Male nurses student and skipping OB/L&D clinicals

Jfarmboy · Feb 4, 2012

I talked to a Career school counselor and teacher.

She is a friend who used to teach the pre-reqs at a community college.

She advised me to go to college and do the pre-reqs while taking one extra course per semester that interests me.

"Most people who go to college don't know what the heck they want to do. Going to college, work in the field, meeting instructors and advisers/counselors will help you find where you want to be."

Also I found out that in the nursing school I might be going to is a little different. OB and Ped is in semester 4.

A adviser said not to worry about any of that weirdness(as you guys have said), she said it completely normal and usually goes away within the first or second semester. By the time i'm up to OB I may actually like the learning experience.

I have literally tried about 10-15 career/jobs only to hate them. It seems the only place for me would be in health care. Who knows I may like physical therapy better after college. Good thing is any pre-reqs I take for nursing will help me get into something else in health care if things change.

kool-aide, RN · Feb 4, 2012

OP, I recommend that you shadow a nurse to see if nursing is right for you--if so, become a CNA to get some experience so nursing school isn't such a shock for you when you have to deal with your pt's "privates." lol :)

You're gonna have to look at memberes & lady partss(peri-care, catheters, assessment of skin, surgical sites), breasts(surgical sites, skin assessment, EKG placement, bathing), and rear ends(peri-care, skin assessment, rectal tubes, wound care) where ever you work as a nurse!

I became a CNA when I was 18 y/o and was MORTIFIED by the things I was instructed to do in my clinicals in LTC. But, I got over it and have 3 years of experience under my belt and am very comfortable taking care of my pts!

kool-aide, RN · Feb 4, 2012

OP, so happy that you've been given great advice! Run with it and good luck in school!

trauma_lama, BSN · Feb 4, 2012

dude. i'm about to get real honest with you. so far i've had clinicals on a PCU and a med surg floor...neither of which directly have anything to do with sexually oriented problems. however, i have cleaned many memberes and lady partss. i have inserted Foleys in memberes and lady partss. i have DCd foleys from memberes and lady partss. i have dressed peri-genital tunneling wounds and cleaned sites where rectums were sewn shut after colostomies we're surgically placed. OB is the least of your worries. you need to toughen up or change fields, unless you want to come out of school and be limited to working at a call center for a 24 hr 1-800 nurseline like blue cross blue shield has. i think part of your reticence to deal with genitals is r/t your age...but don't even think of starting nursing school until you can look at a lady parts without going pale. there are very few if any specialties that will allow you to avoid lady partss/genitals. the fact that you said "down there" instead of the anatomical name of the part indicates to me that you are not ready to take on a maturity-requiring program like nursing. good luck in whatever you chose, but i thought you should hear the facts.

RachRN66 · Feb 4, 2012

i have inserted Foleys in memberes and lady partss. i have DCd foleys from memberes and lady partss..

RN in training: I am a female with a lady parts, but foleys go into the urethra of a female, not in the lady parts... wouldn' be very effective IN the lady parts if the purpose is to assist with the elimination of urine. Urine doesn't come out of the lady parts in a female.. we have 2 separate openings that both serve different functions.

Sorry to be nit-picky, but I just want you to be clear about this before you take your NCLEX or get out in the "real world of nursing" and try to put more foleys in lady partss. :)

OP: I think it's great that you're trying to figure all this out for yourself BEFORE you take the leap. You may not be "mature" as some people say here on this thread, but you ARE smart enough to try to figure it out before you get started and then realize it might not be for you. I give you props for that! Good luck in your studies.

SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS · Feb 4, 2012

I hated my OB clinical. Peri checks, peri checks, peri checks. And I'm female. But I made it through.

As nurses, though, we care for people throughout the life span, need to do it professionally and kindly. Let me tell you a story...we ran a couple of prostate screenings. These older guys came in, and they were scared! I thought, women have pelvic exams every year, and we get used to it. But these guys were nervous and embarrassed, and all the doctors who volunteered were young and female. I learned a lot about being able to put the patient at ease, reassure them that we're not embarrassed to be doing prostate exams, and just be professional about it. So, it works both ways.

(one other comment...I've heard that vet school is more competitive than med school. So, not a waste of potential at all. Goats- someone's gotta take care of 'em.)

aei09a · Feb 4, 2012

you will need the information to pass your boards. Thats what nursing school is, preparing you for your boards. L&D will be on there, OB will be on there, everything will be on there. Get over the fact you will be looking a ho-has, as many men have done before you. My floor is almost entirely males, and they all were able to get through it, just as you will. Mature, and realize this is all learning to pass your boards, and decide if this is the right field for you. No matter what career choice you make, there will be classes you do not care for that will be a part of your major, with this career, you will definitely always have a job! and thats more than i can say for others. Good luck!

trauma_lama, BSN · Feb 4, 2012

thanks, i'm good on where a foley is inserted. i thought it was pretty clear what i meant, but perhaps not. Foleys go in urethras. i doubt i would have made it to a second semester and through 1.5 years of a&p and patho if i were inserting foleys into lady partsl openings. i get the nit-picky, but the jist of my post was pretty clear.

netglow, ASN, RN · Feb 4, 2012

I agree with all the above. OP, you sound so unsure of yourself in the ways of the world. I would highly suggest as others have said that you take a CNA course with clinical rotation and see if you can handle dealing with stranger's bodies. Believe me, you will know if you can or cannot after certification. Also as other's have said, in ICU you most likely will have no help eg. someone like a CNA to take care of the daily cleaning and changing things. ICU means you are doing total care for your patients. That means all care. No avoiding it in nursing.

