male nurse

Students Male Students

Published

I am hesitate. could you share your experiences working or having friend with a male in nursing school?

Are you compatible with a male student?

sanshin99

4 Posts

I am a little confused by your question. If you are asking about having a clinical partner of the opposite sex I can answer for the guy side. Throughout school I had women for partners in the various labs. It was always a little embaressing at first (especially the time I had to give my sexual history for a full physical assessment). I think it made it easier for me when I began working. Hospitals are not segregated by sex generally. You need to be able to handle your self professionally in your interactions with patients of either sex. Learning how to do this in school is much better than learning once you are out. By getting over the embaressment factor you will become a better nurse.

Specializes in ER.

Please clarify your question...I am a male nurse but I am not really sure what you are after..

Thanks

shodobe

1,260 Posts

Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

I would like to know what you are asking. I am a male nurse with 24 years and have never had a problem taking care of my patients.Then again I work in the OR and most of them are asleep.Mike

Originally posted by Sentoso:

I am hesitate. could you share your experiences working or having friend with a male in nursing school?

Are you compatible with a male student?

I see from your post that you are from Australia. I am unfamiliar with the nursing culture there, except that nurses are generally call "sisters" or used to be. Is that correct? Has your nursing culture assimilated men into nursing there in meaningful ways? I have been in health care for 30 years and a Registered Nurse for 25. I have never had a bad experience with either co-workers or patients based on gender issues. Perhaps you might start with a close examination of your own personal feelings about men in nursing and work from there. If you can post your feelings for us, we might be able to help you sort through them in a constructive and positive fashion. Let me know if I can help.

best regards.

Chas

Originally posted by buckboomer:

Never had a bad experience as a male nurse? What a crock! I daily get bad experiences from my female colleagues. The problem with nursing is that there are TOO many women! We get poor working conditions, poor salary, pensions, and lots of responsibility. But now we have job security, WHOOPEE!

Perhaps you misread...I stated I have never had a bad gender related experience as a male in nursing. But, this may be due to the fact that I don't concentrate on gender as the cause of all of my personal ills. Professionalism goes a long way when a male invades a predominately female environment. And, by the way, I am pretty happy with my income level, especially since I have made my own job security, rather than depending on others to do it for me.

Best regards

Doey, BSN, RN

93 Posts

I'm a female but did pose this question to the male nurses I work with. Out of a staff of 12 in our critical care area on nights, there are 4 male nurses. None of them said they have ever had any problems related to their gender in nursing. We all get along very well for the most part. Yes, if there is a particularly difficult patient, physically heavy patient or someone who falls and is difficult to get back to bed, the men are there to help us. But they are not abused in this fashion nor do they feel abused. It's co-workers helping each other. If they have care to give to a female patient that they feel may be embarassing to that particular patient,(foley insertion, cleansing/changing peri-pad on someone menstruating), they will ask one of us to do that specific task for them or to assist them. These things don't happen everyday, but when they do we all are there to help each other. I like having men in nursing I think at times it can give you a different perspective on things. But male or female, we are all there for the same thing and the gender of the care giver should not matter.

Jenny P

1,164 Posts

Specializes in CV-ICU.

When I went to nursing school 30+ years ago, there were no men in our school of nursing, nor had there ever been. The males I knew in nursing back then were from the military; they had been corpsmen and went on from there to become nurses. Through my years in nursing, I have known many male nurses and have enjoyed working with most of them. When we are at work we are all nurses, and gender makes no difference- unless it bothers the patients. I've also ended up being a patient of some male nurses I've worked with, and have found that they were as gender neutral as female nurses are for male nurse patients that they have known or worked with before. It depends on the people involved.

Never had a bad experience as a male nurse? What a crock! I daily get bad experiences from my female colleagues. The problem with nursing is that there are TOO many women! We get poor working conditions, poor salary, pensions, and lots of responsibility. But now we have job security, WHOOPEE!

jlwise,rn

1 Post

Hello all you male nurses out there! I am a female RN, who is doing research on gender issues in nursing. I would like to know what experiences--good and bad--you fellows have had as male nurses because you are a male, and the issues you have difficulties with both relating to patients and co-workers as a male nurse. Thank you all for taking the time to reply, and I for one am glad to have my male co-workers on the scene. JLW

mustangsheba

499 Posts

Originally posted by Sentoso:

I am hesitate. could you share your experiences working or having friend with a male in nursing school?

Are you compatible with a male student?

Sentoso: Your question is a little unclear. But I will give you an answer anyway. I am female. In nursing school, my best friend and study partner was male. Twenty years ago, there were about five males in my class of 30. One of the males was the first nurse ever hired to work on OB in that little town. It may have made a difference that most of us were older, married, and had children. The only people I am aware of that my male classmates had any problems with were some of the instructors. I love working with male nurses. They do bring a different perspective to our profession and I value and enjoy that. I know of a few patients who have a problem with gender, oddly enough they were men!

shodobe

1,260 Posts

Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

To buckboomer,

It seems to me you need to stand up for yourself and stop being pushed around.Come on and get a grip!If you are so unhappy with your working conditions maybe you need to get into another area of nursing.I work in the OR and have never had a problem with a patient.The only time recently that I was not allowed in the OR was by a Dr who was Muslim and did not want males viewing his wife.No problem!I personally love working with women and would not want to go back to an all male arena.The nurses who work in my hospital know me and what I stand for and have no problem in getting me to help them with any situation.Women in nursing today are so much better off than the nurses 20 or 30 years ago.Change does take time and I know they are looking out for all of nursing and not for their own gender.Like I said maybe you need to look elsewhere and don't worry about it being a female dominated profession, it always will be.Mike

+ Add a Comment