AmesRT6510

What do you think a surgeon says to his first patient he cuts into as a resident? Or a cardiac surgery resident assisting with open heart surgery? Obviously those are extremes but consider the comparisons and logic behind the argument saying you must practice every skill on a live person before touching a patient. There are sim mannequins for a reason and the technology is unbelievable. Clinical time is also an excellent time to learn and usually its in a teaching hospital where most patients understand that people are learning. I am an experienced respiratory therapist and we intubated sim mans, practiced blood gases on the fake arm and so forth and when it came time to the real patient we felt prepared and we were still able to learn how to be efficient. I'm glad this has provoked interesting discussion. I agree there are points to both side but it comes down to how effective a practice of a certain skill can really be. In this case, for some it really doesn't help us learn empathy or feel what the patients feels... so the goal would not be accomplished. The option should be there - bathe/practice bed baths on a real person or mannequins and people can do so according to their comfort level.

Thanks Greentea, while I agree with some of the principals that you are standing on - I don't completely agree with a few things. First of all, my classmates are genuine and we are eager to learn how to best care for our patients. We don't see them as a workload or a chore... if we did we wouldn't be in the nursing profession. Second, we didn't respond to this situation with entitlement.. We felt threatened, embarrassed and upset. We don't need to strip down to our bathing suits and bathe one another to understand empathy and what our patients go through. It's just not right and we all value our own personal privacy. I agree with labs such as positioning like you mentioned and a long list of other things that don't violate someone's privacy. As for mentioning that our bodies just aren't special, I disagree. Everyone's body and every person is special, important, and deserves respect just like we should show our patients. We can all learn how to continue to have empathy, respect, compassion, and genuine care for our patients without being put in a situation such as this. I also hope that when you say "special snowflakes" you aren't referring to nursing students... Classmates aren't strangers - we spend more hours together then we do with our families. A patient-nurse relationship is professional and completely different then 2 classmates making this exercise inappropriate.

Well, laying on a beach in front of friends is one thing..being touched and bathed by a classmate is a different story.

thanks for posting those links - helpful!

Thats what I thought! It completely crosses the line.

Hello Nursing friends :) I have a question - my classmates and I went into our practice lab tonight and our professor told us that in order to practice bed baths, we had to be in bathing suits, bring our own towels, soap, etc etc. We all were completely thrown off guard because number 1- she never told us although she swore she did 2- I find it almost unethical to be bathing a classmate. Many of us are very uncomfortable with this and luckily we have two instructors so many of us will check off the skill with her in clinical. What do you think of this? I know many skills are practiced on a classmate - I am a respiratory therapist so I know we practiced skills on one another when appropriate. I find this really not appropriate. My question is, is this normal? Is this something that we should speak up about or just accept? Thanks for the input..

hey navynursecorps, I did make it to the info session but unfortunately did not get in. I had some repeats in my undergrad work (10 years ago) and they are basing their decision off of that. Pretty unfair but I am in a great nursing program now (despite the commute which is the reason I wanted to transfer) so... whats meant to be will be~ Good luck to you!!

Hmm, yeah I will have to check. I did take Biology recently as a refresher... I wonder if that will help. They don't require the TEAS test for SU which is nice. I think A&P, Nutrition and Micro are the only ones within 5 years that need to be taken within that time limit.

Thats great, maybe I will see you there. I'm worried that my micro is a few years older then 5 years. I dont know how strict they are with that with significant health care experience. I don't think its too difficult to get into WAU. They've done an overhaul on their program because their accredidation was at risk. They have a new director and several new professors which is really helping. Its going well so far but it is a 2.5 year program. You need Organic Chem and 1 religion course on top of your regular nursing requirements. You can take the O.Chem the first semester though. They require 65 or greater on their TEAS. I think their requirements got a little stricter because this semester we only have 12 students where as the last class was 40+ students.

Hey Everyone, Is anyone applying to Stevenson for the fall? I'm attending the open house on Jan 22nd and the application is due 2/15. Just thought I'd see who else is out there applying! I'm currently in a BSN program at Washington Adventist but want to transfer to be closer to home. The commute to Takoma Park from Baltimore can be tough!

That would have been nice! Still waiting... I wonder how many people are still waiting.

Someone explained that the 1st round of acceptances have gone out and they are waiting for people to accept or decline. Makes more sense! :)

Still no word for me... they said it could go into next week. I don't understand the hold up if there were only 300 applicants and we are going into 3 and 1/2 weeks since they started. Oh well, I'm just going to enjoy my holiday and forget about this! Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Congrats!!! Still waiting, ah~!

I called and they are updating statuses as we speak...