baths?

Kabin · May 17, 2005

I bet this would add some stressors. I've heard some nursing programs require students to bathe each other. :coollook:

cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN · May 18, 2005

I bet this would add some stressors. I've heard some nursing programs require students to bathe each other.

Yep, we had to bathe each other. We had to wear shorts and a tank top. We also had to feed each other and brush each others teeth. Everything that was non-invasive that we learned in skills lab we had to do on each other first before we did it on real pts.

Nurse2B2005 · May 18, 2005

My first bath was a nice, older gentleman. I did a total bath, head-to-toe, including peri-care. I was nervous, but we got through it, and he was both patient and co-operative. After the bath, I explained to him that I would roll him to one side, tuck his linens under him, then roll him back and pull them through, just like they taught us. He nodded and replied, "OK, but wouldn't it be easier if I just got up and sat in that chair?"
An early and poignant reminder that assessment is the first step in the nursing process...

Oh, that was classic. I had the same thing happen to me during my very first week in clinicals. I had no idea what the whole nursing process was. We had a lecture on it, but being a brand new student a month into the program didn't help me understand it fully yet.

So my first day of patient care, I try to be assertive, I go in and explain that it's time for the bath, get all the supplies, start doing the bath, then I am halfway through my patient's bath and my patient says "This is star treatment! Yesterday they made me take my own shower!"

Go figure. It's good practice though, eh? :chuckle

Swedenboi6 · May 20, 2005

Wow! Thanks all for all the replies so far! It has been very helpful.
My main concern was washing men (being a man) which would be odd.
I suppose washing the elderly is a bit funky too.
There are nursing positions such as ER and OR where I would only have to prep the patient and not bathe them right? I'm not looking to be a nurse who does rounds per say. I've always been facinated by operating rooms and such.

Believe it or not you are actually going to find a lot of male patients that would rather have a male cleaning them! I know this sounds weird...who would ever want to give up the prospect of having a beautiful female give them baths?!

But really, it is true. I actually work exclusivly with two males who are much more comfortable with me washing them then a female. It just depends I suppose.

unc005 · Jun 15, 2005

Sorry y'all; I know this is late, but I wanted to add my experience. I had two brain surgeries: one April 20th and the other May 10th, and with the May 10th one I was in the NSICU(Neurosurgical ICU) for 3 days for left ICP monitoring as well as having my 14y/o right VP shunt(just the ventricular catheter) removed. I had had a brand new shunt placed April 10th. Anyway, while in the NSICU, I had bed baths b/c I was "tied down" to the monitors---all the V/Ss as well as for the ICP. *THAT* was interesting...sheesh! It is staffed STRICTLY by RNs and so...well...they're the ones you'll find giving the bed baths. Once back on the floor though, you'll find CNAs on the neuroscience floor(neurology/neurosurgery), although with the May 10th surgery, when I was initially admitted to the floor(it was VERY early in the AM), I had a nurse that was just her and no NA, but we did fine. LOL. Just my (personal) experience!

Erin

ADN student(as well)

evans_c1 · Jun 16, 2005

Rox- if you think bathing is bad ywill feel even more uncomfortable when you have to "man handle" some guys pecker while insering a foley catheter. Nursing is not pretty but that is why it is in such demand and so rewarding. You get used to people barfin, hackin, and all the other fun stuff. All God's creatures do it!..we just get paid to clean the people and medicate them

Sterling-RN · Jun 16, 2005

I hated giving baths in nursing school. Yeah, you can assess the skin, ROM, all that. But I had a hard time with giving baths to women who looked at me coming in with washcloths, etc. with fear (or at least insecurity) in their eyes. I did it. And if I thought I was causing more discomfort than I was going to provide, I would ask them if they would prefer a female washing them up.

I had an especially hard time during a LTC rotation in school. I answered a call light from down the hall...it had been going off long enough to know that no one was paying attention to it. It was a patient that I was not caring for that day, and she told me that no one had gotten her washed up and out of bed. She also told me she missed breakfast. Furious, I went to the other nursing students, and asked for a hand. Three other females and myself went into the resident's room to get her together.

