What do you usually do?
The orthodontic assistant tucked my head into her bosom like that as a matter of routine when I was 14. Me and a friend who also went there for braces were both quite impressed with her customer care.
I didn’t miss it. I explicitly said that I wasn’t anxious about nestling against my dentist’s boobs because i am a straight woman. So I’m not tempted and don’t expect to be accused of anything.
I think he was overly concerned. Unless he pinches her or something, what’s she going to say after she put his hand there? But medical professionals should be sensitive about making patients uncomfortable. Thus, it would have been reasonable for him mention that he was uncomfortable with his hand on her breast. And that pose certainly isn’t required–I’ve had my blood pressure taken many many times and never run into that.
I’m not a nurse, but… I think what she did was medically proper although she might have scooted forward just a bit.
You’re supposed to take your blood pressure with your arm relaxed. So holding up your own arm can give an inaccurate reading.
You’re also supposed to have your arm at about the level of your heart. So letting your arm drop and rest on a chair arm can also give you an inaccurate reading.
I know that some nurses are trained to put your arm between their arm and side to hold it up at the right height and let you relax it. They can’t hold it up with their hand because they need both hands to hold the stethoscope and let the air out of the cuff.
So nurses that are bigger breasted are pretty much guaranteed to have some boobage touching you when they hold your arm correctly. The only thing she might have done differently was to scoot forwards a little so that your wrist, and not your hand, was touching her breast, but the angles and distances might have made that uncomfortable or unworkable.
I don’t believe she did anything wrong. Don’t report her.
J.
Yes. You should report to her supervisor how pleased you are that the nurse actually took a correct and accurate blood pressure reading for once.
jharvey963 is correct. Arm should be up at heart level but relaxed. There’s really no other way to do it, unless you’ve got a chest high countertop in front of you. Of course, many people cheat and let you rest your arm on a lower tabletop or arm of the chair, because it really doesn’t need to be that precise for a routine office visit. Others let you keep your hand in your lap, which drives me bonkers, because that’s actually going to affect it by a potentially meaningful amount. But she was actually doing it right, which is rare.
Now, she could have done it from the other side, which might make people feel a bit more comfortable. Being very large breasted, I tend to come at people from the outside. So I pin their hand between my ribcage and upper arm, but the palm is touching my arm instead of boobage. But that means I can’t keep the gauge clipped onto the cuff, because then I can’t see it. I unclip it and hold it in the same hand that holds the stethoscope, which is the arm that’s pinning their hand. Like Joey P’s picture of the nurse taking a pulse, only about 5 inches closer, so my left arm is pinning their left hand, and my left hand holding my stethoscope and the gauge, while my right hand squeezes the pump. It’s a bit of a juggling act, to be sure. (Most office gauges are on the wall though, so that should be easier.)
If you sit down and put your arm on the convenient table, it’s relaxed and at ~heart level. Isn’t that how it is usually done?
I’m usually sitting on the exam table, with nary a table table in reach.
My patients are usually in bed or in their living room chairs. Also not a lot of tables at chest height.
Well I actually did call up the nursing supervisor and reported it. I tried to be as casual and positive as possible. I never said I was mad or wanted to get her into trouble or anything.
BTW, she was barely a “medical professional”. She was very new and many nurses start with less than a year of training. Hey, everyone makes mistakes the first few weeks on the job.
Look, I just don’t want to see anyone get into trouble. Her doing the same thing to the wrong guy (or woman btw) could have lead to a much worse outcome like him fondling her, she accusing him, him coming back with “well she put my hand there” and it ends up her losing her job and getting shut out of her nursing career.
It sounded to me like they were only going to talk to her.
I remember the same thing back when I was 14. Now some could say a woman might not realize she’s sticking her breasts in a teenaged boys face and I guess that’s possible but you wonder if she could be the kind who does get a thrill out of it. And yes, they are out there.
Now I don’t think the nurse that took my BP was like that. She was just making a beginners mistake.
Thank you. The whole time I was thinking “don’t move”.
I don’t think she had any erotic thoughts. I think we make the worse mistakes right after we start feeling comfortable on a job but still haven’t developed a routine.
Yeah, she was doing that intentionally.
The last time I went to the doctor he stuck a finger up my ass!!
I was far too flustered to report it.
That is, I’m assuming it was his finger.
Given what Why Not, also a nurse, has shared about proper blood-pressure readings, hopefully the extent of their “talk” with her was “Try not to do anything that people with poor boundaries can misconstrue.”
I would also show her how to do it from the other side of the arm, so that the palm is against the inner arm or elbow, instead of the boob. Not just for patient comfort, but also because if hand was on boob, then she was essentially in the patient’s embrace, which can be dangerous if you get a patient with poor boundaries or mental issues. Always give yourself an exit.
It’s a teaching moment for the fine tuning of the details, for sure. These are the things that aren’t taught in nursing school, but from nurse to nurse on the job.
Boom. Especially if the patient is also prone to reporting non-issues to the healthcare professional’s supervisor.
This sorta happened to me at a restaurant.
When my waitress brought me my soup, her breasts moved against my hand, then she just dunked it in the minestrone.
I said, “Pardon me ma’am, what is your boob doing in my soup?”
Caressing her breasts she said, “The breaststroke.”
But then I woke up and realized I don’t even like minestrone. Weird.
When she took your temperature I assume she used a rectal thermometer.
Unless he already had something up his ass.
I did once have a urologist stick his finger up my ass. Then, after, he said I was good but then went on, as if nothing had happened. I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL!!?
It’s just possible you may have done exactly that.
The world (well, at least America) has gotten so over-the-top paranoid schizophrenic puritanical crazy over sexual harassment, especially in the workplace, that even the most minute hint of a trace of a wisp of a clue of almost anything will torpedo a career.