Male student enters OB room. What do you think?

Nursing Students Male Students

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I was doing my OB clinicals and entered a patient's room to deliver a food tray. Stupid move on my part, but it got me a complaint from the patient and kicked out of my OB class. I'm allowed to repeat next year.

I am a man and cannot condone male nurses touching me or my wife ever again. My wife just had a very bad experience in the hospital with a male tech and a male nurse. They have no respect for female patients and just made a bad situation worse. They think it is their right to handle female patients without regard to the mental stability of the patient. I have never seen a male nurse provide any form of comfort to a patient. My mother and wife have both been abused by male medical staff calling themselves nurses and techs.

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I am a man and cannot condone male nurses touching me or my wife ever again. My wife just had a very bad experience in the hospital with a male tech and a male nurse. They have no respect for female patients and just made a bad situation worse. They think it is their right to handle female patients without regard to the mental stability of the patient. I have never seen a male nurse provide any form of comfort to a patient. My mother and wife have both been abused by male medical staff calling themselves nurses and techs.

If you and your family have never had a good male nurse then the problem is clearly with you. Be assured the nurses did not enjoy you as patients either. It's time to seek care for the mental health problems you alluded to.

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I am a man and cannot condone male nurses touching me or my wife ever again. My wife just had a very bad experience in the hospital with a male tech and a male nurse. They have no respect for female patients and just made a bad situation worse. They think it is their right to handle female patients without regard to the mental stability of the patient. I have never seen a male nurse provide any form of comfort to a patient. My mother and wife have both been abused by male medical staff calling themselves nurses and techs.
In my experiences thus far, this is highly unusual. Actually any male nurse I've known, including myself, has defaulted to being overly sensitive. I'd guess this is due to that underlying fear of being perceived in any other fashion as being there to assist. I know that as a student nurse, I experienced some largely unwelcome vibes. That changed however due to an incident involving one of the patients on the floor there. But that's another story... I'm wondering if it's possible that you either had a bad experience? Or, do you think it's possible your interpretation regarding the appropriateness of having male non-physician staff present got in the way? I mention this because this is indeed something I've experienced in my time insofar.
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Specializes in Med Surg Tele.

I am a male and my OB rotation was quick, easy and drama free. I got to see one vag birth and one c-section. Each time the nurse had to ask the mother for permission though. I actually left early for a medical mission to Peru. There I had to teach teenage Peruvian girls about peri-care...in Spanish. Now THAT was a little awkward.

In my OB rotation though is where I finally learned about how some nurses DO NOT want to teach. I don't think it was because I was male. Sometimes you have to be assertive and just find a nurse that wants to teach.

I did have one mom that did not want me on on her service because I was male. I think that was the only time I really "felt my gender" in nursing school. It was always a non-issue for me and 99% of my nurses were helpful and kind.

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Introducing and explaining roles and purposes is good. Asking permission... sorry but students have to be there or the healthcare system fails. Patients can actively opt out. They don't need to be opted in.

Xray/CT/MRI techs don't ask permission for radiology students. MDs don't ask permission for medical students to be a part of care. Etc etc etc.

As a parent I have always been asked if I consent to students being part of my child's medical team without fail.

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I started my OB rotation this past weekend and it went really well. I introduced myself to all my patients and I made sure I informed them of exactly what I would be doing. None of the patients felt awkward that I was a guy. I think that if you are specific in exactly what you will be doing to the patient they will most likely react positively.

Initially, I asked my preceptor if I should ask the patients if they are comfortable with me assessing/taking care of them and she adamantly said to not do that. She said that they were in a teaching hospital and if a patient did not want a male nurse they will say so.

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Specializes in Post Acute, Med/Surg, ED, Nurse Manager.

I know amazing nurses. As someone on this board, I hope you are a nurse or are actually in the medical profession, because then maybe you can see some real life great people. I think it is wrong to condemn an entire gender based on 2 male health care workers. I work with some great men who have a strong desire to help others and are very good at putting people at ease.

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Specializes in Post Acute, Med/Surg, ED, Nurse Manager.
I am a man and cannot condone male nurses touching me or my wife ever again. My wife just had a very bad experience in the hospital with a male tech and a male nurse. They have no respect for female patients and just made a bad situation worse. They think it is their right to handle female patients without regard to the mental stability of the patient. I have never seen a male nurse provide any form of comfort to a patient. My mother and wife have both been abused by male medical staff calling themselves nurses and techs.

I know amazing nurses. As someone on this board, I hope you are a nurse or are actually in the medical profession, because then maybe you can see some real life great people. I think it is wrong to condemn an entire gender based on 2 male health care workers. I work with some great men who have a strong desire to help others and are very good at putting people at ease.

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You know, I'd fight it. Id make a big stink and raise all holy hell. its total bs that you have to repeat a course with no clear indication of why you have to retake it. If there is a policy that there are no males in OB then the instructor should have told you before going to the freaking OB floor. If there is no food in the labor area, why would they deliver it and why would a room full of people who supposedly know the rules not just say, Im sorry no food in here" Im not sure i believe the whole thing, but if it is true, then you were clearly wronged. There is a correct way to approach female patients as a male, but there has to also be some guidance from your instructor as to what , if anything you did wrong. You cant help it youre a man, if a patient has an issue with you, its on them to let someone know, No Males Please and its as simple as that. I had a PT who said she'd prefer her bed bath from a female, its a simple fix, get a female to do it. There has to be communication, not just blanket punishment

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Specializes in Emergency.

Based off of Forrest81's lack of recent replies, I am assuming he was banned. I am a man and I find myself being overtly sensitive to women as I understand many people might not be comfortable with a man caring for them.

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One of my classmates had a similar situation which cause him to get kicked out of the room. We had a new clinical instructor in my OB rotation. The pt family complained to the bedside RN and then spoke to the instructor resulting in getting kicked out of the unit. Per program policy, unable to make up clinical hours results in a failure of the rotation, and must make up the following year.

Luckily our group got wind of this and advocated for our classmate. We all spoke to our class advisor about the sitiation and reported to the program director. The head of our school's OB department investigated the incident with the unit's nurse manager. They concluded no serious mistakes resulted in pt harm. Getting kicked out of the unit was too rash for the student espcially how the stigma of a male student in OB may have played factor.

My school's Director of Nursing formally contacted the student and conducted an apology. He was allowed back into our program and the department made an exception to make up clinical hours for his sake.

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I was doing my OB clinicals and entered a patient's room to deliver a food tray. Stupid move on my part, but it got me a complaint from the patient and kicked out of my OB class. I'm allowed to repeat next year.

That's kind odd that you got kicked out of your OB class just for delivering a food tray. You did knock so maybe the patient took you as being disrespectful. You're a nursing student and I've been around female patients in a nursing home setting, clinic setting and hospital setting and I've been openly told by the patient they rather not have a male student nurse which I did not any offense to because every patient has that right to their own privacy. But no complaints like that happened so it's weird. I did get a female patient who was okay with me giving her a rocephin shot in the dorsogluteal area and I even told my nurse "Is it okay for the patient?" and she told me "Regardless,you're a nurse male/female and you're just doing your job"

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