Originally Posted by
bayleaf36ff
I work on a cardiac floor where all my patients are obviously on telemetry. Most of my patients also have foleys. Do any of you guys ever fear legal problems because of this stuff?
I don't mind putting leads on a female. The top 2 go pretty high, and V1 isn't that low. But I always have the patient or a family member feed the leads down under their shirt for my to connect the bottom 2 on their abdomen... I refuse to put my hand down a woman's shirt.
My other issue is putting in catheters. I absolutely refuse to cath a female. I'm 23, and find it extremely awkward, especially when some of my patients are in their mid to late 20s. If they're in the age range that I could be dating them, I find it quite disturbing to do something like put in a foley. It's not just the awkwardness of it either. I'm afraid of a lawsuit. If I have to go to the trouble of getting a female RN to come in the room when I cath a patient, I might as well just hand them the cath tray and let them do it.
I went into nursing being a male, and I chose my profession knowing full well what I was about to get myself into. Do you guys struggle with these kinds of things, or are you able to just chalk it up to professional behavior? Also, are you concerned about legal issues with performing certain skills on females? I'm terrified of it.