I have worked in specialty areas for years, and they all have had a large percentage of male nurses.

Harassment can go either way, and I am sure that you can find articles about female nurses that are suing for the same reasone. You are posting only about one case.

Even where I am working now, there is definitely a large percentage of male nurses, as well as males respiratory therapists.

Male Nurses

I just happen to be reading the posts on this board. There is all kinds of discrimination going on each and every day. But I do agree that the male population is discriminated against in so many ways. But I wont get into that here. I just wanted to say that I personally find it very refreshing to work with the male population. I believe there should be more male nurses. To all of you male nurses reading this post, we love you and thankyou for all the giving and caring that each and everyone of you do on a daily basis. Keep up the good work You are appreciated!

Hello,

How are you stereotyped and discriminated against? By patients? Coworkers? What do they say to you? I only ask because I enjoy all of the nurses that I work with that are men. I don't treat them any differently except maybe not mentioning my "female" problems in front of them... but other than that... I have a lot of respect for them... the same respect I have for nurses that are female.


Why do you care so much? Okay so you're a nurse, not a MALE nurse, but a NURSE. As long as you keep doing you're job, IGNORE all of the ignorant people, don't let them bring you down!

So what if the profession is dominated by women? As you said, interest is growing so maybe one day in the future it will be different.

Anyways, I personally think that nurses, male, female, whatever... ROCK!

~Crystal

quick search to satisfy my curiosity...

Hey Y'all

I am having a day off and did a quick Google about this lil' issue, not to beat a dead horse, ya understand, just to satisfy my curiosity. Seems there's actually not much literature regarding 'gender issues' in Nursing.

Which is interesting all by itself.

I found that the Australian journal of Peri-operative nurses (AORN) has a couple of articles about sexual harassment and 'horizontal violence' (Nov '02 and Dec '03). Whether the unique atmosphere of the OR can be generalized for the entire profession is kind a debatable, but for what it's worth--45% of "traumatic events" in Aussie OR's involve sexual harassment. By a margin of 3 1/2 to 1, victims were women. They say 69-85% of nurses report being sexually harassed. (Hey, we all know about surgeons, right?)

In the same article they cite a survey of 188 critical care nurses in which 46% reported being sexually harassed-and that 82% of the harassers are MDs.

In the Dec '03 issue is an article on the sociology of the health-care professions in which Physicians are portrayed as an 'oppressor' and Nurses as self-hating victims. Not much satistical backing in the article and to tell the truth--it seems a little too 'politically correct' for even an unapoligetic Liberal like myself.

The is a poll published in Nursing Management magazine in Jan 05 comparing male and female Nurses' job satisfaction in one large hospital in the western US. Men were a little more likely to find their work satisfying. (Men: 5.667, Women: 5.110, Standard Deviation: 1.15)

I'll spare everybody the bibliographies and etc. (But I do remember how to do 'em <grin>.)

Papaw John
(in my pajamas ALL DAY LONG)

discrimination

I beleive discrimination is more a matter of perception. In nearly all cases a female unit manager perfers to hire a male nurse, as many have actually told me. But even if they havent actually said it they still tend to perfer males, anytime I see one interviewed by any of my supervisors they get hired if they dont have any felonies, anyway. I know there are a lot of man hating women out there, and darn it they seem to be everywhere. I just think most discrimination is in our favor. Who else would they call when they need to turn a 400+lbs patient?

Ive never felt discriminated against at all, and Ive worked quite a few different areas in nursing.for over a quarter of a century now.

Ive known 2 guys who stated they were being harassed and discriminated against. I listened to both of them and in my mind their concerns to me seemed absolutely baseless and without merit. They were also both chronic whiners and I feel they were just looking for a settlement offer of cash.

Im not saying it cant happen to men, Im sure it probably does. But im not certain its as prevalent as some would like to say.

Originally Posted by Demonsthenes

:

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templ...a=117574&z=176



Lawsuit alleges sexual harassment

BANGOR - Fed up with comments such as "men are jerks" and "men are idiots,"
a former male nurse at Eastern Maine Medical Center
has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging he was sexually harassed by
the female nursing staff and discriminated against on
the basis of gender.

He is seeking a jury trial and punitive and compensatory damages. A trial
date has not been set.

