I just read a blog by a black male CNA and it got me kind of jittery. I'm trying to find out if any of the experiences of other black male CNA's can verify what I read.
Firstly, how difficult is it dealing with elderly female patients and providing them with intimate care? I know this is a challenge probably faced by male CNA's regardless of race but let's face it...women of a certain generation are probably not that comfortable around black men in general, let alone having some black guy give her intimate care so how much of an issue is it in day-to-day work?
Also I read that it is mandatory for the male CNA to stay on especially good terms with the nurses and other CNA's because as a male you are vulnerable to certain accusations made by female patients and will need the support of your co-workers to fight such charges if the situation arises. I even heard in some places if you don't really jump high enough the other nurses and aides will set the male CNA to get in trouble.
Now I've been thinking...because I've worked in majority-female environments before, and I know what it's like when the male is in the minority. They might try to bend the rules, take advantage, expect you to do things that are a little outside the realm of fairness because you're a guy. If the above scenario is accurate, then a male CNA would have to be afraid to say "no" or stand up for himself for fear of what will happen if the female co-workers dislike him and decide to gang up. (I don't mean "stand up for himself" in terms of being insubordinate to nurses.) I really don't want to have to go to work each and everyday kissing everyone's Aunt Fanny or else. That's no way to have to work.
So my question is, is it really as bad as all that?
The only thing we as men can do is speak to all people with a soothing calm voice and remember the patients/residents rights. If the patient said no to you don't take it personal just inform the nurse. I have had this happen to me on more then one occasion. It can make you feel like crap some times and your coworkers may not like it when you need to switch with them, but it is what it is, life isn't fair and it will always be unfair. And I'm sorry but the fact that I am a back man can be a problem in some circles, one day it's not a problem then the next day, WOW , what a difference a day makes for some people.
But just keep smiling :) and make that money, besides there are a lot of other things you can do in health-care if direct patient care in LTC isn't for you. I've had my taste of LTC, I will be working on other aspects of health-care as a career, you can too.
For male CNAs I think it comes down to a lot of different factors as to how receptive female residents are to having males care for them. Race might be a small factor but probably less of one that overall appearance.
We have a male CNA in a different wing where I work who is a big hulking guy with a booming voice who frankly scares some of the female residents. A couple of the older white female residents dont mind a skinny soft spoken black guy taking care of them but dont want that big white guy anywhere near them.
Being a male CNA can be tricky and different places seem to handle it differently. Where I did my clinicals at, males only took care of males. Where I work now they dont differentiate between male and female CNAs and what assignments you have unless a certain resident has made it explicitly clear they dont want a particular male taking care of them. Oddly there arent any residents where I work who across the board refuse all males.
i would think if a patient didn't want you to do peri care, they probably wouldn't want a MALE (of any race) doing it. i would rather have a female do peri care on me if i were in that situation, and i could see a black male assuming it may be because of race if i requested someone else, but it wouldn't be - i have bi-racial children. i don't care about race, but the gender thing may (or may not) bother me. i guess only time will tell. i do have a male OBGYN. of course there might be SOME females who would let a white male do it, but not a black male, but i think that would be a very small portion of the population.
i can also assume i would be hesitant if i were a male to do peri care on females without a witness, but then if you have to have someone standing there to witness it would be more efficient to just let the female witness do the care so the male could be doing something else productive. regardless of how far we've progressed, there are still gender roles or "gender inequalities" but sometimes they are accurate. i might need to step in and do peri care for a man and 10 minutes later i might need that man to help me lift a patient or a garbage can or whatever the case may be. it all evens out in the end.
i bet Obama thought his race might be a limitation too. =0P
Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.
My facility might be the minority, but a large percentage of our aids are black males. A large percentage are African in general, and I mean literally African immigrants. A few of our female residents request female aids for bathing and the aids are all good about trading off to even out the workload and make the patients happy. Many have found that a good CNA is more than color or sex, and are just grateful for the amazing care the men on our staff provide.
I'll finish this for you b/c I fit the category I/m a black male cna 18-25 living in West Virginia. First every CNA no matter what you are has politics to deal with in long term care. Never has there been instance where I received improper treatment from upper management(administrator and don) but like any CNA I got the new CNA treatment from some of the old staff (which is the unwritten code of the business). Patients have the right to be objective to who cares for them( a good CNA instructor explains that first off to you) and the second point as a caregiver you can not subject yourself to be in the perception of any entitlement to who you care for just give them the best care possible. Also the you have to watch for the hating CNA who sees everything you do ,but isn't doing their job and understand that as male some issues will be reported not to harm you but to make sure the patient isn't harmed. I've personally been suspended for an incident that I had no involvement in but the social worker explained the stats of male cna incidents to female cna incidents and I never looked at allegations in a bad way because the actual number of male incidents at the time were way lower and plus I know I do a good job. Your race and gender truly have nothing to do with the way you work or how hard you're job will be as cna. Just remember politics are a part of the health care field and the way you socialize dictates how you are perceived by your co workers.
live4ever
29 Posts
The only thing we as men can do is speak to all people with a soothing calm voice and remember the patients/residents rights. If the patient said no to you don't take it personal just inform the nurse. I have had this happen to me on more then one occasion. It can make you feel like crap some times and your coworkers may not like it when you need to switch with them, but it is what it is, life isn't fair and it will always be unfair. And I'm sorry but the fact that I am a back man can be a problem in some circles, one day it's not a problem then the next day, WOW
, what a difference a day makes for some people.
But just keep smiling :) and make that money, besides there are a lot of other things you can do in health-care if direct patient care in LTC isn't for you. I've had my taste of LTC, I will be working on other aspects of health-care as a career, you can too.