EKG on female patients

One of our new techs (a guy) was in doing an EKG on my chest pain patient, and I guess I'd never paid attention to how he does them but I was impressed. To be quite honest, in the ER I work at chest pains are addressed so fast and furiously to meet our time goals that a lot of times, the boobs just end up on display for about 3 minutes due to wanting to get that EKG done in under 10.

Once the patient is in a gown, he takes and pulls the sheet up to their belly button, pulls the gown up and kind of folds it and has it still resting on the top of their breasts, and applies stickers/attaches leads from under (as opposed to pulling the gown down and exposing breasts)... so of course they get uncovered slightly to apply leads/stickers but otherwise have much better privacy than most.

Hope that helps!

I am currently a tech, in our ER and perform 10-20 EKGs on an 8hr shift. I pull the top down over the shoulers, and call it the "sexy look" to place the arm and 1 and 2 leads, then pull up on the side, but keep the left breast in a little pocket of the gown and use the top of my hand to "LIFT" as I place 3-6. Seems to work well and it keeps then covered. Professionaly it is nice when they are not as modest, then I can get them done faster. My ER is the sought after for CVA and STEMIs so that helps for speed too.

will place 3 lead on without trouble, will get female nurse or tech to place 12 lead, unless it's emergent situation. i dont want the hassle, and you dont eatheir..

My only problem with getting females to do your 12 leads is that by constantly pushing your work onto females it encourages those who believe that men should not be in the nursing profession.

I have say that I feel that you might be setting us back a few places as far as men in nursing, as men we may be scrutinized more closesly for these particular procedures but we should maintain our professionalism as we forge ahead with accomplishing our job by utilizing good proper technique to stay ahead of those that will question.

I bet if you ask those females that you have to ask to do that work I'll bet you'll find that they don't like the fact that you ask them to do that all the time.



P2

Heck! This sounds like the most painless RN duty I've heard yet.

Sounds like a field I need to investigate further with my soft, warm, accurate, and gentle-touch hands.

Thanks Guys!!

I'm not doing EKGs in a hospital (currently still a paramedic), so most of the female pts have a bra on and I don't make them remove it. And yes, you can a clear reading if that's what you mean, but it makes it a lot trickier to get the 'trodes located correctly. I still have to lift the bottom edge of the bra and stick it underneath, otherwise at least V4 is much too low. V3 also has to normally go underneath the bra. Ultimately, you're not touching the pt any less, but the fact that the bra is still there I think provides a mental barrier for both pt and provider. However, if you want a true quality EKG, no bra.

you'll cahnge your tune once you get a complaint from some freak saying you made her feel "uncomfortable". now you think it wont happen to me cause i'm to professional, i used to be that way when i first got out of school but over the yrs the things i've seen happen to fellow co-workers have changeed my view and made me much more wiser. as far as pushing the male rn back a few yrs, spare me please, if you are in a unit you'll be pulling more patients and poking more iv's and dropping ngt's for your fellow coworkers to more than make up for "pushing your work on them". and by looking at your profile it shows you are a nsg student, well good, have'nt they taught you yet that you will have to work as at team in a unit in order to survive. and of course you need to take the bra off ass well as any necklace and any ankle jewlry for limb leads. unless you want to "half ass it". non-emergent ekg on female, nope not me unless with female staff memeber in room, and no caths. don't want the h/a.

I think it is good to wear gloves while doing the ekg. although i'm a woman, i still feel weird about having to touch their boobs. Also another good reason to wear the gloves is that i have encountered so many large breasted women that have alot of moisture going on under there- it smells like they are baking yeast rolls- and i definitely do not want to be touching that. i absolutely tell women to hold their boob up to get the leads on. i feel like the breast has got to be pulled up, i'd rather they do it themselves. i feel really bad now though hearing how well you guys work on keeping the patient draped during an ekg. my main goal is that the curtain is pulled, i never drape.

I love this post...I think many of us have had this experience! I must say, professionalism is a must. I work on a Tele floor so most patients have had an EKG and understand what that entails, so when I come in and tell them what I am doing, they know.

I do feel that keeping the patient comfortable is at most up most importance. We have the gowns that unbutton at the shoulder so I always start with the right side of the patient placing V1 and V2. Then I cover the right side back up and place V3, V4, V5 , and V6. I always tell them that I may need to lift their breast up. I always cover them up completely before verifying lead placement on the screen and capturing the EKG.

I've never run into a problem with a patient with EKGs (granted, again, I work on Tele), but I did have a long time Cardiac patient tell me, "Are you embarassed?" when hooking them up to the 5 lead monitor. When I replied no, she said, "Well lets get over modesty, I've done this before." And took her gown off.

We both laughed and I proceeded. She was one of my favorite patients I've ever taken care of (and not because of her immodesty but she was truly a wonderful person and so appreciative of her care).

I do believe the patient comes first. Whatever we can do as Health Care Professionals to make them comfortable, then we should do it. If a patient doesn't want me to do the EKG and would prefer a female (unless they spontaneously go into 3rd degree HB and are bradycardic and need the EKG STAT) then I have no problem making them more comfortable and getting a female to do the EKG.

Well as I see you agree with me or do I agree with you?? As RN1980 pointed out in may I was a nursing student at the time of that posting...I am now an RN and perform EKG's all the time as I am on a Cardiovascular intervention unit and it is standard that when patients return from the Cath lab that they get an EKG. At the time of my post my only experience with EKG's was as a phlebotomist where it was part of our responsibility to perform them on out-patients so over approximately 5 years this was something I did every day and many times a day at that. I stand by my earlier comment. I recently had an opportunity to sit down with author and instructor Chad E. O'Lynn PHD, RN. of the Univ of Portland. He and Russell E. Tranbarger wrote "Men in Nursing...history, challenges, and opportunities" this book should be a must read for all men in health care. All men in health care have a responsibility to uphold the professional standard, we men are just as good and caring as our female counterparts. If this cycle continues...gay men who are nurses won't be able to care for male patients out of fear of a complaint or gay female nurses be able to render care for female patients. This has to stop and it stops with us...as we men set the standard not just for yourself but for all male nurses.
P2 RN.
I am a NURSE and I am here to stay! "this where a trumpet would blast or a rim shot on the drums" hehe!