Male nurses

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Specializes in Pulmonary med/surg/telemetry.

I was reading a different post and it got me thinking...

When seeing a male doctor for an examination they always have a female nurse in the room to protect themselves and I'm sure to put the patient at ease. In the situation of male nurses does this also apply? I'm sure this isn't possible, but I wondered how many male nurses were worried that they would be put in a situation that they could possibly be wrongly accused of wrongdoing when giving personal care.

Thanks.

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Specializes in ER.

I've never seen it. It is kind of a double standard. Female doctors don't have to have an escort to see a male patient. On the other hand it gets out of control because now a days females come on to other females and males to other males. We're not safe anywhere.

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Specializes in med-surg, teaching, cardiac, priv. duty.

My husband is a RN, and he is always cautious. If he is doing anything invasive he always gets a female employee in the room with him. He always leaves the door wide open with any non-invasive care. He is on the IV team so he doesn't do things like urinary caths and such.... But he always veers on the side of caution. This caution goes both ways! Meaning, my husband has had female patients inappropriately come onto him and he does not want to be falsely accused.... So, the caution is to protect both parties...

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You always have to be very careful in any type of invasive situation. It's not just the nutty or sue-happy patients who can make accusations. Any average patient can take something you do (peri-care during bed baths or cath insertion/DC) the wrong way. Even if you did nothing wrong, perception is reality and you'll end up in a he-said she-said situation. I hand off anything I can that is invasive to a female co-worker or have a female aide with me.

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A lot of male nurses have a female chaperone when doing anything of an invasive nature to cover themselves.

On the flip side I'm female and have bought a chaperone into the room of females at times as well. If a patient has dementia or a history of complaints against health care workers it's always best to protect yourself. It can also help to calm them down.

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Specializes in Neuro, Cardiology, ICU, Med/Surg.

I don't know where you people get all of this extra staff for chaperones. I have one of the female RNs present when inserting a foley (but then again, when inserting a foley on a female pt, I prefer to have another set of hands nearby anyway. Since we're a general care unit, we don't insert a lot of foleys, but we do occasionally and we straight cath people sometimes also. I always assess the pt for comfort level in providing any care, but the fact is that sometimes female pt's need bedpans, butts wiped, diapers changed, peri care, etc. If they are unable to do such care for themselves, and they still have mental capacity, I assess whether it's a problem for them or not. Even with pts that are uncomfortable with the idea at first, most times they get comfortable with me soon enough, but I never force myself on anyone not ready for me. And for those pts that remain uncomfortable, well resource nurses just won't assign them to me (or the other male nurse on my unit).

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