She was a large woman, and two of us managed to get her to the edge of the bed to start to take off her gown. Then, one of the nursing students said: "Okay, Mark...we can get it from here." She then waved me out of the room.

Now, I did not wake up that morning thinking: "You know what? I feel like giving a bed bath today!" I hated them. But this REALLY bothered me. They DIDN'T ask the woman if my presence bothered her. I still felt responsible to her, since I was the one who discovered that she was forgotten. And this lady did not have a nursing student assigned to her for the day. So, I was miffed.

In one statement, I felt that they validated the stereotype that nursing is a profession for women, and men in nursing are only a novelty. (Mind you, I was still a student at the time, and still felt that I had to validate myself)

Anyway, I am over it. But this thread brought it back, and thought I would share.

Mark

nursemike, ASN, RN · Jun 16, 2005

I hated giving baths in nursing school. Yeah, you can assess the skin, ROM, all that. But I had a hard time with giving baths to women who looked at me coming in with washcloths, etc. with fear (or at least insecurity) in their eyes. I did it. And if I thought I was causing more discomfort than I was going to provide, I would ask them if they would prefer a female washing them up.
I had an especially hard time during a LTC rotation in school. I answered a call light from down the hall...it had been going off long enough to know that no one was paying attention to it. It was a patient that I was not caring for that day, and she told me that no one had gotten her washed up and out of bed. She also told me she missed breakfast. Furious, I went to the other nursing students, and asked for a hand. Three other females and myself went into the resident's room to get her together.
She was a large woman, and two of us managed to get her to the edge of the bed to start to take off her gown. Then, one of the nursing students said: "Okay, Mark...we can get it from here." She then waved me out of the room.
Now, I did not wake up that morning thinking: "You know what? I feel like giving a bed bath today!" I hated them. But this REALLY bothered me. They DIDN'T ask the woman if my presence bothered her. I still felt responsible to her, since I was the one who discovered that she was forgotten. And this lady did not have a nursing student assigned to her for the day. So, I was miffed.
In one statement, I felt that they validated the stereotype that nursing is a profession for women, and men in nursing are only a novelty. (Mind you, I was still a student at the time, and still felt that I had to validate myself)
Anyway, I am over it. But this thread brought it back, and thought I would share.
Mark

Ironic, isn't it? Getting miffed over not being allowed to do something you didn't really want to do, anyway? I would have been, too. Clearly, your classmates were wrong. I suppose they would say they were only thinking of the patient. So where were they when the light was going off? Still, at least you got this experience under your belt in school. I'll bet you're a lot less accepting of this sort of thing, now.

I've been "dismissed" from a room by nurses I've worked with to get a female patient up, but as a UAP, I've realized that was appropriate. As a nurse, I'll have to be a lot more assertive, if it arises. Which I don't expect. I don't think anyone would try that if it was my patient. If it was someone else's patient, I'd ask whether they wanted my help or had it under control.

Sounds like you've got it in pretty good perspective. It was wrong. Not holocaust wrong, but still, they should have at least asked the patient. Anyway, the main thing is, good job addressing the patient's needs.

jameeladf · Jun 22, 2005

Thanks, I've come to the conclusion that accidents will happen in the ER/OR and are unavoidable. I would be completely OK with that from time to time. It's just hard picturing myself washing someone else. It's got to be harder for guys to do that. You think? I can picture myself doing all kinds of things, but not bathing someone. It's disturbing in some way. I don't know if it's a nurturing thing (men aren't raised that way) or an ego thing or what. I'm considering going to school, but this isn't something I want to do alot of (if any at all hah hah). Just a hesitation on my part.

Dear Sir-

This apprehension towards giving baths is really too bad because the as mentioned by other posts here, it is a part of a nurse's task from time to time, in specific units or hospitals more often than others. Frankly, with such apprehension I don't believe you can nurse to your highest potential and to your greatest effectiveness without stopping and saying to yourself, "He/She is human just like me, and he/she wants to be clean just like me." Approach your nursing duties with all of yourself, the reality is that with the best and most respected nurses, their performances are all or nothing, their compassion is all or nothing. Also, remember to maintain your professionalism when approaching potentially mortifying or exposing tasks such as bathing-- the more uncomfortable you are, the more uncomfortable the patient will be.