Male Nurse Insert a Foley

Nursing Students Male Students

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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?

The fact that the OP hasn't responded since the first day indicates, at least to me, that they have either

A) got the message

B) aren't interested in responding (trolling)

or

C)aren't reading the thread anymore.

I think the point has been made.

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Out of curiosity, what do you do if a patient refuses a foley? I am sure few if anyone really wants one....I know that there are times one is considered necessary...What do you do if a patient only wants one sex or another to insert the folley.

I would try to meet the need of the patient if I could. A patient can refuse but they don't order them all too often anymore so if it's ordered it's probably in the patient's best interest. You can't however insert one without consent. If it's a retention issue they are in pain and many feel relief in time and are thankful.

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Specializes in CCRN-CMC-CSC: CTICU, MICU, SICU, TRAUMA.

This is one of those nurse needs to check in with nurse's feelings and determine if nurse is able to provide care and leave feelings at the door...

Now if the male nurse was gay would it be okay for him to insert a Foley for females?

I just watched the other day a male nurse on my unit on a one-to-one assignment caring for a patient with ARDS that just got tubed and the patient needed, of course, a Foley. The pt. was completely sedated on Propofol to top it all off.

One agency nurse who was assisting actually asked another female nurse to come in and said "boys out"... it was the male nurse's patient!!!... the female nurses kicked him out of his own patient's room!!!...

This was a complete gender bias... could have been reported actually! Completely inappropriate to have done to this male nurse...

According to the original poster's rationale... why is it okay for a female then to insert a Foley in a male? or give a suppository to a male?

Nurses are legally competent and protected to provide all aspects of care in the nursing domain... unless there is an issue with culturally competent care with a patient's cultural gender preference or religious mandate this issue is absolutely ridiculous!

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One agency nurse who was assisting actually asked another female nurse to come in and said "boys out"... it was the male nurse's patient!!!... the female nurses kicked him out of his own patient's room!!!...

This was a complete gender bias... could have been reported actually! Completely inappropriate to have done to this male nurse...

He should have complained. It's not her place to keep the patient's nurse out of the room.

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Specializes in CCRN-CMC-CSC: CTICU, MICU, SICU, TRAUMA.

He let them do the Foley, and then the nurse who initiated the whole thing asked him for a favor because she put in his Foley... and he laughed and cited the fact that she kicked him out of his room explaining that he didn't interpret it as a favor... and she looked flummoxed and said "You really thought that?" and he said "Yeah... I'm a nurse... not a male nurse... think about it..." The female nurse apologized and felt like an idiot... so the point was made and it worked out...hasn't happened again on the unit...

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He let them do the Foley, and then the nurse who initiated the whole thing asked him for a favor because she put in his Foley... and he laughed and cited the fact that she kicked him out of his room explaining that he didn't interpret it as a favor... and she looked flummoxed and said "You really thought that?" and he said "Yeah... I'm a nurse... not a male nurse... think about it..." The female nurse apologized and felt like an idiot... so the point was made and it worked out...hasn't happened again on the unit...

Good for him for speaking up and a good learning experience for her as well.

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"The insertion of a foley catheter during the course of one's work day is definitely not an act of rape, regardless of the gender of the individual who inserts it. "

I don't think 'definitely' is the right word there.

Opt-out systems are unethical, they're a form of leverage or compromised consent. People can't opt out if they're out, so that's not true consent. why ask afterwards? That's just not right.

There are plenty of people who wouldn't agree with you. it is a cultural, gender rights kind of very complex issue. it is risible to argue otherwise, it really is an issue.

at the very simple end, gender is always a valid issue, how important depends on the circumstances, consent, is always a nice thing to have, and if it is not possible, there is no consent. In the latter case you have something else happening and 'consent' isn't it.

if a patient doesn't like a male nurse and the presumtion may often have to adopt that perfectly reasonable view in advance, well there is no point being sneaky or deceptive about it.

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"This was a complete gender bias... could have been reported actually! Completely inappropriate to have done to this male nurse..."

It isn't actually, a male nurse is a different legal entity to a female nurse, making an assumption that a male nurse was surplus to female patient's well-being is often a pefectly reasonable call. His feelings he can leave at the door until the we change the Bill of Rights.

The idea that there are just 'nurses' is not going to work in court, because it never has. it is exactly, the same as saying there are just police officers or just teachers or just jail guards or just doctor's if you want to push the point, doctors have the most societal leeway, and nurses are not the same legal deal.

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The insertion of a foley catheter during the course of one's work day is definitely not an act of rape, regardless of the gender of the individual who inserts it.

No, you're not -- it's no more "almost like rape" than it is "almost like rape" for a female nurse to provide personal/intimate care to a male client. The RN is a healthcare professional providing professional services, regardless of the nurse's gender. Of course, if the client has a strong preference and that preference can be accommodated, that should be done. But there's nothing inherently inappropriate about the situation you describe.

The patient only has prefrences? A male nurse has no rights at all. which is a far better way of looking at the gender appropriate assignment issue, because that is the way the legal issues are placed.

RN (F) and RN (M) are two legally distinct things in relation to the gender, privacy and civil rights issues under discussion.

If a female inmate can win a lawsuit, then the girl in the street isn't going to have to work too hard to get to the same position. It comes down to this, one either has voluntary consent, or one doesn't have it.

Male and female nurses are two legally distinct things. Same as corrections officers if you prefer that analogy. simply asking female patient if x is OK is also not always, necessarily legal or true consent.

That can still be viewed ( by the courts) as forced.

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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:

That idea isn't going to work in court. The assumption that males are the problem is ubiquitously entrenched via numerous federal court cases. It is not just nursing, it is every sector, you can possibly think of.

There is no such thing as a generic nurse as per zero-gender, that's just not constitutional. It really isn't. There may be a lobby wishing otherwise, the multi-cultural future which is beckoning, is not on their side and neither is the law.

Male nurses have no rights worth talking about in relation to the privacy, cultural, religious, civil or gender rights of patients.

It is not enough to think of ways to leverage or finesse a different output, by talking of patient preferences, patients have civil rights, not preferences, and one simply has to accept it, willingly, because it's the law, and it is the right thing to do.

I don't want to do a list of exceptions, Joe Public will not go to jail for removing burning clothes of a gas soaked female, he doesn't have to ask first, however, generally, a male nurse has no more rights than Mr. Joe Public. A male nurse, just doesn't.

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Specializes in CICU.
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?

Based on your short post, you are obviously too immature to be a nurse. Those who practice nursing have to provide assessments and interventions that often require them to touch, listen, feel, and manipulate conscious and unconscious patients. What other profession requires you to document the texture and smell of a person's stool? You have to be comfortable with the human body, and if you equate a foley insertion to rape, then you have some underlying issues that need to be addressed.

Rape is a crime of power over the victim. Nursing intervention is a professional act for the betterment of the patient. To me, this is common sense, and I feel that no amount of schooling will change your perversion of this common nursing practice because in just a few short sentences, you have demonstrated a lack of cultural sensitivity and a very limited world view. Do yourself a favor and find a profession that fits within your sensibilities because I don't believe that nursing is for you.

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It's a medical intervention. Not rape.

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