In class today, our instructor informed us that we would be required to give one another bed baths as part of the course. The majority of the class are females, and we also have a few men. We were told the men would work with the men, the women with the women.
Basically, we'd be required to bring a bathing suit to class, change and be (I hate to use the term this way) forced to recieve a bed bath. For many of us, this doesn't exactly sit well. I understand the experience is to give us a sense of empathy and compassion for patients, but for me personally, this is going a bit over the line and even though this is coming around in a few weeks, I'm already feeling extremely violated
We were also informed that if we refused, we would be kicked out of the program. Also, many of us don't even own bathing suits - as we were discussing it on break, about 70% of us don't even own one; we brought this up to our instructor and were told that if we didn't own one, we'd have to do it in our bras and underwear. Personally, this is really overwhelming for me.
Now, mind you, I do not have anything against giving a bath or bed bath to an individual - I worked in a NYS ARC for a period of time and that was part of my job as a direct support professional.
My issues with this are extremely personal - its not about stretch marks from pregnancy or weight gain like many of the other women had mentioned; I have some severe scarring from being a victim of abuse years ago. Its not something I wish to flaunt or have to explain to people. Even going to the doctor's office, I have a very difficult time undressing and more often than not, I keep my clothing on.
I read a previous post from 2008 on the subject - how many LPN students had to go through the same procedures, but there were also alternatives - dry baths, with students fully clothed, etc (I could deal with that).
I don't want to lose this oppertunity because of this (once again, refusal = dismissal from the program).
