Why nursing is not G rated
I believe four factors contribute to the necessity of maturity in nursing:
1) We are working with the human body.
2) Nurses tend to be female
3) Patients tend to be male, usually older, with less of a filter, and
4) Being in an unfamiliar environment on drugs for pain and not in control of the course of disease lead to overall emotional discomfort
Some patients express this emotional discomfort by trying to regain control of care, e.g. clamping and disconnecting tubes leading from the lung cavity to a drain [My conversation went something like Do not ever do that, I understand you have a background as a medic, but you are not responsible for that drain. Your doctor is.] or pulling out bladder catheters and then deciding we might be mad at him for doing that, so putting it back in and taping it ALL OVER (read between the lines) to make it stay [I didn't have a conversation for that one. I was too shocked for words; when I was sent in to take the catheter out, he had to use scissors to free the tubing from his skin, and I was so glad he used his own.].
Some patients deal with the emotional stress by flirting. Some of it is harmless, just compliments on appearance, or friendly jokes. Other times, unfortunately, it is not, but that's a rare thing.
What's really rare is to have all of this strange behavior in ONE patient. And yes, it was mine. He declined to wear a hospital gown. Mostly he wore a robe, but it kept coming open. He kept apologizing for being a pain in the butt, and asked to take me out to dinner to make up for it. Faulty logic there; if he is a pain in the butt, I do NOT want to spend MORE time with him.
In the end, he gave me his scissors, and told me they had helped him save lives for 15 years, and were really good at cutting clothes off (stated 3 different times); and the whole time I was thinking I know where these scissors have been.
Thank goodness for sanitation.
1) We are working with the human body.
2) Nurses tend to be female
3) Patients tend to be male, usually older, with less of a filter, and
4) Being in an unfamiliar environment on drugs for pain and not in control of the course of disease lead to overall emotional discomfort
Some patients express this emotional discomfort by trying to regain control of care, e.g. clamping and disconnecting tubes leading from the lung cavity to a drain [My conversation went something like Do not ever do that, I understand you have a background as a medic, but you are not responsible for that drain. Your doctor is.] or pulling out bladder catheters and then deciding we might be mad at him for doing that, so putting it back in and taping it ALL OVER (read between the lines) to make it stay [I didn't have a conversation for that one. I was too shocked for words; when I was sent in to take the catheter out, he had to use scissors to free the tubing from his skin, and I was so glad he used his own.].
Some patients deal with the emotional stress by flirting. Some of it is harmless, just compliments on appearance, or friendly jokes. Other times, unfortunately, it is not, but that's a rare thing.
What's really rare is to have all of this strange behavior in ONE patient. And yes, it was mine. He declined to wear a hospital gown. Mostly he wore a robe, but it kept coming open. He kept apologizing for being a pain in the butt, and asked to take me out to dinner to make up for it. Faulty logic there; if he is a pain in the butt, I do NOT want to spend MORE time with him.
In the end, he gave me his scissors, and told me they had helped him save lives for 15 years, and were really good at cutting clothes off (stated 3 different times); and the whole time I was thinking I know where these scissors have been.
Thank goodness for sanitation.
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