I plan on entering nursing school when I retire from the Air Force in about a year. I have been checking this board for the past couple months, and when I saw a male nurse forum I had to stop lurking and say hi.
hi.
Now, here are my two burning questions that I have been carrying around since I first decided to become a nurse.:
1. First question is kind of funny. A guy I work with told me that nursing students practice on each other. Injections would be bad, but I can take it. Bed Baths would be like that nightmare I used to have in high school where I show up in my underwear and everyone laughs. I don't have to get naked in front of the other students do I?
2. Second question is not so funny. I know a male doctor sometimes has to have a female nurse in the room with him when he sees a naked female patient. Does a male nurse need a female escort to see a female patient? If so, then that's a real pain in the *** for the female coworkers. If not, then that's an invitation to a lawsuit sooner or later, isn't it?
in my class we dont give injections or start IV's in each other, but when doing vitals (temp,pulse,respirations, lung sounds) I was told by the instructor to lay down on the bed and take off my shirt. when the instructor was done she gave me a copy of RN notes. a twenty buck book free. good luck in school, and thanks for all you do.
Practicing on each other is part & parcel - I don't think HIV issues have changed that (if that was a worry then we are doing soething wrong with our patients!!!) Lawsuits may be an issue now though. I can imaging preppy young students claiming that there wasn't jestification for requireing that they get naked for a mockup class - and they may be justified. Mindyou if you are naked (under sheets) in a bed with a open back pt gown and having a NG tube passed down you then you really do appreciate the vulnerable feelings that a patient can have. Walking in your patients footsteps helps make for a very empathetic nurse. The male female think - once you have started you will reaise that nurses treat naked patients totally different to a naked individual (hell I work in geriatrics its easy to treat them different) if I worked with young athletes the need to have a naked patient would be different and there would be professionalism shown. By the way if you have a young female patient there is a very high likelyhood of a female coworker being available to help or support in any care with could be percieved as a sexual issue.
As for gender issues..I Dont cath ped females, I rarely cath females in general. The other nurses in the ED cath them for me...If it was a all guy crew..well then were stuck and I would get a female tech to help out..I never want any chance of being accused of harrasment..
We do practice injections on each other but can no longer try IVs. As for bedbaths.... I had no problems. We wore bathing suits. I have never needed a female in the room when I am examining a woman. I have never had a problem yet
in our school (in NJ) we didn't practice anything invasive on each other... bed baths were done with clothes on, injections were done in various pieces of fruit, and no IVs at all... (apparently it was due to not only infectious disease issues with HIV, Hep, etc., but it's also part of your particular State Board of Nursing guidelines as to what exactly can be done, etc.) as for examining women and procedures, as a male nurse in a busy ED, it's generally a judgement call many times... i mean if it's a young, alert, oriented woman who needs a foley, straight cath, prelim exam before the physician sees her, i'd get a female tech to assist/stand in/chaperone, or i may trade off with a female RN.. always ask your pt before doing ANYTHING, explain what's going to happen, and assess their level of comfotability, and use your judgement.. in our hospital, male docs don't doi pelvic exams on females without a female chaperone (nurse, tech, any female staff).. female docs can do pelvics alone or with a male or female nurse. Oddly, no policy exists for female docs doing a genital/rectal exam on a male patient, but all of our female docs usually always ask for a male staff member as chaperone before asking a patient to "turn your head and cough, please"bottom line...relax, use your judgement and critical thinking skills, and remember--if you have the slightest inclination that you're about to potentially put yourself in a compromising situation, rethink it and ask a female to join you
Our male ER docs are very strict about having a female nurse present when doing vag exams. The female docs are less predictable- some do bring a male into the room when examining a male's groin, and some don't. I, personally, err on the side of caution at all times. The allegations have been flying all over during the past few weeks up here- like the patients are coming in trying to get a doc or nurse into an akward situation so they can get paid. Strange coincidence that all of the recent accusers were either unemployed or without medical insurance.
Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.
You got some good feedback from all the folks. I say ditto. I'm ex-Army, but got out 20 years ago just as I received my RN/BSN. Wished I would have stayed in, though. My retirement would have looked a heck of alot better. Oh well. Live and learn. Anyway, you will do fine.
Specializes in Case Management, Life Care Planning.
When I was in nursing school, we practiced vital signs and did IM, SQ, and IV starts on each other. The IM and SQ injections were done with sterile water and saline respectively. The IV start was with a 27G butterfly so it didn't hurt too bad. This was in the late '80s and AIDS was a very new thing. I did have one hot classmate who I never got to work with. As there were only two guys, we got stuck with each other. The hot classmate is an NP now...
WildShot
47 Posts
in my class we dont give injections or start IV's in each other, but when doing vitals (temp,pulse,respirations, lung sounds) I was told by the instructor to lay down on the bed and take off my shirt. when the instructor was done she gave me a copy of RN notes. a twenty buck book free. good luck in school, and thanks for all you do.
Dave