Male RN in maternity

Nurses Men

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My boyfriend is also in nursing school, and he has maternity next semester. I think he's worried about it since he will be a male in a very private, female section of the hospital. Anyone have any good advice or words of encouragement I can give him?

I find it odd that you can read through so many posts about men in maternity and many of them say they "learned nothing", "weren't welcome", or "felt out of place". Nursing has changed and there are more men in the profession then there use to be. Personally, I felt my maternity rotation was useless as well - men are just not overly welcomed on OB floors (although not the case in every hospital). Why do we as nurses not look at maternity nursing and remove it from nursing school as a required course? I understand the importance of maternity but honestly do not see why we force students onto a floor that they have no intentions of working on. In our center maternity patients are admitted to the OB unit upon arrival and we do not have them on our general floors; the only maternity patients I have ever had to deal with were in nursing school, is there not a better option for our profession? Perhaps making maternity an elected course instead of mandating it (which would still allow men to take the course as a choice) would be more representative of our field. Personally I would not be happy if I paid to go to school and was not actively involved in the education I was paying for. Maybe we should look at changing the way we educate our fellow nurses?

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

The issue is that in the US, nurses are trained as generalists, thus all students must receive training in all major specialties to be licensed. Also, unfortunately, in many places, maternity/gynecology patients end up on floors, such as ICUs, Orthopedics, M/S far from OB. And those nurses have to have a basic understanding of maternity care.

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Specializes in ICU.
My boyfriend is also in nursing school, and he has maternity next semester. I think he's worried about it since he will be a male in a very private, female section of the hospital. Anyone have any good advice or words of encouragement I can give him?

I finished my obstetrics rotation a couple semesters ago. Chances are your boyfriend is not going to love the area. My best advice for him is to grit his teeth and get though it, other men have done it, so can he.

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The issue is that in the US, nurses are trained as generalists, thus all students must receive training in all major specialties to be licensed. Also, unfortunately, in many places, maternity/gynecology patients end up on floors, such as ICUs, Orthopedics, M/S far from OB. And those nurses have to have a basic understanding of maternity care.

I liked my maternity rotation well enough but knew going in I would never be a maternity nurse. I had no interest. However, I have seen pregnant and post-partum patients in my practice and the experiences in maternity were useful. It was easier to remember priority assessments and concerns for these patients in addition to my usual assessments.

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Specializes in Mental Health, Hospice Care.

I am just starting my rotation in Maternal, and it is something that does interest me long term....my only previous experience in OB was a personal one, when my wife had our children....the whole process has always been very fascinating and interesting to me....that being said, I do not wish to make anyone uncomfortable with my presence and think that i would be fighting daily battles just to do my job.....for that reason alone I will probably focus on a different area of specialty, sad but true....

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Be professional, be a nurse, forgot gender, you are a nurse! I have been a nurse for coming up on 30 years. I was a Labor and Delivery nurse for 6+ years (I happen to be a male). My OB/GYN rotation was nerve racking during anticipation, but my instructor asked this question when I shared my concerns/reservations, "Joe, what kind of nurse do you want to be?" My answer, "A professional nurse." Her reply, "Then start acting like one." It was the most fulfilling experience of my education and 3 years after starting my career, I found myself training as a L&D nurse mostly due to the nurses remembering my enthusiasm and interest during my rotation as a student. Birth is a spiritual experience and the nurse gets to be a part of something that is beyond description. To this day, most OB/GYN doctors are male and if you exhibit confidence and enthusiasm, you might have the surprise of your life, as I did. I would have never dreamed that I would ever work in L&D, but it was the highlight of my career.

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I believe it depends in the Hospital your at. I was at an Army Hospital for mine and their were a lot of males, so the staff and moms were very aware of the male presence. In terms of personal feeling, in the beginning I wanted my instructor to be their with me whenever I had a new mom so it can break the tension a little bit, so at first I was a little uncomfortable doing the assessments of the mom. Most of my uncomfortable feeling was more about the mom and family and whether they were comfortable or not.

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I somehow managed to get through OB clinicals with only touching one pregnant lady's belly. I touched it, said "welp, I can't feel the fundus, someone else can try" and walked out. This might sound awful, but pregnancy and pregnant women give me the heebie jeebies. Pregnancy and childbirth is to me like suctioning and mucus is to some people. *shudder*

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