My significant other came home the other day from nursing school (3rd day) stating that he is going to need to bring his bathing suit to school because they are learning to give bed baths and will be practicing on EACH OTHER. I honestly didn't believe him but he insists that it's true, and that he's heard from more than one instructor that they really will be stripped down to bathing suits and literally, bathing EACH OTHER with soap and water.
I find this astounding that in this day and age, an accredited (community) college would ever think this is appropriate practice to use as a learning tool! I can think of so many things wrong with this on so many levels- for starters, it's a total invasion of privacy, degrading, embarrassing, unprofessional, and at the very least, simply ineffective! (How are they going to proper peri-care? That is something VERY important that I feel isn't emphasized enough on in schools).
Apparently the justification for the practice is that 'the dummies can't get wet'. (No kidding, that's why every other nursing school used dry cloths to 'pretend' bathe). No one I know has ever heard of this. I've informally polled people at work and they all think it's just as bizarre as I do. Disturbing, really.
I will be contacting, (anonymously), the school to inquire what this is all about. I really cannot thinking of a worthy justification for it, other than knowing how it feels to be 'exposed' as a patient??
i just don't know.
Has anyone else heard of this type of thing? I just can't imagine being bathed by my classmates! Even when we learned how to apply EKG's we had the right to volunteer NOT to be a subject (I wasn't). I'm super modest! He even said that there is a quite heavy set girl in the class who is very mortified by this.
We had to do bed baths on each other in the 1st semester of my nursing program.
During practice, we could wear shorts and tank tops or a bathing suit.
For the skills exam at the end of the semester, we had to wear shorts and a patient gown with no shirt or bra on underneath. Not everyone was selected to perform this skill because there were a variety of other skills the instructor could test you on. Unfortunately, I was a patient for three fellow classmates and every time these classmates tested, the instructor chose the bed-bath! So, I had three bed-baths over a two day period.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
For all of you who think it's disgraceful, let me recommend you never go to graduate school to be a CNM. If you think doing bed baths on your classmates is unbelievable, then I can only imagine how you would react to doing lady partsl and breast exams on your classmates.
wow!!! you can wear bathing suits or tank tops and shorts??? when i went to school in 1981, we had to go "commando" , making sure our "patients" were adequately covered during the practice sessions. then there was a fire alarm...a bunch of us had to go outside in our bathrobes...
Specializes in Med-surg; OB/Well baby; pulmonology; RTS.
We didn't have to actually bathe someone when I was in nursing school. We would be partnered up and one would lie in the bed and we would either tell step by step what we would do or go through the motion without touching the person. We also used each other to learn occupied bed making. We did practice back rubs on each other, through clothing only-now that was relaxing!:yeah:
Specializes in Med-surg; OB/Well baby; pulmonology; RTS.
For all of you who think it's disgraceful, let me recommend you never go to graduate school to be a CNM. If you think doing bed baths on your classmates is unbelievable, then I can only imagine how you would react to doing lady partsl and breast exams on your classmates.
Do they seriously practice lady partsl/breast exams on each other?
I honestly don't get what the big deal is. If you have that poor of a body image that you don't want to expose your arms and legs for ten minutes, you need therapy.
I had to do it in CNA class. We wore tank tops and shorts. Those that felt uncomfortable because of body image generally got over it by the time we did demonstrations. If you're doing the bed bath correctly, you'll only show one limb at a time anyway. I doubt anyone does perineal care except on mannequins anymore.
As for infection control, you are BEING WASHED. Honestly, come up with something that makes sense.
For all of those out there that are getting hysterical over this, why? Seriously, I would like to know your reasoning.
I would make a complaint that I felt sexually harassed!
Oh, one more thing. This is just silly. Unless someone has an arm or leg fetish and is grinding on you, I don't believe that getting washed is sexual harassment. I think that your reaction is way over the top.
I've been hospitalized and had my own coworkers give me IM injections and help me shower. Quite, frankly, I was too sick to care.
My question to the OP - if your nursing student SO is concerned about this policy, HE should be contacting the school and questioning the policy. Not the OP, as it does not (should not) concern her.
The OP might want to exam her feelings as to whether the issue concerns them more than the SO, perhaps.
Um, even if it weren't my SO, I'd still have given the same reaction to any person telling me this. Has nothing to do with this. Why would I care if he were bathed by another guy as they are segregating it by gender? I don't need to 'examine' anything.. thank you.. I also wouldn't care if it were girl/guy. REALLY, I wouldn't! I simply thought the practice was completely inane until someone brought up the idea of it teaching the 'patient's perspective'.
I think that is a valid enough reason to continue with it. (Even though I hope a future nurse wouldn't need to be bathed to know how it feels to be a patient..)
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Do they seriously practice lady partsl/breast exams on each other?
Well, you have to practice on someone. You can either choose to practice on each other, or if you don't want someone to practice on you, you have to pay for a "gynecological live model" (which costs around $50, is my understanding).
While I understand that the experience to some extent teaches some empathy for the pt's experience, I think there is a fundamental difference between student-student relationships and the pt-nurse relationship.
:yeah:
noyesno, MSN, APRN, NP
834 Posts
We had to do bed baths on each other in the 1st semester of my nursing program.
During practice, we could wear shorts and tank tops or a bathing suit.
For the skills exam at the end of the semester, we had to wear shorts and a patient gown with no shirt or bra on underneath. Not everyone was selected to perform this skill because there were a variety of other skills the instructor could test you on. Unfortunately, I was a patient for three fellow classmates and every time these classmates tested, the instructor chose the bed-bath! So, I had three bed-baths over a two day period.