Male Nurse Insert a Foley

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Last week I helped a male nurse insert a Foley catheter and it felt inappropriate for a man to do it. It almost felt like rape. Am I justified for feeling this way?

Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).
It's interesting to me to have a female staff member there for a male foley insertion.. because there isn't a request for a female nurse to have a male staff member when inserting a foley in a female patient... hmmmm.... just any other person (that you can find) is good for liability sake to have in the room. :up:

I was referring to male nurses doing their best to have a female staff member present while placing a female foley....for our own protection. ESPECIALLY with combative or unconscious patients.

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Specializes in ER.
I was referring to male nurses doing their best to have a female staff member present while placing a female foley....for our own protection. ESPECIALLY with combative or unconscious patients.

read what I posted after this, the OP was a bit unclear as to the situation....

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A couple of the best L &D nurses that I ever had the pleasure working with happened to be male and one of them actually became the manager of the dept and it was a very active and large one.

A nurse is a nurse and gender should not come in the way. If one has issues with a procedure, then they need to get someone else to do it for them. Or if the patient has a request for a same sex health care provider, that is a something that is always granted when possible.

I do not think that there were any issues with this at all, you were there as the chaperone for the patient. If things like this are bothering you now, then perhaps you need to reconsider what you are doing.

It is when someone has issues like this that can turn things bad for all around them. Using three or four cotton balls to clean an area before inserting a catheter is nothing like rape at all. Perhaps you need to understand what rape is before even suggesting this. Using words that perhaps you do not even understand can only make it bad for everyone around. And I am sure that the nurse that you were following was quite professional in what he was doing.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

:oornt:

I'm not exactly sure from what perspective the original poster is speaking from. If the poster was the patient and she felt uncomfortable with the male nurse inserting a foley into her then I would suggest that she speak up and express to the nurse that she would prefer a female nurse for that particular procedure for comfort reasons and they would do the best they can to accommodate her. I can understand being uncomfortable with the opposite gender of any healthcare professional doing something like inserting a foley or peri-care because as a man I would prefer a male nurse to insert a catheter if I was having one done to me. I am however not terribly comfortable with the comparison to rape. Unless the original poster has been raped then they will never know what kind of traumatic experience rape really is, you could say having a foley inserted by a male nurse might cause this particular person discomfort or embarrassment but rape sounds a little severe unless she have experienced it before. Yet I digress, now if the poster isn't the patient in this scenario then her statements are completely unfounded, unjustified and even offensive. I think we really need to remember that it's the patients feelings we need to keep in mind when it comes to this kind of situation not the opinions of other nurses and healthcare professionals on what a male nurse (or any "kind" of nurse) should and should not do. For example: We are all well aware that there are nurses out there who don't believe male nurses belong in Labor and Delivery and while they are entitled to their opinions we cannot run a department on the opinions of a few nurses, what we do however, is do all that we can to make our patients comfortable and at ease and sometimes that means some people stepping out even if we may not understand why. As professionals it's our job to try to always display a professional attitude with patients and to do our best to break down barriers and prove stereotypes wrong so patients and the public can better understand what we do and why we can be trusted so comments and ways of thinking like the original poster are no longer fears that some people may have. That's just my opinion.

!Chris :specs:

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.
:oornt:

Yet I digress, now if the poster isn't the patient in this scenario then her statements are completely unfounded, unjustified and even offensive. I!Chris :specs:

The OP was not the patient Post #3

"

I don't know, I just felt uncomfortable as this woman wasn't conscious to be aware of what was going on. Also, I wouldn't want a man to do it on me. I would be so uncomfortable. "

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stepcmpb-don't want to seem rude, but grow up. This is a medical procedure that any qualified nurse can do. If the patient had been able to express a desire for a female nurse to do the procedure, then the male nurse would be expected to have a female nurse do the procedure. It is too bad that we think that all males are potential rapist and cannot control their urges. Perhaps you are too concerned with superimposing your feelings onto someone else.

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i think the wording you used was a extreme. The word "rape" is not one that I would throw around without being knowledgable to the contant and claim your making. my only question is, " As a nursing student/nurse are you going to refuse to cath a distended bladder on a male?" If you felt like the nurse was being unprofessional, you was in the room to speak for the patient.

Since you are a nursing student, I assume that you have completed fundamentals and learned about cathing a patient and the importance. Urinary retention can lead to chronic infections- lUTI, leading to renal calculi, pyelonephritis, and SEPSIS. Kidneys can eventually deteriorate if lg volumes of urine is retained causing hydronephrosis.

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Specializes in Psych, Ortho, Stroke, and TBI.

Personally, I think someone's trolling here.

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Wow, what a terrible place this world would be if we had to pair up all the female patients with female nurses and doctors, and all the male patients with male nurses and doctors. We are medical professionals, and we take care of everyone in a professional manner. If you don't feel comfortable taking care of someone of the opposite gender than you, then another profession may be a better fit.

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Specializes in Pediatric Intensive Care, Urgent Care.

I don't mean to come off strong but please don't ever refer to a medically necessary procedure that is done many times over during a "normal" day in a hospital as "rape". It trivializes what "rape" really is and cheapens the true meaning that it carries, which is a horrendous inhumane crime against another human being. You are truly unjustified in using that term lightly. Meditate on that and resolve that issue because it only causes more harm than good.

Mex

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Specializes in Trauma, Neuro, M&S ICU.

I am a tech in our ED and I place 10-20 a week just in 2 shifts. This could be an area of uncomfortability based on anatomic locale, although with time and repitition there will be more familiarity and comfort. Rape is such a harsh thought of this procedure, but I can understand-being a male-that you feel like you could be violating someone. I try to ease the pt. and COMMUNICATE what I am going to do then how it will feel, then do it. This places ease on the pt. All in All don't feel that way you are performing a procedure and don't worry about all the pairing with same sex, and the extra person is a good thing, but doesn't always have to be opposite sex than you.

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i think the wording you used was a extreme. The word "rape" is not one that I would throw around without being knowledgable to the contant and claim your making. my only question is, " As a nursing student/nurse are you going to refuse to cath a distended bladder on a male?" If you felt like the nurse was being unprofessional, you was in the room to speak for the patient.

Since you are a nursing student, I assume that you have completed fundamentals and learned about cathing a patient and the importance. Urinary retention can lead to chronic infections- lUTI, leading to renal calculi, pyelonephritis, and SEPSIS. Kidneys can eventually deteriorate if lg volumes of urine is retained causing hydronephrosis.

Thankyou for explaining a bit why a catheter might be necessary..although I would prefer a male do it for me if I were unconcious I would just hope that I was not used as a demonstration for a class....I happen to not want a chaperone either..if I wanted an audience I would invite them....( I am not going to)....

I had not realised that there might be other considerations than being able to get an more exact amount of urine being discharged and not having to keep cleaning up a patient..( I know that urine causes a fairly rapid breakdown of the skin..courtesy of a neighbor nurse.)

Is it ever possible (in a hospital setting) for a male patient to use one of those non-indwelling catheters if he is concious and asks to be allowed to?

If the person who somehow felt this procedure was akin to a rape felt that way what were they there for in the first place?

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