Originally Posted by
dintym
I am not in the medical profession, but have been by my wife's side for 9 major operations and 1 outpatient knee surgery. I am her advocate because 1)anything the doctor/nurse staff says/does is gospel to her; 2)is afraid of insulting a doctor by questioning their judgement; 3)what I have experienced myself with hospital stays makes me suspect anybody who enters the room: doctor or doctor wanna-be, nurse or nurse underling.
Doctors are like mechanics, they try this or that. If that doesn't work, after paying for the first try, I'll try something else. Nurses, real nurses, are worth their weight in gold, but they are a dying breed. Their replacements are not the same, many times lack common sense, don't have a real grasp of the human body mechanics, and doubt they have a real grasp of life itself. Male or female, if you can't change your own oil or tire, you can't be a good nurse.
To stick to the topic, male nurses attending female patients, is where I DO have problem, as I do with female nurses with male patients. I would refuse a female bathing me or inserting/removing a catheter. I start with a situation that happened to me being prepped for an angiogram at Hartford Hospital in Aug, 2006. A female nurse was shaving my left leg/groin with only a towel over my genitals. I was talking to her and the others as they arranged for the procedure and noticed that she purposely bumped up against my penis 3 or 4 times while shaving me. Because of the whole whirlwind atmosphere I didn't pay attention to this nor say anything. It was later that I thought about this and how it happened in the open with others in the OR but without any other person near the table.
If this can happen to a male in the open, what about a female patient alone in a room with a male nurse or doctor? What about the time the unconscious female is being wheeled back to her room? My wife had a bad fall and required a hospital stay for observation. The PA asked if they had done a rectal exam in the ER upon arrival (spinal injury) which they had done, but didn't mark it on the chart. The PA (for the doctor), a male, insisted that he do another, which he did, without anyone else in the room. I objected to this later, but he just looked at me like I didn't matter. She later had lamnioplasty and I was in the room as much a they would let me. Usually from 6 am to 10/11 pm. I watched and listened to everything. When she returned from surgery about 9pm she had the "air-bags" on her legs but no pump. When I finally had to leave at midnight, I asked where the pump was. The staff didn't seem to concerned about it, but I insisted they get one or call a supervisor. They then went to another floor to find one. I caught several times forgetting doses of pain meds. My wife, in her stupor from the pain, wouldn't have said anything. Her reply was, "oh their busy, they just forgot."
It is because of such arrogance that I don't trust any medical personnel for anything, doing things just to cover their butts (thanks to lawyers like Al Gore) and those that think they know it all. I have chosen to refuse, if able, any medical help. If I am conscious, I will not let anyone touch me. If unconscious, I have given my wife permisson to deny me any medical help. I'd rather die of my injury/medical problem than have procedures done to me that would embarrass me. My biggest fear is a foley catheter by a female who doesn't have the same plumbing as I do and that may be pissed off at men because of past life experiences.