Are they oversharing or am I a prude?

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Before starting nursing school, I had never come accross more peers that share quite so much... um... detail. Classmates will walk up to me and start talking to me about their heavy flow or their loose stool like it is normal social hallway conversation. I have worked phones in OBGYN for many years, so I can talk about lady partss and periods with pts all day long. I am not squeemish. But I don't want to hear about your heavy flow during idle chat. you know? Is that just me? I hang out with software developers. For all I know, my friends do not have periods or BMs. I like it that way. Has anyone else dealt with this? Am I a prude? I will not be offended if you say that i am. :)

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How sad that they can not come up with better topics for small talk. Have some ready topics to change the subject to and start using that tactic. Sooner or later, maybe they will get the hint and find more pleasant topics themselves.

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Thanks for responding, caliotter3! I read your posts alot and I have a ton of respect for you. I guess your plan is better than my current response, which is a "deer in the headlights" expression followed by silence until the person either walks away or changes the subject. still working on my theraputic communications skills... obviously...

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

Thankfully I didn't have this problem in nursing school because I definitely wouldn't want to hear about it either! I don't think that makes you a prude at all. I think caliotter's suggestion of changing the subject is a good one. If that's not enough for them to get the hint, I would go ahead and just tell them, directly but politely, that I'm uncomfortable discussing their menstrual cycles or BMs.

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thank you! I mentioned it to one of the few guys in my class, thinking he would comiserate. Now every time we talk about things we saw in clinical, he says, "grownuprosie, you might want to cover your ears, i am going to talk about lady partss now." i was begining to think i was the only person that found this weird.

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Specializes in hospice, HH, LTC, ER,OR.

I remember things like that all too well. While we were having a break in what seemed like the broom closet with a total of 9 people. One student started to talk about her sex life and we got her off that topic. We started to chat about kids and she showed us her c section scar :(!!! We basically saw everything.. I dont ever want to be that friendly with my classmates

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

ICK! Boundaries, People - boundaries!! It's one thing to discuss physiology with a patient as part of an assessment..... entirely different with casual acquaintances. OMG. I hope they learn to differentiate. I can only imagine their future patients hearing "you think your hysterectomy was bad? Lemme tell ya about my hoo haa. . . "

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I had a colleague once who brought in her "birth video" to work and was playin it in the lounge for her friends to see. It was WAY too personal for my taste. (Let's just say the camera was located at the foot of the bed.) I can't imagine ...

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Ewwww......TMI for anyone who's not her husband or OB, as far as I'm concerned.:no:

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that's exactly what you say, "tmi, janey! tmi!" with both hands raised in front of you as if to ward her off, and back away slightly. she'll get the idea.

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Specializes in Cardiology, NCLEX instructor.

LOL you will realize that most nurses have the same problem, I think it's because we are so busy that we hardly have time for friends so co-workers/classmates take on that role instantly. Also because we are so used to having access to people's private/personal information we internally have problems with our own personal boundaries with others. Please refrain from falling into this habit, it is not ok. And you know that everything that they tell eachother is shared with the next person they run into.

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I like your deer in the headlights idea too.

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