The start of the gender bias already?

Nurses Relations

Published

Well, the very first day that my nursing class came together as a group I was shown how male nurses "fit in" to our program.

It was uniform fitting day for my class and the line was about 50 people even though about half of us had scheduled a time,we all stood in line anyway. Once I finally got up to the part where everybody was fitting thier uniforms, or rather, the females were being fitted and measured, I was handed a zippered smock to try on. I of course,declined the ugliest style ever invented for a man. The smock didn't even have any school colors on it like the female uniforms did so he was quite obviously dumping an excess of bad stock on the guys and giving the females the traditional uniforms.:devil:

I didn't want to buy a plain uniform of any kind. The female uniforms were made for the program and the male "uniforms" were just a bunch of crap they couldn't sell anyway. There was nothing special about them.

When I turned down his plain white zippered smock from hell, he started ignoring me and started helping the students with uniforms. He didn't say anything to me about what else he had, he just started ignoring me like I wasn't there. i had to pry the fact that he had some patches I needed and white pants. Of course he didn't have my size of pants to try on and they needed to be measured to length,so I am sure they won't come out right because he just kind of eye-balled the length.

An hour and a half after my appointment that I had for two months and $65 later, I have 2 pairs of pants and three patches to show for it. I now have to spend the next year in school in a different uniform from the ones that my classmates wear.

I am positive that this is only the beginning of the seperatism though.

Any male students want to correct that notion?

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Specializes in critical care.

Peeps, I'm not a guy, but I just had to say that your situation really stinks. They should respect you as a member of the nursing class and not make you stand out like a clown at a funeral and make you look as dumb. Do you have alternatives to choose from? If you are the only guy in the class surely they would let you find something more suitable.

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We just wear navy blue scrub pants and a white scrub top, with the school patch on the left sleeve. The only difference between the mens and womens is that the womans shirt has a different collar.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Our school of nursing did not issue uniforms....we purchased white uniforms out of our own pockets from Nursing Uniform Shops. We had to go to the bookstore to purchase the school patch, and eventually the red stripes to put on our nursing caps. What kind of school are you in that makes their students wear certain uniforms, Peeps? :confused:

If I were you......or the other guys at that school.....I would take this matter before the health department's head person and demand fairness when it comes to the uniforms. Being male is not a good reason to ignore the fact that a school uniform must be purchased that matches the females attire. :kiss

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our school did not give out uniforms, i would be very upset if my program had treated me that way. i would have looked into another progam. or at least filed a complaint

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I knew this was going to happen Mr. peeps! I found out from another male student today that he went yesterday and ordered his uniforms. We have to get them at the same shop so that we'll all have the same uniform. He said the tops were zippered and had some kind of gathers, or pleats on the back. Man, I'm not wearing some kind of ugly crap with a stupid zipper on it! It sounds like they are made for women, and we males have to adapt! I'm sure that I'll make some waves! I'm going to try and keep my manners, but I will put in my .02 cents. That dude you talked about would have gotten an earfull from me after I had waited in line that long. I can see why you're upset, and the more that I think about it, the more angry I've become! I don't like the idea of being discriminated against, and I won't put up with much of it. I'm just as particular about my appearence as any female student, and maybe more so than some. We don't have nearly as many choices in shoes as women do either! I'll figure out how to play this game, but until then they will have to listen to my noise. Maybe Peeps and I will help pave the way for the upcoming male students. The men are for real, and our numbers will continue to increase. I hope the nursing industry will have enough respect for male students to provide us with some nice clothes. Zippered smok, Bah, Humbug!:(

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Specializes in LTC, ER, ICU,.

peeps, sorry you had to encounter this type of behavior.

we orderd our uniforms from a company within our state. therefore our school colors along with the arm patch that is on the left sleeve will be the same for all i would think. i will know how the men uniform looks exactly once clinical rotation starts in aug if not during orientation. i kind of like our uniforms. not at all what i had anticipated.

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That's so uncalled for. At my old school everyone wore the same uniform....white scrub pants and forrest green scrub top, school patch on right shoulder. No big deal....as it should be.

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Peeps this is so unfair, but unfortunately my school uniforms seem exactly the same as what you are describing. We females wore the typical white shirt and pants with a pinifore(spelling?) trimmed in our school colors. The name of our school embroidered on the front.

The males in our class (we had six) wore white pants and a white shirt with a smocked front and a zipper. Their uniforms also had our school name embroidered on them.

Actually most of the men in our class were delighted that they didn't have to wear those horrid pinifores.

I'm sorry you were treated so unfairly! We need nurses now rather they be male or female, so hang in there.

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What is the deal with the zippered smock? They must know that no man ever buys one intentionaly.

I went to a dermatologist once to get some skin blotches looked at once. The dr walked in and he was wearing a zippered smock:eek: but I have never seen another man wear one in the 6 years of time I worked in various hospitals.

If it had the school colors like the women's uniforms then I would have bought a few and gotten used to them:imbar The fact that the female uniforms were showing the solidarity of a special unit of people and the male uniforms were whatever they could dig up from the backroom is what bothered me.

I can see that I will have to bring this up to someone. I can't see how this would be mistaken for being a "trouble-maker" or anything since I just want solidarity. I'm only hesitant to bring it up for fear of apathy on the academic departments part. It would seem to be an obviouse problem the first day everyone showed up in uniform and it hasn't been corrected yet. The school must know how ridiculous zippered smocks look!

Maybe they want men to look ridiculous so nobody will take them seriousely. It's going to be difficult enough without seperating us from the pack on the first day.

Darby,

If all the uniforms you were offered have the same school colors as the women's do then at least you were considered. The uniforms that we have, or rather that the females wear, have the school colors(maroon stripe and gold trim) and they are obviousely specialy made for them as well as measured and fitted.

Are your uniforms "special order" or can you get them anywhere?

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OK, one more point to throw in here.

What would most women think of wearing a zippered smock in a school uniform and also just as a plain top.

By "school uniform" I mean to say that it is special order to have some such identifying pattern that you can't just buy anywhere.

The plain top you can just buy anywhere.

Throw in also that it's double-knit:p and pretty much a moo-moo of a fit.

What if it was your only choice?

What would you do?

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Gee.... i thought we had it bad. We had to wear a white blouse and slacks, and we had only to buy our school patch and this awful heavy white vest (talk about dyin' of the heat!) for both men & women.

The vest was $54. The patch another $10. Boy do they getcha, don't they?

This is one of those things where I just muttered a little and tried to roll with it; the guys really didn't look as bad as some of the girls...

Wait'll you get to clinicals and the instructor starts sending the girls home for fake nails and dangly earrings.... :o

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