALLY uncomfortable with this. And brushing teeth shouldn't really be a skill that we are unfamiliar with... lol

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

" brushing teeth is so basic (especially when you client has dentures, and you can just hold those suckers in your hands), i don't see why a school would waste such time on it..."

it's not just you learning to brush someone else's teeth, it's you feeling how someone else brushing your teeth can do a better job of it, so you will do a better job yourself for someone who needs you to do it. that's actually part of most lab simulations when you take a turn at being a patient.

i used to have my learning lab students pair off; one would be the patient who was paralyzed. the "nurse" would position the "patient" using as many pillows as needed, then pull the drapes around the bed and leave for ten minutes by the clock. the patient was not allowed to move at all.

at ten minutes, the "patients" and "nurses" all sat down for a chat. what do you suppose the "nurses" had done when they were done positioning their "patients"? right, they stood around in the middle of the "ward" and chatted about what a stupid assignment this was, or their boyfriends or girlfriends, or their plans for the weekend, or whatever. and the "patients" were all alone, helpless, some of them positioned uncomfortably, too, and they really hated to listen to things going on around them; it was awful to think that a human being would be set up like a roast on a plate and then just .... left. it felt devastating to be left alone like that.

nobody ever forgot that lesson.

[OrlyRose1992]

Bahaha We did catheter care on each other. . (using plastic bottles with the catheter taped to the bottle) but a classmate had to have the plastic bottle between their legs so we could learn to drape someone correctly so we didn't expose the patient! It was awkward at first but by the end we just laughed and laughed at each other!

[NsugaBuga]

If youre talking about CNA class, yes I did. We had to do most of the skills on eachother to know how it is from the pt/residents position. Actually, the worst one for me was transfers and we had to get into the hoyer sling and be swung around ...its scary, but now we know what a resident might feel (on top of being confused, psychotic, nauseous or anything else) .... so we can be super careful in preventing problems. (falls)

[KatePasa]

The idea is also to get you to feel what someone else might feel if you were brushing their teeth. Empathy is a huge part of nursing school. In nursing, you might just forget how phobic some people are of having someone in their mouth and brush someone's teeth brusquely. I think that is the main point of this activity...because YES we do KNOW how to brush teeth, but NO we don't KNOW what it feels like to have them brushed.

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

I did it in CNA class..not really a big deal. I didn't do it in my LPN program & I'm 99.9% sure we won't do it in my BSN program either. It will simply prepare you for clinicals.. that way once you're out in the "real" world, you won't be so nervous :)

[ImKosher]

Just had my teeth brushed today, in front of the whole class. No big deal, what's the problem. You need to experience these things so you understand as a Nurse. You don't think you will ever need to brush teeth? In the ICU you will need to provide full body care, that includes the pearly whites.

After the demonstration I had the freshest breath!

[acerbia]

We had to brush each others teeth and it was actually fun! We were all giggling during our validations and so were the professors! However, we were not forced to do so. Some classmates had expensive dental work, for example, so students could opt out if they wanted to.