how many use the line when giving shots to women?

Wow. That would make me so uncomfortable. The fact that your fellow nurses think it's fine for you to say doesn't change that, and you and the nurse who dismisses the "rare" patients' concern are *both* going to be in a lot of trouble when you get an offended patient who won't be brushed off.

I have a hard time believing that no one these patients have talked to cares about potential sexual harassment lawsuits. A really hard time.

Let me ask you this- even if it truly is only a minority of the patients you say this to that feel uncomfortable, is the fact that other people think it's funny sufficient justification to make some of your patients uncomfortable? Are the patients with a "good sense of humor" somehow entitled to better care from you?

Let me share a story with you. When DH was in paramedic school, one of his classmates told a woman in labor who was having trouble swallowing a pill that if she knew how to swallow she wouldn't be in that position. He was pulled off the floor immediately and dismissed from the program.
Drop the line. You're a nurse, not a comedian.

Wow. I am suprised this thread is still alive. Can someone just put it out of my misery