Fair enough, but in MY country, if a woman had been totally naked when I entered the room, I’d have suspected the worst and run ( never happened though )
We were even trained to do bed baths on patients without exposing their “bits” more than absolutely necessary.
The only exception to the rule would have been when showering a patient that couldn’t manage it by themselves, and I’d ask if it was OK when the patient was female.
As one of the very few male nurses on night shift, I was always being called to other wards to catheterise male patients.
Here’s another female who doesn’t care. My current gyno is female, and I like her a lot, but when i went to get my IUD last year my doctor was male, and he was wonderful.
I remember my nursing school (LPN not RN) days. I had three assignments in the relevant wing at various rotations in the season: OB-GYN generically (mostly pregnant women), Neonatal, and postpartum OB. Postpartum OB was the only rotation that was horrible. Women who have given birth do not tend to consider themselves medical patients in the same way and the patients to whom I was assigned found a male nurse (or at least a male STUDENT nurse) asking them about how many pads they were going through and examining their episiotomy sutures to be invasive and said so. I had the bad luck to have primary shift nurses (the folks I reported to) who apparently thought male nurses meant guys were taking away women’s jobs or poking our noses into an area we had no business being, either that or a very blunt “deal with it if you wanna be a nurse” attitude towards nursing students, but they would not accommodate the patients who did not want to be poked & prodded by male nurses so I was sent back to “negotiate” with the patients that whether they liked it or not, I had to make these assessments. Not pleasant.
Pregnant/expectant moms and neonatal nursery moms & infants were very different and not at all awkward or unpleasant.
There’s an old joke about this elderly grandma who never saw an OBGYN doctor and had all of her children at home like her mom did. She is finally talked into seeing an OBGYN MD by her more progressive granddaughter just as a checkup because it is the medically recommended thing nowadays. The doctor turns out to be a man and he performs a standard gynecological examination on her. He then asks her if he as any questions. She does, and it is:
Does your mother know what you do for a living?
Gynae wards are quite common in the UK - gynaecology & obstetrics are often quite well separated here and most female-specific surgery (breast & ovarian cancer, other uterine or ovarian surgery) is performed by gynaecology surgeons who don’t usually do obstetrics. Thus it makes sense to put those patients on a gynae ward. I assume the OP is not in the UK though since he used the term floor to describe a ward.
To the OP: I had no problem allowing a male medical student to watch me have my IUD inserted and would certainly have no problem with male nurses performing procedures on me as long as they are appropriately qualified or supervised if still in training (the same as for female nurses).
Interesting, thanks! I wonder if we may move in that direction, since OB/GYNs are increasingly getting out of the baby-catching business due to outrageous malpractice insurance rates.
And now back to your regularly scheduled thread…
Underlines added.
I’m perplexed I’ve never had a medical professional not be able to see my face, even during my vasectomy (where all the nurses were female). Is this common, or just a strange coincidence that it happened to both members of a couple?
I didn’t seem strange to me that medical professionals were focusing on my scrotum during a vasectomy. I kind of expected that going in.
I don’t really have much new to add, just to echo the experience of other former nursing students who didn’t get to do anything interesting during their GYN rotation either. WhyNot, it’s not unheard of to have a separate non-obstetric women’s unit–my hospital has one that is primarily for gynecology, and I’d imagine some of the the big city hospitals nearby might as well.
I’m going through the novice student experience again as a nurse practitioner student, and once again seeking the permission of every patient I see. This includes just being present for their interview, or doing their interview & exam myself. Only on the rarest occasion does anyone decline my presence, and that’s usually when someone is either running really late and doesn’t want to be slowed down, or needs to have a personal conversation with my preceptor who has known them for a long time. I’ve just gotten used to the typical routine of introducing myself, telling them who I am, and asking permission to participate in their care. Don’t be sheepish. If someone declines your participation, politely acknowledge it, step out of the room, and move on. I doubt that there will be much you are allowed by the nursing staff to do, that the patients will refuse.
People generally understand that medical professionals don’t just suddenly become such without prior exposure and practice; I’d imagine some older women on the GYNO unit might give you a, “Huh, a man on the GYNO floor! Interesting,” but all that experience and knowledge is definitely necessary for your program and for your boards.
One last thing: If you do end up going to emergency services (or intensive care), you will find that male nurses are not the rarity that some think they are. Certainly they are in the minority, but the ratio is beginning to even out and I imagine it won’t be long before they barely turn heads anymore.
I have a bit of advice that I once gave to someone studying to become an OB/Gyn. He thought it immensely useful, as it was something he hadn’t thought of.
So. In the event you have to use a speculum to examine someone:
As you well know, the vagina is shaped a bit like this: ()
Speculums, are shaped like that, only the pointy sides are on the sides, more like this: <>
Do all your lady patients a big, huge favor, willya? BEFORE you insert the speculum, spin that fucker around 90º, so you aren’t inserting the pointy bits into the non-pointy sides of the vagina.
