question about male home health nurse

[kcw74]

Hey everyone, I just had a quick question and wanted to see what everbody else may have to say. I have recently drafted my brother into home health and he is really enjoying it. Last week he was scheduled to do routine foley catheter changes on 2 of our female patients. The visits were completed without incident but he did have a little difficulty with changing one of the caths out and said he felt uncomfortable that it had taken him so long to do the cath change. When he worked in the hospital the males assumed responsibility for male cath patients and the females did likewise. What I am wondering is if this may leave him exposed for a lawsuit of some sort. Whenever I have been to my OB/Gyn a female nurse is always present during a pelvic exam. Let's face it, society sucks sometimes and I was thinking that a male nurse should probably try to avoid such situations whenever possible. What do you guys think?

[renerian, BSN, RN]

My hubby is an RN and I will talk to him and post tomorrow morning.

renerian

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

I was supervisor today, and had 2 pt's call in the am, one male and one female, I offered the nurses, one male and one female, their choice, and they each were thrilled to have the option of taking the same sex. Even tho the per diem visits were out of their way for their already assigned cases!

I try not to send male nurses for females if possible, but sometimes it just isn't, sometimes everyone else is already laden down w visits and the male nurse is already in that area. When you cover 3 counties, it isn't so easy.

If the pt has a problem, I am sure they could have a family mbr present, on regular days, go when the aide is there, or if the pt really has a problem, send them to the ER?? It is rough, but for the most part, the patient's are just grateful we are there for them, not matter the sex, or color of our skin.

Good question, it will be interesting to see how other agencies handle this.

[lyv33]

Our male RN see females as well as males for f/c changes. We did have one woman that requested a female be present. I was the oncall nurse and had to go out with the male nurse. Come to find out the husband was the jealous sort. Usually the female pt's don't fuss too much. I'm not sure if this could be a legal problem, but you know how people are (sue crazy).

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I did not get back earlier! Time gets away. I have done both. I found alot of the elderly folks want the same sex.

renerian

[live4today, RN]

Hmmm...I suppose it could place the male nurse in a dark situation IF a female client wanted to make trouble. The same could happen with a female nurse also....by a male or a female client. If a person is gung-ho on being "lawsuit" happy thinking they can get money by suing, then no matter what sex the nurse is the client can do some damage to that nurse if they wanted to. Sad, but possible.

[Kince]

I'm fairly ignorant in this area as I'm just a student so you'll have to excuse me...but why does it matter whether the nurse is male or female?

Would this be a problem with Doctors or another type of health professional (not dominated by females)? Would the Pt be as selective or insistant on having a practitioner of the same sex?

[DebbyMK]

I'm fairly ignorant in this area as I'm just a student so you'll have to excuse me...but why does it matter whether the nurse is male or female?

Would this be a problem with Doctors or another type of health professional (not dominated by females)? Would the Pt be as selective or insistant on having a practitioner of the same sex?

I have found that some patients are extremely selective in whom they allow 'down there'; our enlightened society should not assume that those raised with different set of values are going to roll over to the new set of rules!!!!

[mandykal, ADN, RN]

As a male, I kinda know by the reaction of the pt if he/she is comfortable with me taking care of them. If by any chance that you know of a pt is uncomfortable, document that so that other staff members will be aware of it.

_______________________________________

Commitment, communication, & patience = success

[JimT]

I am the only "boynurse" in our HH Agency. Our policy is that if I am sent to see you and you don't want to be seen by a male, then you get omitted or moved to the bottom of the list and seen "when we can." Or you can go to the ED or we can DC you so you can choose another agency. We have too many patients and too few RNs to allow gender based assignments...

That said, we do make all attempts to accomdate patients whenever possible... but there has to be a bottom line.

Case in point - I was the 'on call' RN a couple of days ago. Was sent 60 minutes to the top of a nearby mountain to change the cath on a female patient. That was the only option. I wasn't concerned. I can present myself in a professional and confident manner. I have never had a patient refuse to allow me to provide care...

Sometimes I think the bias is more in the mind of the organization rather than the patient.

[Kince]

Good responses by all, thanks for the input. I've never been uncomfortable with a female doctor or nurse performing any sort of invasive exam/treatment but I can definitely see where one would.

I find it troubling that patients cannot seperate health care necessity from sexual/social worries. I was wrong in saying nursing was the only are effected by this. We're at a point where male med students are being asked to wait in hallways during pelvic exams on OB/GYN rotations....oh well....