Female Genitalia

[storkrn]

Ray Ott commented:

Have heard item 4 used as an instruction to (female) nurses bed-bathing
(male) patients.

In our politally correct cultural setting I now teach both male and female students
this phrase to use with both male and female patients. But we use it to instruct the patients:
"I'll wash your top as far down as 'possible', and your legs as far up as 'possible', then I'll give you some privacy so you
can wash 'possible'." Thus you will often hear nurses talking about the genitals as "possible". That is, unless they are
maternity nurses. Since the technical term for the area cut in an episiotomy is "perineum" you'll hear female genitals
referred to as the "peri area" most of the time by nurses.

I was amused by the list as most of the terms were new ones to me and, after 20 years as an obstetrical nurse, I thought I'd
heard them all!! One night a teenager in labor started crying and telling me "My boody and my cookie and my titi hurt." It
took a few minutes of "point and tell" to discover that during contractions her anus, clitoris, and vagina hurt. Thankfully I
took the time to find out what she meant because those are signs that delivery is about to occur, as a quick exam proved
before her son was born.

Sharyn Hay, RNC, MSN