Young female patients

[corbinRN]

I work with a pediatric sedation team in the hospital as a care partner (it's like an ANA) and today I had a 15 year old female. I had to place ECGs on her, but I just kind of handed to a female nurse to do it. If the female nurse wasn't there to do it, should I have done it, or what should I have done? I want to be sensitive to the pt and realizing that I'm a 21 year old man, it might be embarrassing and awkward for the 15 year old woman.

[all4ofus, ASN, RN]

When I was about 11 or 12, I broke my collar bone on a youth group canoeing trip. The adults in the group had to take me to the nearest ER. My shirt and bra had to be cut off of me, in front of the men who drove me to the ER, in front of the ER doctor, and in front of whatever nurses or techs had to lift me onto the x-ray table, who were all male. The whole thing was so humiliating to me at the time, that I would have rather suffered the broken bone until I got home than the treatment. Twenty years later, I am NOT saying that they shouldn't have treated me, but I AM saying that if they had the choice, and there were females around who could have helped more, or at least held my hand, it would have made a WORLD of difference, at that age. So I think the OP was correct in his actions, and I would hope that if the same thing happened to my UNDERAGE daughter, or son, that the people helping them would give as much choice in gender as possible at that moment.

[cpl_dvldog]

When I was about 11 or 12, I broke my collar bone on a youth group canoeing trip. The adults in the group had to take me to the nearest ER. My shirt and bra had to be cut off of me, in front of the men who drove me to the ER, in front of the ER doctor, and in front of whatever nurses or techs had to lift me onto the x-ray table, who were all male. The whole thing was so humiliating to me at the time, that I would have rather suffered the broken bone until I got home than the treatment. Twenty years later, I am NOT saying that they shouldn't have treated me, but I AM saying that if they had the choice, and there were females around who could have helped more, or at least held my hand, it would have made a WORLD of difference, at that age. So I think the OP was correct in his actions, and I would hope that if the same thing happened to my UNDERAGE daughter, or son, that the people helping them would give as much choice in gender as possible at that moment.

I am sure your experience was pretty embarrassing for you. Non-medical personell should have been asked to leave the room. It is no comfort, but I am fairly sure the male staff paid no attention to you being topless. Speaking for myself, I would not find a topless 12-13 yr old sexy or erotic in any way. I would bet 99% of all male nurses and such feel the same. All they saw was a kid.

I'm all for making the patient as comfortable as possible. What do you do if a unit has 2 male and 1 female nurse on night-shift... There are 12 patients, 9 are female, 3 are male... and all of the females request female nurses. Do you work that one nurse like a rented mule all night, do you tell the patients they will have a female nurse but they will not be seen when they should, or do you tell some of the patients they will have a male nurse and they just need to get over it?

[ONRADAR124]

way to many post about this, people