I've read a few threads on this and honestly I am shocked. I was unaware that students had to practice anything on each other that was invasive or required them to wear any clothing besides scrubs or other professional attire. This concept did not exist for me until I read threads in which people spoke about these practices.
I do not think it is right for students to have to wear clothing that exposes them, even if it is "just" shorts/bathing suit/bra/sports bra/tank top. Nor do I think it is right for students to have to be examined or touched in any way by another student. If we're going to make it about why I personally don't like it, it is because I don't wear shorts other than when I swim, they are usually knee-length, and I don't swim very often (last time was 2-3 years ago). I don't like to expose my legs for various reasons and I don't want to have to purchase clothing to show off a body part that I don't ever show off, hence why I don't own that type of clothing.
In previous posts there were people to said it wasn't a big deal, and others who think students should have to because their predecessors had to (and they had to do much more to each other than just bathing- such as catheter insertion, breast/lady partsl exams, anal swabbing, etc.), and yet others say it is so that students can learn what it is like to be a patient. Many of these people are saying that those who take issue with it aren't cut out for nursing. This makes no sense to me.
Other than helping out your classmates by providing a body so they can practice and do their exam on, what benefit does this give you? You will make a friend in class who may or may not help you later? So the benefit here is teamwork? I find it highly unlikely that I will be working with the classmate after I graduate and I don't feel that it is my duty to let someone invade my personal space just because the school we are at doesn't use mannequins and real patients. A student is not the same thing as a licensed professional and I don't want inexperienced people touching me or using my body to practice things like injections or catheters or even bathing. Once they are licensed then I know I can trust that they are being professional and held responsible, until then they are no different than someone in my A&P class going for a biology degree.
None of this means I will have a problem with other people's bodies or caring for them. My own personal level of comfort for MY body does not mean I won't be able to do my job and do what I need to when caring for another person. My own body being exposed is not something that will help me when I am bathing a patient because I will never be bathed by a patient and I will never be unclothed in front of a patient.
It seems that people who went to school years ago had to do more to each other than the schools today and if you respond to this I would love to hear what years you went to school (your age is not important) and what your experience and opinions are.
P.S. This is not about a male/female thing, as I think either gender would bother me just as much.
Different schools have different procedures. I have at some point in my education had various procedures practiced on me or by me on other students. I have always been in classes of fifty or so people who quickly became very self knit. I have to think that this is related to some kind of personal problem you have to work on, maybe with some type of professional counselling. If there actually someone who did violate boundaries, it would simply be a matter of reporting it to the instructor or administration or law enforcement immediately. An I might also add the board of nursing.
We only practiced the non invasive things on each other like occupied bed changes and all the men in our class volunteered so we could practice restraints lol. The school wouldn't let us practice injections or NG tubes on each other even though some ppl offered to volunteer.
I find it so interesting how nursing differs from other health care professions. In DH's EMT class it was drilled in to them that THEIR safety always came first, and on the boards here I always see such a pervasive martyr mentality. We must be empathetic to the discomfort that our patients experience and do everything we can to minimize it...but our fellow students need to suck it up and get over themselves? We're taught that our patients will have different cultural values including levels of modesty, but a classmate has a personal problem and might need professional counseling?
I just want to say that I could not read any more after the first page of replys. I am utterly and absolutely discused, shocked, and appauled that people think it is OK to preform lady partsl exams, Foley insertions, and Recal swabs on fellow classmates. If I was in that program I would go straight to the dean if the program made it manditory. I look at it this way when you are preforming theses procedures on a pt it is in a HOSPITAL and the relationship between YOU and that PT is STRICTLY professional. That Pt is NOT your CLASSMATE and NOT your FRIEND.
Specializes in Corrections,Med/Surg, Infectious Disease.
HELLO..............Im not talking about an IV invasive procedure........we all know that IV insertions are common in nursing school but peri care and catherter insertions.........NOT!!!!!!
How do you expect to learn to start an IV then? On a mannequin?
Yes. Isn't that how you learned to do some things, like inserting a foley catheter? CPR?
You learn in clinicals, the same way you learn to do catheters, NGs and other things - by doing them on patients. It's not necessary to use students to practice on for IVs.
That said, I don't see anything wrong with it either. The class before mine was the last class to do this practice. The school quit for liability purposes. They were afraid of being sued by students who got phebitis or something worse.
I have great veins and students know they can practice on me anytime.
When I was a student I dreaded this. When I was teaching in the skills lab I began to understand. When I was a patient I was grateful that they teach this way. It is a lesson that you never forget, and those who do not experience it are not going to feel the same way when they give a bath. That proper draping, the little extra effort to put the patient at ease and respect privacy, well there is nothing more important.
Get a grip and do it, it is part of nursing school. I once had a head nurse who had to do enemas with her fellow students when she was in school, so things could be worse!
HELLO..............Im not talking about an IV invasive procedure........we all know that IV insertions are common in nursing school but peri care and catherter insertions.........NOT!!!!!!
Agree. Certainly there is no school in the US that requires someone to put a catheter in someone else. Common sense would tell you that. Sheesh.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Many of the responses include the premise that you can't be a good nurse unless you are willing to undergo the same procedures the patients undergo in the hospital. If that is true, you're going to be a pretty lousy nurse.
Oh, wait. You're only talking about bed baths and teeth brushing which is no big deal? Well,hmm. Some are including IV starts, injections, and caths in their responses. One person said NG tubes should be done on each other. Some are saying fine, stay dressed during your fake bed bath. Then you've just tossed your "lesson in modesty".
I guess the people arguing the empathy point wouldn't mind having an enema, traction, a lumbar puncture, a bone marrow extraction and fake burn debridement either. I guess my point here is that when you start to make an ethical judgement about someone's character and fitness to be a nurse, you could place your parameters anywhere. It really isn't fair to be so judgemental to your fellow students.
billyboblewis
251 Posts
Different schools have different procedures. I have at some point in my education had various procedures practiced on me or by me on other students. I have always been in classes of fifty or so people who quickly became very self knit. I have to think that this is related to some kind of personal problem you have to work on, maybe with some type of professional counselling. If there actually someone who did violate boundaries, it would simply be a matter of reporting it to the instructor or administration or law enforcement immediately. An I might also add the board of nursing.