Sexism in Nursing (a male point of view)

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nurs4kids

753 Posts

Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.

Dayray,

I'm not asking you to validate my parenting choices. I'm confident in those, too. I was just trying to explain my reasoning to you, which you choose to not see.

"I also have to point out that your example still displays your thinking about men by your statement "Not one was by a female""

No, dayray..my statement was based on fact, not on my thoughts. You were the one giving the statistics, I just gave you a set of statistics in my life. I have never denied that females molest children, but you do RARELY hear of this.

again, we have moved from the topic to debate whether there actually IS sexism in nursing aimed at male nurses. I still have not seen examples that indicate nursing is more prejudice against males than females. Is it there?????

Dayray, RN

700 Posts

To answer Nurs4kids question about sexism in nursing vs. sexism in other professions. Yes it is everywhere and yes psycnurse's observation that their is no such thing as reverse sexisum is true. sexisum is sexisum no matter who it is directed at.

the thing that makes nurseing different or at least a good example of discrimination is that it is often portrayed as alright becuse it is directed toward men who are genarly portryed and have been guilty of sexisum in other professtions.

Discrimination toward men in nursing canot be viewed as justice for the wrongs aginst women in other feilds or the world in general to do so would be to say that two injustices somehow cancel each other out.

It's allot like two children fighting in the school yard. One hits the other and then the other hits back and they beat each other until they can't remember who what they were fighting about and any justice or who was wrong or Wright gets lost in the scuffle.

By the same token the fact that men are often promoted more often or treated better by doctors does not cancel out the gender bias in nursing nor does it provide an argument of equality.

And to Susy I'm sure you can come up with many dispersions but it still doesn't make this a patient issue

For the 7th time _________(fill in the blank)

Q.

2,259 Posts

Specializes in LDRP; Education.
Originally posted by Dayray

And to Susy I'm sure you can come up with many dispersions but it still doesn't make this a patient issue

For the 7th time _________(fill in the blank)

I thought I was seeing your point. :confused:

Then rather than having me constantly guess at what you're trying to say and saying "Nope, that's not it" why not explain to me why you feel it's a NURSING issue alone, completely independent of patients.

Youda

703 Posts

I see some of you have joined the thread late, so you probably didn't read the first five pages. If you had, there are many examples of bias offered. How many do you need? :D

Youda

703 Posts

Susy K, it's not that patients or the public are not ALSO biased, or not. It's just that bringing in all the people who can/would/do have sexist attitudes in this profession and all the others, isn't what this thread is about. That's the point DayRay, I believe, is trying to make. It's like having a discussion about football and someone brings in examples about baseball. Yeah, they both have balls, but we were talking about FOOTball.

Dayray, RN

700 Posts

Susy I think you were seeing my point or at leat illistraiting it.

This is not a patient issue becuase:

1 no one has ever said that patients should not be allowed to choose their providers, no matter what their criteria

2 patients don't have nearly as much problem with the male/female thing as nurses do. (yes sometimes patients ask to be cathed by same sex nurses but most of the time as I said before the nurse is uncomfortable becuase other nurses have conditioned them to do so) I work 3 - 5 12 hour shifts a week all in OB/GYN and patients don't ask for a same sex nurse in fact they request me becuse their friends tell them how well I cared for them. It just goes to show patients respond to how you care for them not gender as many belive

3 If you scroll back threw this thread and others like it the "patient choice" argument has been used over and over to validate personal predjudice of nurses.

Q.

2,259 Posts

Specializes in LDRP; Education.

Ok. So, let's see if I can understand this.

You're speaking from the perspective of nurses feeling men are not compassionate, etc etc - and they may project this attitude on to the patients. So..how does this relate to me, as a nurse, believing male nurses are equally compassionate, skilled, etc but despite that, choosing a female nurse to cath me, or take care of me and my kid or whatever....because of my comfort with that?

Youda

703 Posts

Originally posted by LasVegasRN

So now you're saying bias is the same as sexism?

I'm not going to debate dictionary definitions, or get into semantics, Vegas. Again, this was on the first 5 pages. The original poster wanted to change the word "sexism" to "bias." But, as you know, once you post a title, it's there. So, whether or not Webster would agree, bias and sexism has been used interchangable ON THIS THREAD.

Now, good night, ladies. (The guys all got bored and left us females to discuss how we aren't sexist or biased, and to prove it, we stopped listening to them several pages back)

Dayray, RN

700 Posts

Well Susy what makes you uncomfortable about a man cathing you?

Dayray, RN

700 Posts

Hmm getting tired... I'll check back tomarow to see what you guys posted good nite

donmurray

837 Posts

Ok, it was some time ago, but I remember during the ob/gyn secondment, my then student group had a lecture on breastfeeding, followed by a demonstration (for want of a better term) We dutifully followed the tutor across the hospital site, from the classroom to the door of the room, then the tutor turned and informed the males in the group that they could wait in the library!

On placement in ER, whenever an argumentative drunk arrived whilst I was on duty, "Mr Murray" was called on to deal with them. A mildly embarrassing factor was that many of them were Scots, who became compliant when my accent registered with them. LOL! Strangers in a strange land together! It so happened that I dealt with those people well, but that was not the reason behind my being allocated that task.

The problem is the stereotyping by gender which is implicit in these situations. Education to remove ignorance is what is needed. It was assumed earlier in this thread that nursing care from a male would be anathema to a rape victim. Not always so, as evidenced by another post. Denying a child care from an entire body of professionals because of their gender seems overprotective to me, especially since the defined area of concern (catheterisation) is such a tiny part of the caregiving process.

I'm rambling now, so I'll stop.

LasVegasRN

835 Posts

Originally posted by Youda

...(The guys all got bored and left us females to discuss how we aren't sexist or biased, and to prove it, we stopped listening to them several pages back)

Don't include all the females in this generalization. NO one has denied gender bias exists. People ARE listening and trying to clarify why someone is so adamant that NURSING is exclusive in it's sexism. Just because a person asks questions or tries to clarify a point doesn't mean they are negating the other's beliefs.

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