Will I need a female RN with me every time????

NicoleRN07, RN · Feb 25, 2007

You don't necessarily have to have a female assist you every time you do a cath or personal care, but look at it this way......you would be protecting yourself, and it would probably make your female patient more comfortable. Doctors, male and female alike, have chaperones when performing pelvic, breast, or rectal exams. It's just a way of making the patient feel more comfortable.

CVICURN2003 · Feb 26, 2007

you have lots of negative things going on at your hospital. is there a better one you'd like to work at when you graduate?
[color=#483d8b]and was this accusation taken seriously? did the nurse get in trouble? written up? what was the follow up?

i think that is rather niave(i know i spelled that wrong) to think that just because things like this happen that where he works is a negative environment. we had a situation that was taken very seriously by the staff, by the police and by management. the nurse was cleared of any inappropriate conduct. then the family went to the waiting room and another patient(female) decide they had been violated by a female tech. which was also taken very seriously. i guess you don't think people are sue happy at every hospital? why do we have risk management? that does not mean there is a negative environment at all. i think that every nurse should take every nesssary step to take care of their license and their patient.

it is horrible that when people try to take care of their patients physical and emotional needs we have to worry about getting sued...

Cattitude · Feb 26, 2007

i think that is rather niave(i know i spelled that wrong) to think that just because things like this happen that where he works is a negative environment. .

well i wasn't just talking about this post and issue. he's posted about a couple of negative sounding things at his hospital. it doesn't sound like a nice place to work , at least the way it's presented. so no, not naive at all.

Indy, LPN, LVN · Feb 26, 2007

The male nurses I work with have the same tendency I do towards clustering care. So, when they are assigned females, and it's not too often that I give them females who are a total care, it works fine. They let me or another female know when they are ready to turn the patient, and we go in together, and get the turning, the cleaning, once a night there's the ol' haul 'er up in the bedscale ordeal, etc. It does take two to handle a total so it's not a problem. If they're alert and oriented, the guys know how to preserve the patient's sense of modesty while doing assessments, etc.

KellNY, RN · Feb 26, 2007

You don't necessarily have to have a female assist you every time you do a cath or personal care, but look at it this way......you would be protecting yourself, and it would probably make your female patient more comfortable. Doctors, male and female alike, have chaperones when performing pelvic, breast, or rectal exams. It's just a way of making the patient feel more comfortable.

Speak for yourself. When I've had male MDs give me a gyn exam, that female nurse or med student in the room didn't make me feel more comfortable. Just one extra person in the room to see my yoni--who cares if she has one too?? (That said, I prefer a female to a male md when necessary--just not a token female to be in the room).

I know not everyone agrees, but please don't assume that every patient needs someone of the same sex for "comfort".

And to tell the truth, I might be a teeny bit annoyed if I were expected to accompany a male RN into a pt's room while he was doing anything "under the shirt or below the belt" so to speak. I have my own responsibilities to take care of, and while I almost never mind providing assistance, education and support to fellow nurses for me to have to go to a room just to stand there is a waste of my time.

If you need me to pass you supplies, comfort a laboring pt while you straight cath, hold a hand while you give a shot, help you thread the cath, translate for you, etc-I'm there!

meandragonbrett · Feb 26, 2007

I think a lot of times you have to use good judgement and step back and look at what is going on. I don't make it a habit to ask somebody else to do something for me unless the patient has requested a female, been hostile to staff, threatened to sue, or something else that I feel would warrant a witness being present.

PHLEBOTOMIST_TO_RN · Feb 26, 2007

And to tell the truth, I might be a teeny bit annoyed if I were expected to accompany a male RN into a pt's room while he was doing anything "under the shirt or below the belt" so to speak. I have my own responsibilities to take care of, and while I almost never mind providing assistance, education and support to fellow nurses for me to have to go to a room just to stand there is a waste of my time.
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To much risk for men to be in this job it looks like.

ZootRN · Feb 26, 2007

Once I was asked to be present in a room by male ECG tech doing ECG on female patient. I did it for him because I was not busy at the moment, but if all of them would ask me every time they do it, I would have to say "no", I am too busy for that. We had once a complaint from the elderly lady that "someone" squeezed her breast. She was post-op on a lot of meds, who knows what was going on in her mind, but her husband believed her and made a big stink of her being "assaulted" by '"someone", so administration filed official incident report. I guess, you never know.

talkhateeb · Feb 26, 2007

^ yes we are human beings, we have sexual desire, and we still have bad nurses (male or female)

please while talking about this topic, don't forget about the female nurses being with a male patient, because its just the same. Some time the patient will start the move!! (Sorry). in this situation, also the female nurse needs a male nurse to be there in the room with her to make sure that the male patient is not doing anything wrong.

nursemike, ASN, RN · Feb 27, 2007

To much risk for men to be in this job it looks like.

Hasn't been my experience at all. I will, if convenient, take a female aide with me. With our patient population, a lot of tasks require an assistant, anyway. Why is it never the skinny gals who need foleys, anyway? I can get a fairly large pt up to a BSC by myself, but if you can have someone there to move the chair closer, it's a lot safer.

Personally, I never try to pretend that it isn't an awkward situation to perform personal care on a female--or male, for that matter. Others may be able to project a thoroughly professional demeanor that dispells any such concerns. What works best for me seems to be to frankly acknowledge my own discomfort and the patient's, then see how we can work together to make it tolerable. Depending on the task, I may assure her, "I've gotten really good at not peeking."

What I would never want to do is go in looking all paranoid and/or guilty.

I'm a birdwatcher, and there's a school of thought among birders that birds are never alarmed by cows. So, if you want to get a closer look at a bird, you should act like a cow. Walk out in the open. Don't stare. Don't try to sneak up on them, because if you act like a predator, they'll think you're a predator. Humans are much the same way.

mistydave · Feb 27, 2007

I wouldn't feel comfortable with a male RN doing those things to me. Even at the gynocologist they always have a female in the room at all times when they are doing a check. So if dr's have to do it, I don't see why you would be any different. Actually, I would ask for a female RN if I had to have my private parts wiped. It is a comfort thing. And I would think you would be respectful of that.

KellNY, RN · Feb 27, 2007

Even at the gynocologist they always have a female in the room at all times when they are doing a check. So if dr's have to do it, I don't see why you would be any different.

Here every ob/gyn needs an "assistant" in the room when performing pelvic exams, cervidil placement, etc, be they male or female. It's not a gender thing-at least not where I work.