EKG on female patients

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!

Is it possible for the female patient to leave her bra on during the EKG and still get a good reading?

nope..... because you have to basically place 75% of the leads where the bra covers....

To expose a patient like that is extremely unprofessional!! It does not matter if you are the same sex as a patient or not. I am male and would never just walk into a patient's room throw back the covers to check a patient or perform a procedure no matter what the sex of the patient...to do so demonstrates a huge lack of respect for the patient and their privacy.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with this tech...it does not reflect well on the profession.

P2

Sad thing is if the V.A. were better at respecting patients, if she had asked and explained that she would use min. exposue techniques and wanted to teach them the same, I would never have kicked them out.

I agree with you here. I get really annoyed when some HCPs just decide to train on you without asking. I once asked a trainee to leave the room on an EKG. I complicated the matter by telling the trainee "sorry, if it was up to me I would let you stay." I had to explain that it wasn't left to me, the trainee was just thrown in without asking, which was the whole point of me telling her to leave. I hope they learned something from it. ASK next time.

When it comes to EKGs, I just wish they would shut the door. Yes, I am male, call me a prude, but when I am the only one shirtless and in plain view of the public, it makes me uncomfortable. It wouldn't bother me at the beach, when everybody else is similarly attired, but to lay there with everybody STARING through the open door in a doctors office gets old real quick. Yes, even men can be modest about their upper bodies. Thankfully, I was able to convince my present PCP to make it a rule to close the door with every EKG.

You mentioned V.A., are you a military veteran?

Yes, and they treat us poorly. From the time you enter the military you are treated like a chunck of meat, the V.A. is no different. I feel for the women comming home now and in the future after the way they are treated; even worse than we were a few decades ago.

You all are so respectful. Thank you for that. I am not a nurse but a patient. I have seen EKGs done on other women, and have had them done on me. The best was by a young man who used the woman's gown (open to the front) to cover her breast while he did his job. It worked out well, she was never exposed. The worst, a female nurse who wanted to train a couple of N.A.s She just came in with the two guys, never introduced them or said a word, told me what she wanted to do and stood there waiting for me uncover. I just looked at the two guys. I had no idea what they were there for; she then explained they were there to watch and asked if I minded. I said, YES!!! She asked them to leave. She then proceeded with the EKG, and just took the top down and exposed the entire chest area. Which given she was same sex is ok, but I would not have liked her to do it that way had they men been in the room.