Taking clothes off for a head to toe assessment

Kuriin, BSN, RN · May 20, 2016

I never had to remove clothing. We practiced on each other over tank tops. What is up with all these schools requiring students to partially undress in the learning environment? This is seriously insane.

Err...you do realize nursing schools used to and (some still do) allow the students to do every single skill on each other? NG, Foley, IV insertions, etc.

To the OP: When we had to do our head to toe, the women would just wear a sports bra.

Purple_roses · May 20, 2016

Err...you do realize nursing schools used to and (some still do) allow the students to do every single skill on each other? NG, Foley, IV insertions, etc.
To the OP: When we had to do our head to toe, the women would just wear a sports bra.

They used to. A lot don't anymore. Mine doesn't. Just because that's how it "always was" doesn't mean it was the best solution.

Although I do wish my school would let us practice IVs on each other.

BeachsideRN, ASN · May 20, 2016

I think to be more accurate, you can hear lung sounds BETTER with a layer of clothing between the stethoscope and the skin. And NO, you do not need to take off the shirt to listen to lung sounds. Simply put your stethoscope under the shirt if you don't want your patient to strip. That's pretty messed up if they are forcing you to take off your clothes during the assessment. Then again, our program made everyone give baths on each other in bathing suits (men with men and women with women of course). It was quite funny/fun though haha.

Wow. That's a whole lot of nope right there! That's crazy.

xoemmylouox, ASN, RN · May 20, 2016

Err...you do realize nursing schools used to and (some still do) allow the students to do every single skill on each other? NG, Foley, IV insertions, etc.
To the OP: When we had to do our head to toe, the women would just wear a sports bra.

I've never heard of school allowing foley placement. IV's, blood draws, injections- yes. Where would it stop? Rectal tubes?? I can say no classmate is getting that close to my genitals.

barcode120x, RN, NP · May 20, 2016

Err...you do realize nursing schools used to and (some still do) allow the students to do every single skill on each other? NG, Foley, IV insertions, etc.
To the OP: When we had to do our head to toe, the women would just wear a sports bra.

Woah, interesting to know. I am glad my school wasn't like this...especially a foley insertion and I would also be terrified of having a fellow classmate insert an NG on me :zombie:

BBboy · May 20, 2016

Be ready to get vey comfortable with your cohort, we did this when learning assessments in first quarter. You can wear a tank top that way all they have to do is pull it back down after auscultating.

Purple_roses · May 20, 2016

I've never heard of school allowing foley placement. IV's, blood draws, injections- yes. Where would it stop? Rectal tubes?? I can say no classmate is getting that close to my genitals.

Exactly. I don't think it's crazy to want to be able to go to school without disrobing!

FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN · May 20, 2016

I took health assessment in September. We did not take off our shirts. We put the stethoscope under the shirt, the same way you would for a patient. You preserve privacy. My instructor was adamant that the stethoscope should always touch skin.

Also, my instructor made it very clear that although everyone was required to play the nurse role, no one was required to play the patient role. My instructor and the TA would sub as patients if anyone chose not to play patient.

We all did play patient though.

One of the students had very dark striae on her belly, all over. They look like very dark red squiggly lines covering 90% of her abdomen. She was very open about it and let us all see so we could understand what striae were. We all respected her for her willingness to show us. I was very impressed with her confidence and she is one of my favorite people in the program. I am not saying you have to do this, just saying that nursing students are not the type to balk at acne, striae, moles, scars, etc. If they do, they need some quick correction on that, because they need to be able to handle so much more than that. You will see so much in clinical. Some stuff will truly be hard to look at and/or smell, and you must never let on that it phases you at all. If a student can't handle back acne then they need to get out of the profession.

Best wishes to you!

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · May 20, 2016

Err...you do realize nursing schools used to and (some still do) allow the students to do every single skill on each other? NG, Foley, IV insertions, etc.
To the OP: When we had to do our head to toe, the women would just wear a sports bra.

Seems to me that doing an invasive procedure such as foley insertion or blood draws that carries risk of infection or other complications without an actual medical indication would be unethical and unwise in this day and age of litigation.

Mhays · May 20, 2016

Hello, my name is Marcella and I live in Virginia. Congratulations on making it into your clinical rotations. That was always an exciting time for me as well. I understand how you feel in that you are uneasy about your upper clothes for the breath sound part of the assessment. This is preparing you for when you have to hear these sounds on your future clients and I am sure that they do not like to be asked to take off their clothes either. This is putting your mind set into how they would feel, but here are a few tips that could help you. Whenever you do an assessment, just make sure that you put a bath sheet which when I was in nursing school is a very long white blanket like object. The bath sheet is not as heavy as a blanket, but it does cover the body parts well and it is white in color. Put the bath sheet around the body part that is going to be exposed or that you want to cover up with and everything should be fine. If you are working at a nursing home or a hospital, you can put a blanket over the exposed areas or a quilt would be fine as well. Another great tip is to always make sure the client is never exposed and has a way of covering if needed. So, having the bath blanket or something that they can feel comfortable in while having to take the clothes off is very helpful. It is like when you go to the doctor's office and are asked to put on a gown, you feel OK knowing that even though your clothes are off, the gown is keeping you covered. Just make sure to always keep your clients covered. I wish you the best and good luck in your future nursing experiences. Marcella 5/20/16

futurenurse16 · May 20, 2016

For my lab, the week before we were going to cover respiratory, my lab instructor told us to wear a tank-top underneath our scrubs because we would remove our scrub tops to listen to lung sounds. There were only 6 of us in the lab (7 if you count the professor) and we were all women. I'm sure if you tell your professor you're uncomfortable with it, they can make an exception. A student should never feel uncomfortable in a learning situation. As long as you're grasping the concepts, they should be fine with it. :)

bathrobemom, LPN · May 21, 2016

We were asked to wear tank tops for breath sounds. I have a ton of stretch marks and I was a good 10 or 15 years older than the other students and didn't want everyone looking at my stomach. I talked to my lecture instructor and she was totally ok with me not lifting up my tank.

Somehow I got the courage to pull my tank top up and let it all hang out when the time came. None of the students seemed to care, but the male skills instructor pulled the curtain forward so everyone wouldn't have to look at my hideousness. That bothered me more than anything else.

Talk to your instructors, I don't see why you should have to bare anything if you don't want to.