I have to be bathed by my classmate???

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:imbar Ok call me old fashioned but I am kind of concerned. I had my nursing orientation today, and I was informed that as part of one of my practical nursing classes I will have to be sponge bathed by one of my classmates and in turn need to sponge bathe a classmate. Ok fine. No worries. HOWEVER, the next breath was, you will have to strip down to your underwear only and your classmate will drape you and sponge bathe you and vice versa. I understand that as a nurse I will give sponge baths to patients and I have no problem with that. But one of my classmates that I am going to spend hours and hours with for the next 2 years bathing me is a whole other story! True, like the instructor said it lets you know first hand how the patient will feel while you are abthing them, so you will want to treat them with dignity but being an overweight gal I am uncomfortable with this because I will have to look at these classmates for the next 2 years. Did anyone else ever do this as part of their curriculum? I don't mean to freak out but I never heard of this. They can stick me with all the needles they want for practice, but bathe the mannequins...lol :uhoh3:

I stick by my statement 100%. And yes, I do feel those schools, who make you do something you feel uncomfortable and humiliated about(this was the words of the people who had to do it, not me), is completely appaling. Yea, I'd love to hear the name of the supposed big schools. Real big community college in your town? Give me a break. And bathing a patient, is this difficult? I don't think so. Practicing on a manaquin is sufficient for this elementary task.

I attended the University of Tennesse at Nashville, 170 members in our class, and another 160 or so in the 2nd year of nursing classes. I Think that the University of Tennessee complex would qualify as a "really big school" and not be considered a "community college. We had to pick a partner and bathe each other, in addition to the other clinical skills. Clinical was the deciding factor if a student graduated and became a graduate nurse. I know of several students, making well above passing grades, who because of problems doing their clinicals were dropped from nursing school. Nursing school is very difficult as are most professional schools. You are given tons of material to study and learn and are tested frequently. You are preparing for a lifetime career as a professional nurse and it's not about "how you think it should be, it is about the "Nurse Practice Act" of your state, and the "Standards of Care" on the state and Federal level. The drop out and flunk out rate is tremendous. So the person you are bathing or is bathing you, one or both may not even be there after that semester.

I remember a young girl who had graduated from High School with honors at the age of 16 that was in our group. In post clinical she discussed the 1st surgical proceedure she had observed. Stated the surgeon was very unprofessional, and she objected to the music that was piped into the surgical suite. Really hard and raucous rock if I remember right. Things were not as she thought they "Ought to be" I don't think she made it through the semester.

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Bella what school will be be attending or attend now?? I am from AL and am curious? It really doesn't matter if you attend a community colloege or a state university or a private college, most of their practices are the same. I went to a big university here in AL and yes we bathed each other. I would PM you but you have them turned off.

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ok, i'm the person that started this post. please bear in mind that when i got the info that bed baths were necessary in lab i had only gone to orientation and had very little information before hand. well since i first posted i have started taking anatomy as a summer course and have met about half the people i will be in nursing school with and have befriended many of them. i am no longer uncomfortable doing this and already have my partner and am looking forward to all of nursing school(yep bad bath and all...:chuckle ) i only posted initially cause i had never heard of doing this in nursing school before and wondered if it was the norm. i was pretty much just nervous, bout starting school in general. i had the those "oh should i really be a nurse, am i cut out for this jitters..:uhoh3: lol and this was just one of those things feeding that fear. really many of the posts on here made me feel better about it and see it for what it really is just another lab to get through and master. and i don't feel like that makes me trash or my school trashy even though it is an old measly community college...:p as certain people might think. i'm happy to have the chance to go there because there were many peopel not as fortunate to be accepted into the program! good luck everyone in your classes!

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
ok, i'm the person that started this post. good luck everyone in your classes!

hey wannablpn2005, great to hear from the op on this topic ...

best of luck to you! :)

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

WannabeLPN2005---

Not to worry! Enjoy your adventures and best of luck and good wishes to you. Let us know how you're doing.

Cheers :)

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Specializes in Renal, Haemo and Peritoneal.
Alright NONE of you can top MY story.

We don't and never have practiced on each other - we only just watched a demonstration and then were taken to clinical.

Many, many miins ago when I was a young, very naive 17 yo just started nursing we were told we were going to do our first "sponge bath". We were broken into groups and given to various "tutor sisters". This imposing personage came up to our group and said "Right hands up if you have never seen a man naked".:roll Remember - this was the '70's and the sexual revolution had not truly started.

Can you imagine 10 students ALL trying to see what the other person was going to do while trying NOT to look anyone in the eye???

That story is a GEM!

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I am an RN, and somewhere I heard that if you are going to school to become a CNM, you have to do lady partsl exams on your classmates. Now if this is true (and I am not even an OB RN), boy that turned me off to the idea of going on to become a CNM. I don't even like the yearlies! Do NP's have to do such things on their classmates?

Missy:rolleyes:

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I think if you want something bad enough, you endure the things that make you uncomfortable, but that is just me.

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Specializes in ER.

Around here, the various advanced practice nursing programs go to the medical school and perform the procedures they need to practice

( lady partsl exams, prostate checks, etc.) on paid models. Hmmmm...maybe I should look into that as my new summer job.... :chuckle

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

My CNM was always taking in students, many of which had never performed an exam. They would do the exam with her present, then she would do it again afterward, just to be sure nothing was missed. I always had the option of refusing though.

I can't imagine doing lady partsl or breast exams on each other. I think I would draw the line there also.

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Specializes in OB, lactation.
There I lay exposed and vulnerable in my shorts and tanktop. . .I can feel the 40 pairs of eyes of my classmates and instructor as they snicker watching, waiting. . . I shudder as I watch my partner, evil grin masking her face, dunk the sponge into a pan and draw up water. I close my eyes tightly, grimacing painfully as the warm cloth is harshly scrubbed against my tender flesh. Again and again she tortures me with this treatment, laughing hysterically everytime she encounters a glimpse of my copious cellulite. My only solice occurs when she directly peers at my bulging fat rolls and is forced to pause momentarily to vomit into the pail she has placed at the side of the bed. . .Later I overhear my instructor and the other students recounting details regarding how horrific it was to view the procedure. A few are even crying softly and being consoled by other students. I hear they are now planning a post traumatic stress meeting. . .

OMG, LMAO!!!

We were supposed to do breast exams on each other, but the teacher started out in the other private curtained area and my classmates preferred to pretend that we had already done it by the time the prof got there... whatever. Awkward, but not the end of the world to me (maybe b/c I'm a breastfeeding counselor &/or have birthed 3x for the world to see).

Actually I don't think we will even practice bed baths, shots, etc. before just doing it in clinical and I really wish we would. I would be much more relaxed with a classmate in lab than I would be with a real patient the first time!!! I think it would be very helpful for me, I am super anxious about just going and doing it cold turkey - I am just that kind of person.

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We have to bathe eachother in class on Tuesday. I refuse to wear a bathing suit so I'm going to show up in a tank top and shorts with biker shorts underneath. I'm not lookin gforward to it but I gotta do what I gotta do. I was mortified when I first found out. I guess I've gotten use to the idea. We've had to do a lot of hands on things so far this semester. I've touched my partner where i've never touched another female....lol!

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