Pubic hair

Nurses General Nursing

Published

My female patient wants me to shave her pubic hair, she cant do it herself she only has limited movement of one arm . Should I do it? (I would rather not) any advice? Update-this is a LTC Vent patient who is not going home. Believe it or not this isn't the first patient that asked me to do this I had another patient with ALS ask me to trim hers with an electric razor because she said the hair gets caught in her underwear and pulls. I had got "pulled" to her unit and she asked me to do it -had her own electric razor-so me like a fool assuming the nurses were doing it for her went ahead and did it then i found out that only a few people would do it for her. What do I look like? the personal pube trimmer? also she was a real pain in the butt about how it was trimmed, I dont want to relive that nightmare!

Ah..No.

reminds me of a pt who requested that I remove her piercing south of the border.

Ah..no again. I told her to have her boyfriend help her with that. along with the piercings north of the border on "thelma and Louise".

:rotfl: :roll

This belongs in the adventures in nursing thread.....

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

Not that its not appropriate for a female to have help shaving legs if it was needed. But requests that come entirely because they want someone to "wait" on them hand and foot is another. If there was a reason a patient couldnt shave their own legs or get a family memeber to help then sure, just like a man's face, if there is a reason he cant shave himself then it needs to be done with his daily bath. But, for the most part, a man's beard is more about who they are and their outward appearance than a set of legs are. Throw on a pair of jeans or sweats,, but i dont think a man can wear a bag over his face to prevent people from seeing his beard stubble. I doubt a little stubble on the legs would make anyone uncomfortable enough to need shaving done on a daily basis like a beard.

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Specializes in previously Med/Surg; now Nursery.

Yikes! I thought it was weird when a pt asked me to trim her toe nails! (I got a podiatry consult from the attending MD.)

Ummm, could a family member help her out? I certainly wouldn't even consider doing it.

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I can honestly say a nurse once shave my pubic hairs! About 24 years ago when I was in labor with my son, can honestly say I don't want to experience that again!

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Once worked with this male nurse in ICU - he told us the tale about how a male patient tormented him in another hospital to shave his 'anal' hair. He didn't really want to, but the man kept bugging him, saying it would help with 'bottom cleaning'.

Well, he finally gave in - and when he came back the next nite, the patient refused to have him as a nurse!:roll

If time permitted, I would shave legs or faces - but no pubic hair - and no toenails!

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.

you know, this is just plain yucky, isn't it?

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Specializes in I got hurt and went to the ER once.

Okay... just to play devil's advocate. If her pubic region was kept shaved... and now it's growing back the pt. maybe in some discomfort. If the patient complained of itching... does that matter? Are these emerging new hairs more prone to infection?

As health care professionals isn't a body part just a body part?

FYI.. I do sympathize with the argument that it could open the nurse up to a complaint, but if the pt asks and the supervisor witnesses that should take care of the complaint part of the equation.

again... just asking.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

It might be nice if the OP would come back and clarify a few of these questions ya'll have posed.;)

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Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.

What's wrong with shaving legs? If a patient is able to do it themselves, that's their problem, but I used to care for a 34 year old quadriplegic and shaved her legs every time I gave her a shower. She said she felt "yucky" with hairy legs.

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I've heard some Egyptians find not shaving indecent, so it's possible such a request is a desire to maintain a cultural norm. My solution would be to recommend to the pt they have a female relative perform the duty. If they say they would do that, but the relative is too far away, then it's a cultural norm. If they don't want a female relative knowing they shave, then I'd guess the request represents a deviation from their cultural norm. But no, I wouldn't do it myself. I don't want to risk impairing any pt's skin integrity.

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

...I work on a med/onc floor and one of our med pts had the longest pubic hair I have ever seen!! It got caught in her foley tube, held her diarrhea and would get caught in her brief. I was thinking of asking HER if I could trim a few inches off for comfort. But using an electric shaver, hm-m-m could be a means of stimulation, and I wouldn't want to deal with that, no thanks.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

We have trimmed hair down there if the Ioban got stuck to it. Sorry, it was either a manscaping moment, or his skin would resemble the after effects of a giant industrially adhesive band-aid getting ripped off.

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