Men can't give complete baths?

[stelon]

This topic came up today at work. Apparently our management has decided to no longer allow the male staff to give complete baths to female patients. In other words, if all of a male CNA's patients are women, the next shift is then stuck with all the baths? Yet women can still bathe both men and women.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had this policy in their workplace and how it was made to work out fairly. Thoughts and opinions?

[TazziRN, RN]

I have never seen this policy but all it takes is one complaint of inappropriate behavior for it to be instituted.

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

yet i bet you wont have a complaint about a female toward a male patient...this is unfair, i hope that you have at least some male patients so the female workers are not so overworked...

[Batman24]

We don't have that policy. Are you on a floor that has male patients?! If yes, I would give the male CNAs all the male patients. It's not ideal logistically but the work needs to be split up as I'm sure everyone is already overworked.

[Price 2002]

i can see how and why many females would be uncomfortable with a man bathing them i also understand that it does take one complaint from a patient to have a policy like that put into place but i know there are plenty of men that are equally as uncomfortable having young women bathe them...of course many like it but that is not the point. i really hope that there is enough male patient for the male cnas to bathe so that the female cnas are not overloaded...cause that is just so unfair if there is not.

[TazziRN, RN]

yet i bet you wont have a complaint about a female toward a male patient...this is unfair, i hope that you have at least some male patients so the female workers are not so overworked...

never said it was fair, just that one complaint is all it would take.

[Psqrd]

Ah the way I see it is...if I am so sick that I can't bathe myself...then thank the powers that be that someone is willing to no matter what their sex is. Lets face it the world isn't exactly filled with people that are willing to do things like that for other human beings. It's sad that your facility is so narrow minded, just think of all those people that need a bath that may not get one because of sexism...I feel for the patient.

P2

RN now 6 days and counting..hehe!

[ProLogic]

Now patients have to wait extra long to take baths..

[miko014]

First, I think it is a rdiculous policy. It should be on a patient by patient basis. When I was a tech, if we had a male tech working and there was a female patient who had a problem being bathed by a male, we would trade for either a male or a female who was okay with a dude. That's how it should be.

On the other hand, think about it - male docs need chaperones to do "female exams" on patients, so I can see it. BUT that being said, what are you going to do if you have 2 male techs and one female, and the majority of the pts are female? Or what if a female takes two people to bathe and there is only a male to help? If they keep that up, then male techs won't be able to help female pts to the bathroom or anything, and soon they will say that males can't be techs. And if male techs can't clean up female pts, what about male nurses? Will they ban males from being nurses then? It's a very bad street to go down, and makes no sense.

Like Psqrd said, they are lucky there is someone there willing to take care of them. I don't think I would be so choosy unless there was a specific reason - like if something happened, and there was a specific tech I did not want in my room, that's different. Again, it should be on a patient-to-patient basis!!!!!!

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

If there is a specfic issue brought up by a patient, then they could switch...otherwise, it's not fair to require the next shift to do it...what if a male's patient has a BM? Do they want patients to sit in it until a female is available? I mean, there has to be a line....try bringing that up...

[RN1989]

The hospital that I worked in as a new grad - years ago - had "urotechs". These guys were responsible for inserting and dc'ing all the catheters on men, doing all the in and outs, as well as doing all the foley care on the men. This was an 800 bed hospital. Yet we women were allowed to wash that area doing routine diaper changes and baths. Never understood that.

As a woman, I prefer to bathe myself. I also choose go to female docs for gyn care and have driven long distances to do so. But if the alternative was that I go dirty and smelly because I couldn't clean myself - I doubt that I would care whether the person that cleaned me up was green with hairy warts much less a man.

[joshuaha]

Ah the "member prejudice" at work again..... At the facility that I work at the guy nurses (all two of us) are not even allowed to take teenage girls as our patients. This is a sad but understandable dilemma.