As a male in nursing, I feel that I am sometimes treated differently because of my gender. I believe that I am expected to carry a heavier patient load with less assistance from my female coworkers. I also believe that men are more often assigned to care for obese patients; I am also sometimes pulled to the other end of the unit to assist in moving heavy patients because I am stronger.
For instance, I work in an ICU and our nurse to patient ratio is either 1:1 or 1:2; the other day 4 out of the 5 doubles (1:2) were assigned to men. On the same day, a female nurse said "We can get so and so to help, he's a big strong guy." I responded that I felt that was sexism and the nurse said "Are you saying that men aren't physically stronger than women." I replied that I agreed that, in general, men are stronger than women; however, they are not immune to back injuries or repeatative stress injuries. We are friends and this was a friendly and playful discussion.
I think part of what motivated me to post this topic is the Oregon poster to recruit men into nursing because more men in nursing would change the current culture. Nursing is female dominated; therfore, so is the culture. Most men (especially the real men to whom this poster is directed) are not used to being the "underdog" or to working in an environment where their way of dealing with stress may be viewed as inappropriate. The adjustment can be difficult. I have talked to other men I work with and most have agreed (quietly), but it isn't something that is talked about. I thought that this would be a great forum in which to discuss this topic.
My aim is not to attack female nurses or to be confrontational, it is to discuss this topic openly as I feel it to be important.
