Nudity?

[tlp514]

Hi!

Alright, so I heard from someone that while she was in nursing school she had to strip down, do physical exams and then be naked for the rest of the class! I'm not a nursing student yet, but this scared me. I'm not comfortable with my body and plus there are guys in these classes. I don't know whether to believe it or not. Can anyone tell me if you had to do this? I'm really freaked out.

Thanks!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

what school was that??? I have NEVER heard of that before! Rest assured, I myself as well as all of my other classmates never had to strip down and be naked for physical exams.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

We would do that but not in class

Ok just kidding. the most that ever happened was some of the girls would take their tops off so we could see their back and chest easier for doing assessments. It was NOT required but it was easier and they were all comfortable with me.

[Faith213]

We wore sports bras and short shorts for assesments. Never nude though.

[CoffeemateCNA]

I think it's another of the urban legends regarding nursing school. You don't catheterize or do perineal care on each other either.

When I took assessment, we were paired with a partner. We didn't take off any clothes to do the assessment. When we needed to auscultate heart or breath sounds, we lifted the partner's shirt to listen, but we still maintained their privacy. All of the curtains were pulled and nobody was exposed.

Reproductive and breast assessments were done strictly on mannequins.

We did, however, have a group demonstration at the beginning of the semester, but it was purely by volunteer. The most we ever saw of the person was their abdomen, and my teacher had explained this before she asked for volunteers.

[JUPITER19]

We wore sports bras and short shorts for assesments. Never nude though.

I hope this is a joke, right?

Me

[Faith213]

I hope this is a joke, right?

Me

Nope. We were assigned a partner of the same sex. We did our return assessments on them behind a curtain with our instructor. You'd be surprised how quickly you get used to it. We had to wear short/loose shorts so we could assess femoral pulses and inguinal lymph nodes. The sports bras so we could easily assess the abdomen and it was easier to mark the landmarks for auscultating heart sounds on our landmarks returns. If we had to leave our curtain we would put on a tank top. No one had a problem with it. These people are going to be like your family for the next five semesters. So it wasn't a big deal.

[JUPITER19]

Thanks for the info, I'd hoped it was a joke. I don't even think I've let my mom see my shoulders in the past 15 yrs!! I don't even take my shirt off at the beach!! I'm going to ask some of the girls in the nursing program exactly what they were asked to do. I can't stress about it too much (which is my first instinct to do) about it, if it has to be done there's nothing I can do to change it!! Thanks again for the info!

Me

[Faith213]

Thanks for the info, I'd hoped it was a joke. I don't even think I've let my mom see my shoulders in the past 15 yrs!! I don't even take my shirt off at the beach!! I'm going to ask some of the girls in the nursing program exactly what they were asked to do. I can't stress about it too much (which is my first instinct to do) about it, if it has to be done there's nothing I can do to change it!! Thanks again for the info!

Me

I'm a modest person, too. But it's a professional program so everyone was expected to act like such and not mock or behave in any inappropriate way. Only nursing students were allowed in our lab so even if you had to step outside your curtain you didn't have alot of random people that saw you. I'm not scared to let a health professional see my stomach, legs, or shoulders. So that's how I thought about it. These are fellow professionals and it's part of my training. They are there to learn, just like I am. They aren't critiquing my body but learning from doing assessments on me. We never did breast or reproductive assessments on each other of course. Good luck in your program, everything will be fine so try not to worry.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

Hmm, only the pregnant students had to get naked, so we could check their cervixes. Wait, and the guys, so we could do testicle exams. The rest of us just had to go topless to do breast exams.

And if you buy that, I've got some ocean front property for you in Arizona...

We did wear bathing suits for our bed bath test outs. And when we did assessments, we kept clothes on, maybe pulled our shirts up for the abdominal assessments.

[knittingmonster]

No nudity here. They asked us to wear loose clothing for our assessment and we just lifted/manipulated clothing to listen.

Providing privacy is a pretty big thing in nursing, so I'm surprised that you would do an exam in any way that left you exposed. I would have a serious problem with doing the short shorts and sport bra thing. I'm fat and uncomfortable having my stomach exposed around anyone--professional or not. It needs to be covered unless that area is currently being assessed.

[JBudd, MSN]

Sports bra and shorts, under a patient gown. Also gives practice in appropriate draping using gowns, without actually exposing anything. I remind students to remember how they feel with all of this, when they are in clinicals.