First off I want to say I'm so happy there's a section for male nurses on here! It's nice to know there's a community like this.
So, went to school for IT in my younger years, didn't finish and wasted away most of my twenties but at 26 I joined the Air Force Reserves because I wanted to go to school and have some type of help paying for it. I have a really great job in IT but I've had a really higher calling to nursing. During my tech school I had to do a detail in which I assisted nurses for the day with minor tasks throughout the day. And I've really wanted to go to school for Nursing. I finished my pre-reqs Anatomy & Physiology I, II, and Microbiology all with A's. I know finding a job is hard and I don't mind continuing in the IT field until I can find adequate employment sometime in the future after finishing my degree. However, my dream is to become an officer.
However, I've told my family & friends my plans to go to nursing school and I'm met with being told I'm too old to go. I'm not a woman, nursing is for females nobody wants to be serviced by a male, etc. So much so that I've began to wonder if it makes sense at my age to go back to school and go into a way different field. I am still very serious about wanting to go but other people's comments are always making me question my decision. I'm just wondering, did any of you have to deal with any of these issues and if so how did you deal with them?
I enrolled in college for my 30th birthday! At 33 I start my first job (TOMORROW!) as an RN. You are not too old. I love male nurses! The old stigma about men not being nurses is ridiculous and outdated.
Go for it, man, if this is what you want, do it!! When I told people I was going back to school I got mostly positive feedback and a couple "YOU?!?! Nursing?!?!?" Those comments hurt, but you know what? They have their own problems. You do you and forget the haters!
I'm 33, going into my 3rd year as a nurse and I love it. I had some of the same hesitancies that you mentioned but have found all of them to be unfounded now that I'm in the nursing field. I played music and worked menial jobs until I decided on nursing when I was 27 and never would have imagined this is where I would be in 6 years, but am happier than ever that I made the decision.
First of all, honestly, being a male nurse is a benefit. You will be a valued minority. There are a number of reasons for this, for one thing you balance out the work place a little by having a male perspective around. As for patients, I've had quite a few (both men and women) tell me that they have preferred having male nurses over female nurses. I think this is in part because nursing is not a stereotypical male job, so most of us that go into it have thought about it and are very intentional and passionate about it, whereas many women go into nursing as a default and not because of any real interest in it (definitely not knocking on female nurses, just saying it's more of a stereotypically women's job). As someone else mentioned, male nurses also have a different, sometimes more communicative rapport with male patients. You'll find that some patients respond better to having a male nurse for whatever reason.
As for the age thing, well you're still young in the nursing world. I work with other nurses that range from early 20's to early 60's. Everyone has something to add, that's one of the beautiful things I've found about nursing. More varied backgrounds usually make for better nurses, in my opinion, and older nurses have more experience and basically just understand life and people better. The cookie cutter nurses that you might imagine as being the "ideal nurse" really don't exist.
Mr. Murse that's an amazing story that you have to share. I'm sure all of this will blow right over my first day of school which isn't until Fall of this year assuming I get accepted. I'd love to PM some of you to talk a bit more but I see that this forum has a minimum amount of posts required before you gain the PM ability. Lastly, the only reason I thought I was going to be older than everyone else was because when one thinks of a college student you think of a early 20 something person not necessarily a late twenties or early thirties when it comes to undergrad type classes. But I will agree, better late than never when it comes to turning your life around and like you I bounced around somewhat meaningless jobs a bit as well. Thanks for all the input.
I have been in the medical field for 23 years and have heard most of the male nurse jokes. One thing I noticed is a lot of those who were joking are now job hunting. I have even been ask by a couple of them for more information on becoming a nurse. Finding a job will not be the problem, picking a specialty will be your real challenge. Tune them out and go for it!
I went back to college full time in my early 40s for nursing. I'm an RN and have been working for 14 years in nursing and have met quite a few men nurses. If you wanna be a nurse do it and don't worry about what anyone else thinks. Good luck!
We had 60 year olds in our class. Nursing is predominantly female, however there are areas were women don't work and areas were men don't work. Good job getting into nursing school. Just make sure that your shirt doesn't have a pleat towards the bottom because it make us look like we are wearing a skirt.
If you follow the nursing gig through, try to maintain your IT chops...as mentioned Informatics can be a huge plus as an alternative or just to supplement your bedside (regular ole direct patient care) job. Nursing informatics centers around integrating many inputs to the electronic medical record. Charting, labs, imaging, billing, various patient monitor parameters ( for example a bedside heart monitor sending it's bp, heart rate etc values to be recorded in the EMR).
You have so much life and skills experience to bring to the job they will snap you up in a heartbeat. When I interviewed university candidates I personally put more emphasis on life skills and what they can bring to the profession already.
The whole people don't want a male is out of date and irrelevant, we now work in every discipline and are accepted by the vast majority of our clients.
Magnicious - I moved to nursing after 22 years of working in the airline business, including corporate travel and technology. I went back to school when I was 40 and graduated from nursing school when I was 43. There were other students in my night class who were in their 50's -- 3 of them actually (all women) but they still managed the course load, graduated and passed their NCLEX-RN boards with me. So, don't let the nay-sayers get you down. If you are called to move into nursing as another career, I applaud you and encourage you to follow your dream!
cjdmomma
105 Posts
I enrolled in college for my 30th birthday! At 33 I start my first job (TOMORROW!) as an RN. You are not too old. I love male nurses! The old stigma about men not being nurses is ridiculous and outdated.
Go for it, man, if this is what you want, do it!! When I told people I was going back to school I got mostly positive feedback and a couple "YOU?!?! Nursing?!?!?" Those comments hurt, but you know what? They have their own problems. You do you and forget the haters!