Lufkin worked as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at EMMC from
1998 through mid-2004. Incidents cited in the
complaint, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Bangor, occurred in
2003 and 2004.


Lufkin's complaint outlined in the lawsuit includes allegations that he was:

. Told to shut up by female co-workers and supervisors when he tried to
offer an opinion.

. Subjected to or threatened with acts of physical humiliation or
aggressiveness by co-workers.

. Given verbal and written warnings for alleged performance-related issues
as retaliation for workplace complaints.

. Denied advancement and career opportunities in ICU even though female
co-workers were offered positions.

. Threatened with discipline although he had been granted a leave of
absence.

As a result of the working conditions in ICU, the nurse has not worked at
EMMC since last summer, according to Baldacci. Lufkin
currently is not employed.

I read this carefully, and granted we dont know fully what happened and its terrible that it did, if it did... But somehow or another reading this leaves me to wonder what their side is. Im certainly not convinced there is any merit to this, other than sensationalism and dramatics on his part. I also dont know fully his side of it either. But I cant imagine any male, and I have never been, or felt subjected to and or threatened with acts of physical humiliation or aggressiveness by co workers< other female nurses> is thats whats meant.

Originally Posted by RN34TX

Am I the only guy here who didn't see the Gaylord Focker character as a "flamboyant" one?
Just because he wasn't portrayed as a tobacco chewing man's man who only talks about sports, hunting, and women (likely indicator of closet homosexuality) doesn't mean that he has "homosexual-like flamboyancy." I know a good share of straight guys who I'd characterize as more feminine than his character was to me. He was a regular guy with insecurity about impressing his future in-laws and made for a great movie, IMHO.
I think it was a comedy intended to play on the old stereotypes of Gaylord's future father-in-law's generation, and in his day it wasn't as acceptable for men to be nurses. I think that this paper took that movie a little too seriously.
Just my opinion, and I'm not denying that discrimination exists, but if men in nursing are so discriminated against, then why does it seem to me that the better paying areas of nursing seem to have the highest population of men working in them?
I mean, I rarely see male nurses when I'm in a clinic, doctor's office, etc.(typically lower paying positions) yet the majority of CRNA's that I have contact with in OR everyday are men. I've worked LTC and have often been the only male nurse in the entire building but have yet to be the only male working in any ICU and sometimes we outnumber the women in these areas on any given night.
Of course that's not all the time but we are still only a tiny percentage of the overall nursing workforce so it's obvious to me that we are concentrated in certain (and often better paying) areas.
I realize that male nursing students or nurses are sometimes encouraged/pushed into pursuing these areas by their own instructors or colleagues and are often discouraged from working in places like the nursery due to gender bias but I still think this paper went a little out in left field in it's description of male discrimination in the profession.

I chew bubble gum, I like to talk about football, fishing and women, think I should be concerned about my orientation? I would hate to have to tell my wife. Anyway, just kidding around. I am sure there is some discrimination. I had not read article #1 when I made my eairler reply. It does give one something to think about.

My 2 cents

I'm a student currently and a first year at that, but what I am in no way new to is working in female dominated offices. By the word dominated, I meant that I have many times been the only male on my team, in my department and once even in the whole office/business itself. I sought out positions from age sixteen where I could make a difference for people. McDonald's didn't cut it for me. Working at the local hospital did. I tend to concentrate on my work more than the demographics of the populace I work with. That's just me. I have of course been the subject of many jokes about it, and I have heard many conversations and been involved in them where the topic was man hating and how stupid my gender is. My idea is this. Women tend to talk to their co-workers. Men tend to talk more to their friends, workout partners, fishing and drinking buddies, whatever the case may be. So if I am at work and someone is having a conversation the timbre of which doesn't suit me, I remove myself from it. I have never felt that any of this is discriminatory in any way. now at 32 and as a first year nursing student in a class of 80, there are 6 men. One of us has already dropped out of the program. So really there are 5. I have yet to see anything close to discrimination, by my definition. So far all of my instructors seem to be fair and equal with all of us. We are student nurses to them, not males or females really. I would imagine that certain issues may arise once clinicals start and I have read about those that may occur in the OB round, but it's a challenge I look forward to. My fear of the OB and Peds rotations has nothing to do with my gender or how other people perceive me, it stems from my lack of confidence in my abilities to perform on those floors. A year ago I was too afraid to open the packet with the application in it for this program I am now a part of, and look how well that worked out. My first day alone on my current job I was terrified to be alone in a room with my patient for 10 minutes to discuss his financial situation and insurance (I work for a substance abuse hospital), but I am still there after nearly two years and I usually see 12-15 patients a day. I figure .. bring it on, but I have no plans to make it personal or gender related. I am certain that plenty of people male and female alike in many carreers have at some point been discriminated against, thankfully I am not one of them, nor do I feel the need to become irate about something and feel I am owed something just because I am a male and the plaintiff was as well.