The biggest thing I am concerned about is not that it will gross you out, it's that you don't have things figured out in your head at all. You may actually get the big boot out of your CNA class if you don't get yourself straightened out before you even do that.

Understand that in nursing, in medicine, avoidance of ANYTHING as a student will absolutely doom your chances of successfully completing the program. Instructors, Doctors, Nurses, will call you out and make an example of you.

trauma_lama, BSN · Feb 4, 2012

thanks, i'm good on where a foley is inserted. i thought it was pretty clear what i meant, but perhaps not. Foleys go in urethras. i doubt i would have made it to a second semester and through 1.5 years of a&p and patho if i were inserting foleys into lady partsl openings. i get the nit-picky, but the jist of my post was pretty clear.

chihuahuaman · Feb 4, 2012

i'm a male, much older than you and like you i had no interest in mat or peds. however, that didn't stop me from wanting to get the most out of the situation. knowing mat and peds are part of being a registered nurse. there's no way around it. from your original post i see you are making many assumptions, namely women will be uncomfortable and won't want a man doing assessments. my experience was the opposite.

part of being a nurse (and nursing student) is professionalism. for the maternity rotation, keep in mind you're not going there to ogle; you are there to do your nursing assessments. i had no problem with my patients, and most families were very appreciative of my presence. i suspect it was because as a student, i had more time to spend with them. i did many assessments of the fundus, checking pads for lochia, giving direction for breast feeding, amongst all the other things a student does on a mat floor. there was even a long-time male nurse on this unit. he definitely had no issues being a male on a mat floor.

i was fortunate to be able to attend a lady partsl birth on one of my days. my role was to take vitals and just help the rn. i found it very moving when the mother finally gave birth after being in labour all day. it was also extremely educational watching what the nurse was doing but also what the doctors were doing to get that large baby out of the very tiny mother!! they cut, they suctioned and they used forceps.

my peds rotation was just an extension of my medical experiences, except with little people. i didn't get or try to get assigned any of the infants, since the rest of my clinical group were girls and were really into the tiny ones. i did get to hold a few premies and coo at them but most of my patients ranged from toddlers up to teenagers. again, no big deal, but an important experience in my education.

you say you want to go into icu. your goals might change by the time you get to that point. you most likely won't get an icu position right out of school. in the hospital i work at you need at least 2 years experience before they will send you for specialty training.

er and icu are the jobs that everyone sees as being glamorous before they get any real life experience. i was like you; my goals were to get to er or icu as soon as possible. that's changed for the time being. i have a position on a very busy high acuity medicine floor. it's a good jumping off point for any specializing i might want to do in the future. i have come to realize there are many more career paths i could take in the future.

DoGoodThenGo · Feb 4, 2012

I am actually a pre male nurse student.
I am looking at a college in which I will attend if I decode to do nursing.
I have never experienced it so I want to shadow a nurse in the summer.
I want to make sure it is what I want to do. After I have made that decision I want to pursue it with all my heart at a young age. I am 19 years old and so if its what I want to do I don't want to wait until I'm 30 some.
Anyways I don't wish to do any OB or L&D stuff if I don't have to. I don't see what that has to do with ICU care (where I am wanting to go). Also I may have a different mind set that others. I don't want to do L&D because is a major invasion of a woman's privacy, imo.
If it were my wife (not married and faarrr from it) and there was no doctor, yes of course I would do it. But checking up on female patients every few hrs... Like- hey I just need to see you are doing down there...major privacy invasion. What female patient wouldn't feel uncomfortable? I think the only reason why most female patients don't mind a male OB is because they are in too much pain to notice. All I know is if I were a woman I would not want some guy staring up there. Same as me being a guy I don't really like female doctors or nurses checking me out down there...really weird and awkward.
All that said I want nothing (or at most little) to do with preforming procedures/assessments on women(I am talking where it exposes them..I don't need to see that). Is it likely that I can just do ped or something else at those clinical hrs?
I know most women would not want me there as well as some RN/instructors and myself. It is not something I would want to see and it would seem as if that would give me the title of "pervert".
Sorry this is so long. I know some of you may think I should do all that stuff, as maybe a good learning experience. I just don't see much to learn in it except assessment of a infant or a C-section.

Ages ago when nurses wore long skirts and caps there were hospital based nursing programs that centered mainly upon the mission of the facility. Women/children/lying-in hospitals focused on that end of things, and yes there were "male nurse" programs (Bellevue,The Alexian Brothers to name a few), but times changed as the nature of healtcare.

States began to lay down certain education requirements for those seeking licensure as a nurse (R.N. or L.P.N/L.V.N), and this included all graduate nurses pass the same state board exam. Previously many male nursing programs and or co-ed schools allowed men students to skip OB/GYN and Peds as there was nil chace they would ever be called upon to practice in that area, now they at least in theory were educated/trained in that area, well at least enought to pass the state board exam anyway.

You *might* be able to wrangle your way out of dealing with female patients when it comes to "down there" during your clinical rotations, but you would be doing yourself a huge dis-service.

Women are half the population of this world and sooner or later odds are you are bound to be assigned a female who is going to require a procedure "down there". Just as there are male nurses who resent being summoned to take on patients who require strength to deal with and or just because they are men; there are female nurses who won't be too happy always being asked to accommodate your "thing" for lady partss.