Weird question @ nursing school: assessments

TazziRN, RN · Jul 21, 2007

No, no stripping. Even schools that require giving each other bedbaths do not require students to perform intimate care on each other. Too much liability. I can see the massage therapy class doing it by choice, since they're all female, but I doubt it's required.

Megsd, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2007

When we did assessment in my class, we stripped to a tank top/sports bra and shorts. For assessment of genitals we verbalized what to do to our instructor, and verbalized how to teach breast self-exams and testicular self-exams.

MikeyJ, RN · Jul 21, 2007

In our physical assessment class, they ASK (they can't make us) men to take their shirts off and wear shorts and women to wear a sports bra and shorts. We only do that when we are auscultating the chest and bowels, and when percussing and palpating the anterior or posterior thorax.

We can wear a gown over our exposed areas if we would like, and we have curtains to pull around each station. The instructors get a little upset when people don't comply -- but then again I don't see them taking their shirts and pants off.

richardjboro1 · Jul 21, 2007

No stripping here either. We had some pretty cool genital and breast models, as well as full on mannequins to practice cathing etc. We did do the shorts and t shirt thing for listening to lungs/heart sounds.

No worries tho re: stripping down. curtains will provide privacy (although on this note, I had a female partner who was "uncomfortable" with me touching her, but solidered on. I didn't want to touch her anymore than she wanted me too... LOL).

allthingsbright · Jul 21, 2007

Nope, no stripping. We actually have our modesty preserved!

ohmeowzer RN, RN · Jul 21, 2007

about 21 years ago when i was in LPN school .. ugh.. we actually had to give bed baths to one another.. it was horrible... it was modestly done.. but horrifying... in RN school i did the LPN to RN bridge and we did nothing like that.. thank goodness..

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2007

I can only tell you what we did when I was in nursing school. When I took a physical assessment course as part of my BSN program we did partner up in the labs to do physical assessments on each other. We had the same lab partner all the time. There were no males in my class. The course was very structured and we were assessing a specific body system in each lab. There are specific assessments and tests that we had to learn to do on each system of the body to determine if any abnormalities exist (which is the reason you do an assessment as your first step of the nursing process). It is important to learn what is normal first. Most of the time it didn't require any disrobing, and if it did, only the very specific part of the body being examined was exposed. I recall that if there was any removing of our clothes it only included our outer garments (not our underwear) and we put on patient gowns. We worked in cubicles that had privacy curtains that we could pull around us if necessary. In the process, if someone had a particular abnormality and was willing to share it with others of us in the class, like any other science lab you've been in, we all took our turns looking at what that person had. Keep in mind this is college, not high school, and people should be acting respectfully, not like children. We did not have to do breast exams or any exams of the rectal or genitalia areas unless both partners agreed to do them. I don't remember anyone in my class doing these on each other. Even our instructor wasn't that bizarre to demand it. Also, this was a bachelor's level course. We never went to this degree to learn physical assessment in my associate degree program back in 1973--in fact I don't remember learning much about physical assessment in that course at all. I doubt that they would have taken the time to go into the depth that my university course did.

The principle methods used in assessment are:

Inspection - looking at the overall appearance of a body part, comparing its symmetry to the rest of the body
Palpation - touching in order to elicit information such as temperature, pulsations, vibration, masses, tenderness or pain, texture and shape
Percussion - tapping or gently striking the skin surface to elicit and evaluate a sound, reflex or determine pain or an unusual response
Auscultation - listening to certain parts of the body with a stethoscope to hear the sounds they produce and evaluating them

If you have to do an assessment class or course like I did, I imagine you will do a lot of the same things you did in your EMT course (faking a lot of stuff, verbalizing or pretending you are doing it). You will most likely be learning to check DTRs (deep tendon reflexes) and ROM (range of motion) in the leg, but you can do that with the person's clothing on!

One of my sister-in-laws is a masseuse and I remember when she was going through school for this many years ago. She told us the students were doing massages on each other every day in their labs which were monitored by their instructors. That is a different situation. They did have to strip down and wear some kind of robe. Massage is a very hands-on skill that could go very wrong if not done properly. They have to be able to practice what they are theoretically learning. There are also all kinds of massage techniques that have to be practiced, not read about in a book. It may also be that they practice on each other because they cannot get enough outside clients for practicums to meet the state requirement for their student clinical practice hours. Like nursing, most state boards in this discipline require that the students must have a certain number of clinical practice hours in order to qualify to sit for the state board exam. At least, they did in the state of Ohio. I recall my sister-in-law mentioning that some students would bring members of their family to do massages on to help them satisfy this clinical hour requirement; others relied upon a walk-in public clinic the school ran where anyone could come in and ask for a massage at a very nominal fee knowing they would be worked on by a student.

MuzzleSnuzzler · Jul 22, 2007

I am an RN student and have just completed my first semester. During labs there was NO undressing. We had anatomically correct manequins to practice on for catheter / enemas. We did have lab partners that we practiced some things on -- simulated bed bath, changing sheets with pt. in bed, taking vitals, etc. Listening to apical pulse was about the most embarrassing thing we did. Thankfully we didn't have to practice injections on each other either. whew!!

:paw:

vastudent09 · Jul 23, 2007

well in my assessment class we were asigned a partner of the same sex. we were required to wear shorts and bras occasionally for thorax and abdominal assessments and stuff. we talked out the genital assessment and we had models. For breasts and axilla we had to be braless becasue our final practicum involved doing an actual exam, no bra while two instructors graded us! I was embarrased at first, but i got over it eventually. I really had no choice becasue if the final practicum was not completed I would fail the class.

MikeyJ, RN · Jul 23, 2007

well in my assessment class we were asigned a partner of the same sex. we were required to wear shorts and bras occasionally for thorax and abdominal assessments and stuff. we talked out the genital assessment and we had models. For breasts and axilla we had to be braless becasue our final practicum involved doing an actual exam, no bra while two instructors graded us! I was embarrased at first, but i got over it eventually. I really had no choice becasue if the final practicum was not completed I would fail the class.

That is the craziest thing I have heard -- making their female students strip down to their bare chests. I am no lawyer, but I am betting that if a good amount of students banded together they could most likely force the school to change a policy that FORCES their students to do that (in lieu of failing them), or else threaten legal action.

I had asked an instructor before I entered the program about stripping down, and she told me that the school can no longer force students to strip down, but rather just strongly suggest it. Also, she said they cannot hold a grade over someone's head if they do not comply to something that makes the student uncomfortable. She didn't go into details, but I have a feeling that students in the past may have raised hell when past students were basically forced to strip down.