Did this patient overreact?!

Nurses General Nursing

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So I am new here. Didn't see where to post an introduction so if I am out of line please direct me. I work in a large city hospital within the epilepsy unit. We monitor our patients on this floor with cameras and EEGs. I am sure many of you are quite familiar with this but I needed the background for the story.

There are a diverse group of nurses...male and female on this floor and obviously sometimes my male colleagues get female patients ans vice versa.

Tonight a patient's husband phoned the head nurse from home. He's home. She's here. He got my male coworker by mistake first and then me. I heard the accusations about my male colleague and they seem a bit over the top.

Then our head nurse came onto the floor to talk to the patient who was heard sobbing.

So here is what happened according to her

She complained about leg pain in her thigh area. My colleague told me it was ambiguous description.

So he went in and checked on her thighs for hot spots or lumps. Nothing so that was 1 day ago.

Today her husband called.

I had noticed her not eating and acting unusual today but I guessed she was just going through the motions of a week long hospitalization.

Her story was told to me first by mistake by her husband and it was like this

The male colleague of mine

Responded to her pain by turning her in room camera to the wall, removing her bottoms and then according to her she made two attempts to cover her privates with her gown but he kept forcefully uncovering them stating it was necessary for a check of the legs.

He was not assisted by a female nurse. But also according to her he did not do anything to her privates. He just touched her legs and then faced the camera back on her after allowing her to dress up.

He is well respected here. Hes married and used to seeing female genitalia and male. We are nurses for crying out loud. She has had children so obviously she has been exposed on a number of occasions and now he feels uncomfortable and embarrassed.

I think she overreacted considering her child birthing days are not too far in the past. Did she overreact?

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

He actually did move the camera?? Why on earth...?? If he wasn't

doing anything wrong... why??

Why in the heck does it matter if she's had kids or not???????

The whole things sounds bad on his part. Sorry.

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He thought moving the camera would protect her privacy because it goes to a larger area hospital. . She was crying and shaky today when I went to her room and discussed it. He won't receive disciplinary action as far as the head nurse has said. I just wonder if a patient who has had children should be freaked out enough to phone her husband and have him call us just over that. I asked her a few times today if anything was the matter since I did think perhaps something was wrong. But she kept saying no. She barely ate all day. I guess barely eating and fear over it seems a bit much considering the setting is a hospital.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Certainly a large city hospital has policies and procedures for handling situations like this.

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He actually did move the camera?? Why on earth...?? If he wasn't

doing anything wrong... why??

Why in the heck does it matter if she's had kids or not???????

The whole things sounds bad on his part. Sorry.

I thought the same thing first but then thought about it. The camera is for the eeg. I'm wondering if he turned it so he wouldn't expose her on the camera where others could see.

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And yes he closed the door to the room and turned the camera to face the wall.

She was apparently quite freaked out about that. And claims his mannerisms on top of that were in effect what caused her to ne concerned. However she told the head nurse she didn't want any drama she just didn't want him to return if possible. The head nurse told her husband that if he returns to the room he will be escorted.

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Really unsure with how her having children effects this...at all.

He should not have moved the camera. That's just sketchy.

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I thought the same thing first but then thought about it. The camera is for the eeg. I'm wondering if he turned it so he wouldn't expose her on the camera where others could see.

That's why he did it.

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According to our head nurse he shouldn't have to move the camera. But he (RN) was not aware of this. Was protecting her exposure.

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The only concern i had wasshe said he would not allow her to cover her lady parts and intimate areas when she wanted to with her gown. But then he denies that outright.

Her claim is that he forced her gown off of her lady parts twice. Doesn't seem like him. He has a clean record here. No complaints.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I guess barely eating and fear over it seems a bit much considering the setting isn't a back alley or a parking garage.

Did you say you were the head nurse or--? I honestly have trouble believing any nurse would say something like that.

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No im not the head nurse. I didn't word that correctly. But I am worried about how careful our male staff will have to be around her now...

This is all crazy

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