It may not have occurred to you, but this: (<>) hurts! This: (^) does not. Once you get it in, then you can spin it back to the position you need it to be in, open it up, and make that clicky noise. It would be nice if you spun the speculum 90º before removal as well.
Thanks.
Just popping in for an extra bit of encouragement.
I *would *have problems with either a student or a male doing anything gyno related to me. Serious problems. I’ve never had a male gyno, and until I married and got my husband’s wonderful ancient doctor, I’d never even had a male doctor at all! I’ve also got lots of religious and sexual-identity baggage that I’m still trying to unload. So it would be a problem for me.
However, I know that’s on me, not you, and I’m sure you’re wonderful and professional and just trying to learn what you need to know to do your job.
So, if during your rotation you DO get asked to do something, and someone DOES request that you don’t tend to them (either because you’re a student or a male), please don’t take it personally! It’s much more likely to be because of our own personal hangups than anything about you as an individual.
And luckily, a lot more women now have sane families and environments where they don’t end up with irritating hangups about who messes with their girly bits, so there’s that also. I’m very glad to be in the minority on this one.
Anyone that thinks women are the gentler, kinder sex never worked with them when they were the boss! In my 26 year nursing career, I had more nasty hags from hell in charge of me than “good women”.
However, I never experienced anyone that considered I was “invading” a femaler occupation. Just as well, as it was when women were moving into male occupations in a big way, and I would have delighted in pointing that out.
I don’t know. This was only my experience, so I cannot speak for others. What I do know is that the male nurses attending me erected a barrier between my face and that of the doctor and his attendants. What I do know is that I could hear the doctor instructing a female student, as evidenced by her voice.
I was able to speak to my physician at all times; and as I recall, we discussed the upcoming Super Bowl; in between him instructing his female student.
Note that my anecdote is mine only; I cannot speak for my ex-wife. You may have misunderstood my post. I honestly do not know what happened to my ex-wife when she had an exam “down there”; she did not discuss such things with me, except to say, “The doctor examined me ‘down there,’ and there are no problems.”
Perhaps my anecdote comes from the fact that my vasectomy occurred in a teaching hospital, where every procedure can become a lesson. At any rate, there was a barrier constructed that prevented me from seeing the doctor and his student at work, though I could speak with him and all nurses at all times.
Spoons, I would guess that the barrier had much more to do with you not being able to see, than them. I have seen similar barriers with obstetric procedures during which the patient was not generally anesthetized. My assumptions regarding this include, among other things, the maintenance of a clear sterile field, and the fact that you can’t predict which patients are going to try to sneak a peek at what’s going on and totally freak out when they see their own insides.
Hey Tupac. I’m a nurse and I hear you loud and clear. I dreaded my OB/GYN rotation and didn’t do a very good job of hiding my anxiety. My instructor pulled me aside one day and asked me if I was nervous performing the post-partum exams; I acted surprised that she would ask such a thing (in a moi?!? sort of way), but we both knew I wasn’t fooling anyone.
That was three decades ago, though. In the intervening years I’ve dealt with more girly stuff than you can imagine and have come to understand that there really is nothing to be unnerved about. As others have said, act in a professional manner (which is the only way to act during any rotation) and you’ll be fine.
I work peds now, and it is not unusual for a parent to request no male nurses. It is honestly no big deal.
Here is one thing to consider: as a dude, you will be much more memorable than the umpteen female nurses every patient encounters. Use your awareness of that fact to drive your practice.
Let me know if you have specific questions, and good luck!
mmm
A couple of times I’ve had a podiatrist erect a barrier when he was going to do something like remove a toenail. I could still see his face and he could see mine, but I couldn’t see the scary, scary implements he was using. This was probably for the best.
I went through the same thing. My podiatrist absolutly insisted on a barrier; I could see her, but not what she was doing.
Is that just when the patient is a girl, or for boys too? I once had a coworker who didn’t think it was appropriate for male nurses to treat her son while he was in hospital (odd since her pediatrician was a man).
All girls; I have never had a male patient’s parents object.
mmm
After I finished my enrolled nurse ( like an LPN ) training I was permanently on a paediatric ward where I was expected to give baths etc to girls without anyone else present. That was in the 1980s when the world wasn’t as PC as it is now, but I’d be surprised if that were the case for you now. Certainly, although I respect your desire to work in Paeds, I would never do so again if I were still working in a hospital.
Legally, you must be exposed to all sorts of BS.
Having been a patient, the only nurses I remember were the bad ones, and one good one that saved my life, but the good/ average ones fade away into the past.
As a rule, I found that the ones I did the most for were the least grateful, and the ones that needed little care were the most grateful.
Unfortunately, I found that patients/ parents often think the title Dr = god, and nurse = lackey/ servant/ lesser being than themselves.
That sort of attitude helped me decide to become a theatre nurse so I never had to work on the wards again, and quite frankly, one of the reasons I always tell anyone that says they’d like to be a nurse to think again.