Yes it happens.

Some times though it's hard to decide what is discrimination and what is just a reflection of the cultural norm. The simple sad fact is that it is currently "cool" for women to be man haters.

My wife was talking about this, the other day. She was with a bunch of other women talking about how men are dogs and so on. She didn’t join in and someone said, "oh I forgot, you love men and think they are great". She doesn’t think all men are great but we have a very good marriage and she knows that ALL men are not dogs and doesn’t give in to the peer pressure to join in on the man hating so thus, she is made to feel not a part of the group.

To make the situation more complicated, In many cases the man haters have good reason to hate individual men. Now I'm not saying that their attitudes should be extended to all men but I can see why they have a hard time not generalizing. The things other men do to women continually astonish me. We live in a confusing time where shifting gender roles have left men floundering and having difficulty finding a mold to fit.

Back in the old days men were strong, domineering and providers for their family. It wasn’t seen as politically incorrect to boss women around or to play knight in shining armor to their damsel in distress. Now its wrong to be domineering yet it is even worse to be sissy or XXXXX whipped so this leaves guys with a very thin line to walk and honestly it is impossible to fit everyone’s expectation of what men should be in today’s world. I think this is what leads to so many men letting women down.

Still I find comments made by many women offensive now I don't go running to file a complaint and I can't even fault them because I also hear them talking about the awful, awful things men have done to them. It makes me sad for both men and women.

I have also seen real discrimination and been subject to it on both racial and gender basis. The problem here is that most of the discriminators are not evil villains that set out to make all men pay (although sometimes they are). They instead are otherwise perfectly nice people compelled by (many times repressed) feelings of resentment toward men or by stereotypical views (unrealistic) of what is proper for one gender or the other. It is therefore impossible to verbally convince these people that they are doing something wrong. It is however possible with lots and lots of patients to prove yourself to some (not all) of them. Yet the price for this is often too high. I mean how much abuse do you want to take to prove yourself to someone that hates you?

I used to work at a place where I was the continual butt of jokes. Where I was always suspected of not working or of stealing or hiding ...etc...Etc. I know that some of the accusations made toward me were out and out attempts to get me fired but I also know that some people actually believed them and that I never had these problems before I went into nursing. My manager knew that the reason I was being harassed was because I was the only male on the unit and she made it clear in her comment to me. "...(Sigh) this is the price you have to pay for choosing to work with all women and remember you made that choice"

Now I work in place with a great staff that judges me based on my performance and personality rather then my gender. Still I recently experienced a situation where my gender was brought under scrutiny. It was in attempt to protect me from some harassing comments and actions made by 1 staff member and was not meant to make me feel out of place but to keep that from happening. Still I have been made to feel even more uncomfortable by this situation then I was by the one fool that choose to harass me. So is that discrimination? Or is it just "the price I pay for choosing to work with all women?"

The problem is that things are made even harder to deal with because society does not see me as normal for choosing to be a nurse. My choice of profession is the subject of jokes and whispers. Hell, my mom doesn’t even talk to me about work and other family members have openly expressed strong disapproval about men being nurses.

I don’t know the answer all I know is that I have a feeling of awkwardness that I can't seem to shake and that it is effecting my performance and attitude toward work. I’ve always dealt pretty well with crappy comments made by people but now I'm having a hard time seeing there comments or inquires as innocent questions/observations and just seeing judgment and condemnation in their eyes. It would be simple if my choice to become a nurse was only based on the income and working hours, I however really love being a nurse and don’t have a desire to leave it.

So am I right and society wrong? Or the opposite? Lol I'm not sure? All I know is that it's frecken hard to be different