Male Nurses

nialloh, RN · Jul 9, 2003

I'm a male nurse, and have never had a problem with female nurses because i am a man. In fact they are happy to have us there. It totally changes the atmisphere of the unit to have guys there, I don't know why, but it does.

As to the 7% comment, I don't think it will do any harm.

maire, ASN, RN · Jul 9, 2003

I've had male nurses as a patient, I go to school with quite a few...a nurse is a nurse is a nurse, as far as I'm concerned. Makes no difference to me.

Jen2 · Jul 9, 2003

I am a nursing student and my boyfriend is a male nurse at the hospital where we work. One of the reasons why I decided to date him was because I saw how caring and compassionate he was to his patients. The women he works with love having a man around for those incredibly strong combative patients, and those that are heavy, or hard to move. However, most patients refer to him as "The Doctor."

zacarias, ASN, RN · Jul 9, 2003

Rivs,

Congrats on deciding to go to nursing school. As a male who has just graduated nursing school, I feel totally welcomed to the profession by all. I just took my boards exam today and if all went well, I should be a licensed RN in a few days!

I've heard some negative stories about being a "male nurse" but they've always been stories and I've never directly run into this situation with any friends or myself.

Nursing is fast becoming the profession du jour and males and females from all walks of life are needed to diversify this field of healthcare. I'm excited at all the opportunities and you will be too.

Just a side comment, I don't use the term "male nurse" because it's confusing. I prefer to leave out the "male" part or if a distinction must be made, "nurse who happens to be male" is used.

Rivs · Jul 9, 2003

Thanks for the side comment Zach, I'll keep that in mind for future reference. Good luck on the boards exam!!

Rena RN 2003, RN · Jul 10, 2003

i went to school with 2 guys. one was very quiet, one more "outgoing" (for lack of a nicer term :chuckle ). everyone liked them both but the outgoing one did tend to grate on one's nerves. i believe this was a personality thing because had these 2 people been female they would have been thought of the same.

flash forward.......i now work with a few nurses that just happen to be male. very knowledgable, very compassionate, very willing to help a new grad out. again, i believe it's the personality, not because they are male.

moral of the story, male/female, doesn't matter. what matters is that you present yourself in a professional and compassionate manner and it will speak volumes.

2banurse · Jul 10, 2003

I think that it is great. My last superevisor is the nurse coordinator for a continuing day treatment center. He is a wonderful nurse, and it is because of him that I am pursuing nursing myself.

Best wishes,

Kris

rstewart · Jul 10, 2003

I am a male and have practiced nursing for about thirteen years after a decade working in the business community as a CPA. From that perspective I have a few comments:

There are places where you will find discrimination by co-workers who feel that as a male you are invading their (female) turf. Fortunately, in my experience such cases are the exception, but they do exist. When they do, they are rather blatant in their behavior as they have no doubt gotten away with it for years and have a manager who is unwilling to confront their core group of nurses.

Similarly, I have witnessed some rather blatant discrimination by some individual instructors against males as nursing students. But again, this is the exception in my experience and I must say I have seen the opposite: males being treated more favorably than their abilities warranted. Nursing school evaluation, clinicals in particular, can be extremely subjective. If a nursing instructor wants to paint someone as "unsafe" or disorganized they can certainly do so with most any student. For whatever reason, it seems that men do drop out of nursing school disproportionately to their numbers. Some of this is likely due to financial considerations; but, I have to say a substantial number of men I have talked to just tired of the nursing school BS.

This also seems to carry through after graduation: Recent research shows that men are far more likely to leave nursing within a few years than are women. But rather than discrimination, I suspect that they leave the profession for the same reasons that the women do.

You will also hear stories about how males are either paid more or advance more quickly than women in nursing. I do see a disproportionate number of males in leadership positions at some institutions but the reasons for that may have nothing to do with gender bias. Males seem to become certified, further their education, maintain full time uninterrupted service etc. disproportionately as well. On the other hand, when I assumed a management position at my 700+ licensed bed hospital a couple years back, there were no male educators, case managers, clinical coordinators, house supervisors, QI nurses etc at all, let alone nurse executives. I would attend meeting after meeting some days and never see another guy at the table.

To summarize, there are some serious problems within the nursing profession which must be addressed. But for the most part, gender issues should not be a major concern for you.

Rivs · Jul 10, 2003

A lot of good information here....keep it coming....

suzy253, RN · Jul 12, 2003

I'm presently in a class of 48 students, 8 of whom are male. No problem with this in my opinion. One student was a truck driver and his wife is a nurse. Good luck to you.

eb_rn · Jul 12, 2003

i have no problem with a guy being a nurse....have only worked with a few, a friend of mine, a guy, is a sr. nsg student, and incredibly intelligent, will be an excellent nurse.