Male nurse & women's healthcare

[MichaelSSSS]

This might seem a bit odd but do you female nurses think it would be a problem if a male nurse were to focus on women's health issues as his primary care area? L&D, comes to mind. The thing is, I find women's health issues to be a bit more interesting than men's. I'm not sure why but probably has to do with my brother-in-law being an OBGYN. But, if I decided to focus in that area would I be opening myself up to problems. I know many women don't give a fig if their nurse is male or female, but many (and understandably so) do. Do you think I'd be limiting myself and just creating problems?

Just to clarify - I find all areas of medicine and healthcare interesting and appealing, but...

Thanks for any insight.

Michael

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

I think it is great you are wanting to contribute to womens healthcare... GO FOR IT!!!!!:)

[epg_pei]

This might seem a bit odd but do you female nurses think it would be a problem if a male nurse were to focus on women's health issues as his primary care area? L&D, comes to mind. The thing is, I find women's health issues to be a bit more interesting than men's. I'm not sure why but probably has to do with my brother-in-law being an OBGYN. But, if I decided to focus in that area would I be opening myself up to problems. I know many women don't give a fig if their nurse is male or female, but many (and understandably so) do. Do you think I'd be limiting myself and just creating problems?

Just to clarify - I find all areas of medicine and healthcare interesting and appealing, but...

Thanks for any insight.

Michael

Just from the limited time I had in clinicals working with female patients, my impression is you're setting yourself up for hard times. I had too many female patients refuse care to ever consider womens health issues as a specialy path. Plus the whole issue of accusations of sexual harassment or abuse becomes even larger when you concentrate on female patients. The law of averages. Just my experience anyways.

Edit: Not my experience, my opinion.

[LauraLou]

I think it's great if you want to work in women's services and I think many women would be happy to have a male nurse, but there may be some patients who would object. I work in Postpartum and we have many patients from India, Asia and the Middle East. Not to stereotype, but in my experience, many of these patients and their families do not want male nurses, CNA's, etc. They seem to be okay with male doctors, which I don't really understand, but they want other caregivers to be female. Some even post signs on their doors asking that no men other than family members enter the room. I'm not sure if their reasons are cultural or religious, but it is something you should be aware of when dealing with patients.

Good luck!

[CSLee3, ASN, BSN, LVN, EMT-P]

Michael...I disagree with the above poster who says you are setting yourself up for hard times........please. My wife is L & D supervisor, one of her best L & D nurses is a Man, who retired from the military, where he also had a successful career as a L & D nurse. Don't let people dissuade you! You will have an occassional person say NO, but hey, women on women can get catty too, and they end up asking for another nurse for persoanlity reasons. Just don't take it personal and work hard. You will be appreciated in L & D, unless of course, you work in a facility with narrow minds and feminie extremist!!!!

Good Luck

[MelissaRN]

I don't understand the whole thing of it being ok for a male OB doctor but not a male OB nurse? If they are qualified to do the job it doesn't matter whether it's male or female.