Frustration in lab

Nursing Students General Students

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Looking for feedback.

I'm a male nursing student and I'm very frustrated with our lab sessions. Why do the majority of my fellow students (male and female) start acting like they're 15 years old when it comes to "hands on" lab work?

In this profession we will be touching and inspecting other people's body? No way around it. I'm not a perve or trying to "cop a feel" but I'm thinking that roughly 50% of the patients I encounter on the job will be female. If I only work with male students during lab, I'm going to be a little unprepared when it comes time to do the real thing.

I know we all need our "personal space", but can't we be adults about this?

We have had many discussions about this type of thing. The answer to your question is NO, we can not all be adults all the time. If you look at the wrong person the wrong way you will be accused of being a pervert. There was a recent thread about a male instructor who palpated a females pubic bone during an abdominal exam and there were cries for his job, his head and his license. There was a little more to the story, but the basic idea was that he could have done the same thing with 100 students who have gone with the flow and laughed along with him...do it with the wrong person and your goose is cooked.

As for me...I have fun with the ladies in my class. They know I am very happily married, I am a big flirt and joker. I am their big brother if you will. I have had no problem at all. But I am sure that with my sense of humor and confidence that I am not pervving on anyone, I will eventually run into that one person who will cry foul.:scrying:.

Meantime you need to do your job and learn the right way. I have put more foleys in female patients than men...it is much more of an art and needs to be practiced. If you are not getting the experience...you should be. Talk to your professor.

And by all means, have fun...:smokin:

Dave

Intimate contact between males and females is not appropriate in a school setting. You are still students, not professionals. Even today, I would not want one of my opposite sex co-workers putting a foley in me! There is a huge difference between the nurse/patient dynamic and co-worker/student dynamic. This is why most medical professionals do not treat family or friends.

I'm not talking about a foley. I'm talking about things like heart sounds, breathing sounds, bowel sounds, palpation of abdomen, etc. Seems like anything that involves touching or removal of any clothing is out of bounds for students of different gender.

Ditto...I said Foley in female PATIENT.

Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice, Home Health.

My son started nursing school this year, and he had a female lab partner...

when it came to the lab portion of doing baths, and such, he was covered, as was his lab partner when they were "simulating" bathing a patient...

he listened to heart and bowel sounds, etc...

linda

Specializes in Surgical/Telemetry.

I had a male lab partner for my assessment labs, and we were able to comfortably practice baths (in tee shirts and shorts) complete most assessments, outside of say, breast exams. We should definitely all be professional about allowing fellow students to listen to heart/chest sounds and assess our abdomen. :Melody:

I think that it has been an issue for a while. I have been very open with my skills lab fellows (i.e.; feel free to listen to my heart sounds, I have a murmur can you hear it?, yes, my peripheral pulses bound, you can use me to find them). All my fellow students have been absolutely professional. Many of them have even thanked me for allowing them to be "invasive". Its no biggie for me. I am older, married, and have had children. We need people (not dummies) to practice on. I totally agree that the barrier needs to be dropped. . .

Specializes in Med/Surg.

We practice very few skills on each other. Mostly we practice on the dummies and still most of my classmates act like they are in high school. We are all learning to be a professional nurse and are going to see all kinds of body parts...lets learn to be adults about it. Maybe its my age or perhaps my being a CNA for 20 years...but...I feel we have to be mature and put our patients to ease. They are not any happier usually about the fact that a stranger has to touch them or seem their parts or see them in compromising positions. It is up to us to be mature about it and make the experience the least unpleasant and embarassing as possible. Just my opinion ;)

I would not want a male student examining me. I would not mind a male nurse. The reason. A male student is a fellow classmate I will attend school with for the next two years. A different type of relationship exist. A male nurse is someone I see on a medical level. He and I would never have lunch together and discuss the hardships of nursing school. No personal relationship would ever exist. Listening to heart sounds is OK as long as my clothing stays on.

I would not want a male student examining me. I would not mind a male nurse. The reason. A male student is a fellow classmate I will attend school with for the next two years. A different type of relationship exist. A male nurse is someone I see on a medical level. He and I would never have lunch together and discuss the hardships of nursing school. No personal relationship would ever exist. Listening to heart sounds is OK as long as my clothing stays on.

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This is what I don't understand? For our skin assessment lab the teacher asked that the female students wear a sports bra and shorts and the guys wear shorts. About half of the class reacted as if they had just been asked to pose nude for an "adult" magazine? I'm guessing that many of these same people wouldn't "blink an eye" about wear a bathing suit to the beach or a water park? I just don't understand :(

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