Male nursing student and female patient

[StudentNurseM1]

i am a 22 year old male nursing student who would like some insight before my next clinical day. If i am to give a female patient a catheter or need to care for them when they are "vulnerable". Is it common for them to ask for a female nurse? i have been asked to leave by an older patient because she needed help going to the bathroom. Does this happen a lot?

Either male or female nurses or nursing students are welcome to give any imput on what you have expierenced or seen in you clinical setting or in your career of nursing, thank you.

-StudentNurseM1

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

I have not been present when my male counterparts inserted foleys or did any like exam. I am not sure if they ask for a chaperon or not. Most likely, they would get a co-worker to do it off the bat. However, what about the regular daily shift assessment? Do they need a chaperon for that too? Hmm. Food for thought!

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

These kinds of threads make me sooo glad that I chose NICU over adult nursing. I have never had an issue taking care of my female patients. I would dread working in the adult world if I had to deal with this on a daily basis.

[loriangel14, RN]

I have not been present when my male counterparts inserted foleys or did any like exam. I am not sure if they ask for a chaperon or not. Most likely, they would get a co-worker to do it off the bat. However, what about the regular daily shift assessment? Do they need a chaperon for that too? Hmm. Food for thought!

Well yes. Where do you draw the line? If they need a chaperone for a catheter do they need one for cleaning an incontinent female patient?

[GodBody26]

I have not been present when my male counterparts inserted foleys or did any like exam. I am not sure if they ask for a chaperon or not. Most likely, they would get a co-worker to do it off the bat. However, what about the regular daily shift assessment? Do they need a chaperon for that too? Hmm. Food for thought!

there's no reason to be all invasive in that area when doing a regular assessment. Not that hard to grasp!

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Ok I'm in Canada. Maybe that's the difference. Our male nurses don't need chaperones for procedures with female patients unless the patient wants it. Our docs don't need chaperones either

Same where I work, also Canada. We have several male nurses and they do everything without a chaperone, including showers, caths, sups, etc.

[Mr. Murse]

I've been nursing for about 4 years now and had hundreds of female patients and honestly there is no one way to handle any situation. It's actually quite rare that being a male nurse is an issue. I have come to the point that I'm quite good at sensing the situation and when a female patient is uncomfortable with a male doing certain things.

So my suggestion is just be attuned to the situation. I almost always try to have a female accompany me when I do anything too personal, like foley insertion or foley care, clean ups, etc, but not necessarily depending on the patient and situation.

Other times you will have those patients that you sense are just hunting for lawsuits or something to complain about, then I'm particularly careful with those.

Most of the time though, if a female patient is uncomfortable with something she'll tell you either directly or by cues. Like I went in to answer a call light the other day for another nurse and the lady wanted to be put on the bedpan. I had no problem doing it, but then she said something to the affect of "the two girls were about to come do it but I don't know where they went", which suggested she preferred a lady's help so I asked "would you rather me get a girl to help you?", which made her more comfortable and I could really care less.

I've also had a female coworker's patient request a male to insert a foley too, so it goes both ways. Most importantly don't take it personally or make a big deal about it. Who cares if they're more comfortable with a female? Just find someone to help and return the favor later if need be.

Or better yet, be the type of coworker that always helps everyone else anyway so when you need the help they're happy to oblige.

[MikeyT-c-IV]

Yes. This is a frequent concern and it always will be for some patients. I respect the privacy of my opposite sex patients. When I was a bedside nurse I was professional to explain the procedure that might expose the patient to an uncomfortable situation (modesty.) Luckily I have always worked in areas where same sex nurses were available to conduct such procedures or tests. I'm not the type of guy to take offense toward the preferences of my patient. I feel as though we, as a team, are available and quite able to address the needs and preferences of our patients.

I do believe that nurses should take necessary precautions to protect themselves in the event of any potential situation that could lead to a lawsuit. If this means having another nurse present during a procedure or test, so be it. My life and income to support my family is far more important than *not* having another staff member present.

In response to the person who described their L&D experience. That's not uncommon. My clinical rotation in L&D is this: Sat in the corner of the nurses station and ignored. I asked but was denied. My wife is a L&D nurse so I felt like I didn't miss a thing. haha :)

Now... on a higher level, do I think this is wrong? Yes. But it's where we are at and it's what we must deal with. Not every "male nurse" is a flipping pervert. In my case, I just want the opportunity to serve my patients on the same level my female colleagues are allowed.

Luckily, now, I'm in a specialty that does not require concern for these situations. Love my job!

Oh, and I just have another thought/experience in regard to this topic. I worked in an outpatient unit and occasionally there would be an order to place a foley on a female patient. There was one nurse who propagated the issue that men should not place foley's on female patients. She made her opinions very clear on the subject. She basically negated my professionalism, hence my opportunity to become better skilled. I have problems with that attitude. I was a very young nurse then and was a bit shy about these issues.

[MikeyT-c-IV]

Awe, geesh... I actually NEED to make another comment. In regard to age. I noticed that you mentioned your age in your post. I am 40 years old and have been a RN for 10 years. But I still get many comments that I "look" too young and that I shouldn't be allowed to provide the services in which I have been highly qualified. I just want to mention that patients do form opinions and find prejudice on almost anything. Sometimes I have to explain that, yes, I am 40, I am qualified, I have kids in college, etc. Get used to questions regarding qualifications, age, experience and etc. The sex of a RN is not the only issue in nursing. I've been accused of being 23 years old.... even though I'm 40... I take this as an extreme compliment.

[Guest849204]

First, check your hospital policy. Some hospitals require male nurses to have a female hospital employee in the room with them when performing certain procedures on a female patient. If there is no policy, you might consider following this practice anyway. The most important thing is to remember to specifically ask the patient if she would rather have a female nurse perform the procedure. If you discover a patient has a history of sexual assault, I would just ask a female nurse to do it right away because these patients can be very sensitive. I had a female patient in my OB clinical who has raped and I accidentally sent her into a near panic attack just by touching her arm to get a BP (and this was after explaining what I was doing), those patients can have very severe PTSD.

Legally, its unlikely a false accusation will go very far. That said, I can't imagine it being very fun having rumors about you assaulting a patient flying around the hospital!

The bottom line is this: Play it safe, but don't let it stress you out. Most female patients are fine with male nurses who conduct themselves professionally and the female nurse on your unit will understand that sometimes you'll need them to help you out.

[quiltynurse56, LPN, LVN]

I work in LTC. Nor have I been around when a foley was needed to be inserted and a male nurse on duty. Now, when orienting a nurse, male, one of the residents asked me if he was going to have her use the commode. I told her that if she were uncomfortable with that to ask for the aides (all female). I then let the nurse know about this resident's request. Now there were times he needed to do assessments and it had to be explained to her that is the nurse's job so she would need to allow him to do that.

[SouthpawRN]

Yes! I read 94% of the world's lawsuits are filed in the good ol' USA, one of the reasons our healthcare costs so much. I had a male professor FNP, tell the class that Always, always have a chaperone when doing any invasive procedure which would require visualizing the breasts or genital area. With a female of any age. I think the easiest thing is to have a female CNA assigned to the same patients as a male nurse.

Just read some of the threads in the men in nursing section about this and the stories are crazy. we should be able to sue the patients for making false accusations, defamation of character, slander, libel etc.

[Male2017RN]

It was only awkward during mother/baby rotation. Never felt so outta place in my life lol smh.

There were a couple times that the patient didn't want a man and I was ok with it. It is funny how they don't mind a male doctor but a male nurse is o_0

Thats exactly what I thought. I saw that in nursing school during my OB rotation