Bad experience as Paramedic intern

Nurses Men

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This is a true story. Period. I am not making any of this up. It is a sad story for the medical field in general. Not being a nurse, but loving newborn infants is a very tough situation for a male nursing student. I have 2 questions I want answered. 1) Why is it so difficult for men to be "baby nurses"? Really, it is. 2) Why as a paramedic student was I flat out lied to about deliveries? I mean, this is true, I was in OB rotation and looking forward to my first births when the charge nurse for the unit told me "this mother does not want students". OK. No problem. That is her right. The problem is this: I was in the elevator with a guy who seemed very happy to be a new father. We struck up conversation based on the fact that I was a paramedic student and in the OB portion of school. He has been a firefighter/paramedic for 22 years. His wife- the pt who requested no students- was also a paramedic for 11 years. He told me to watch his childs birth for school, etc,etc. This was the SAME couple that the nurse told me did not want students to watch. I guess I caught her in a lie? I did not see the birth based on sexual discrimination. Obvioulsly. I let him know, as well. The hospital had "no response" other than to say that staff members are often overworked and make mistakes.

Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Hate to burst your bubble blood donor & Dave, but most facilities don't care if you are male or female.

It's your attitude and body language that form most folks' opinions. You go in there with "Hi I'm Dave andI will be working with you today as your nurse".....ta da!

.....You get a lot more respect than if you go in with the chip on the shoulder that says "I'm a paramedic (and I think Paramedics are fantastic BTW) and I have a skill set that's higher than a nurse and you can't tell me what I can and can't do."

Heck I'm an RN, been one for 32 years. I had men in my class 'way back then' and they did just fine. The became RNs.....not boy nurses, not male RNs just RNs like me.

That Dad may not have wanted a fellow paramedic and just didn't have the gall to say so to your face. Same with the Mama.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Ortho.

Reminds me of my experience in the OB/GYN part of my nursing clinicals. Our clinical group was 6 guys/6 girls and the staff wasn't quite sure what to do with all of us guys on the floor. They mostly just tried to ignore us and hope we would go away!

I overheard a couple of different nurses when asking the mothers if we could observe, and it pretty much went like "We have some male nursing students on the floor today, you don't REALLY want them to observe, do you?

Well, when the question is put like that, what would you expect them to say? We spent a lot of time just looking at charts during that particular rotation...

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Well the bad experiences I had only happened in my EMTP rotations, and there was definitely no chip on my shoulder. I just wanted to learn. I never had a problem except in the L&D/OB rotations.

Now I'm getting a different kind of discrimination bc the teachers are giving me grief with my subjective grades. Let me give an example - copying verbatem what I was told to put in my reports but when it came time for the grade I was given a B in clinical and told it was bc my written work wasn't as good as my hands on, when I also got a 100 on my major care plan. Another time, I treated a scenario in class like a megacode and gave details that were somewhat "imaginary" trying to paint a picture, like what I saw around the room that lead me to a certain decision... I was laughed at so hard she was crying - her comment was "it was just shortness of breath".

If you've been in nursing a long time and respect paramedics thats great, but its not the norm. All too often the ER nurses didn't listen to half of our report. I just don't understand why nurses see themself as so much more superior than paramedics. Nursing school so far has been a joke. The first semester could have been covered in 1 month... and what in the world is a nursing diagnosis? I'm so sick of theraputic communication questions I can't see straight - I got the concept after the first 100 questions.

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Specializes in ER, IICU, PCU, PACU, EMS.
That Dad may not have wanted a fellow paramedic and just didn't have the gall to say so to your face. Same with the Mama.

That may be it right there - perhaps make the RN the "bad guy" to the paramedic student. I'm speaking of experience.

Before my duaghter was born, I was asked if it would be okay to have paramedic students in the room with me. I told them no, I did not want them there to witness the birth. This may seem like a contradiction to my job ~ I have been in the same predicament when I was going through rotations. However, as a firefighter/ paramedic, I did not want a possible future co worker viewing me in all of my glory then seeing them months later in the station. It would possibly be one more issue I would have to deal with later and sometimes it's hard enough being the only female there.

Does that make sense? Perhaps she (or her husband) did not want to be seen by possible future coworkers that way.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

In the end, its the patient who should be deciding who gets to be present. Each incident where there is perceived lack of observations offered, please contact your instructor or the director of either your nursing program or your EMT programs.

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Does that make sense? Perhaps she (or her husband) did not want to be seen by possible future coworkers that way.

Some excellent points here! Anyone who has been around EMS for any length of time knows that there are very few secrets in our business. Somebody from ABC service always knows someone else from XYZ service. The patient may have had some personal OB-related issues that she didn't want broadcasted, or as Medic2RN said, she just might not have liked the thought.

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Good points by all, except for the fact that arrogance or know-it-all attitude was NEVER used. People just assume that it was. I introduced myself appropriately and did everything professionally as the school mandates. I know how some people may not want to be seen by a student that MAY know them or know of them, but in this particular instance that was far from true. It was an extreme case. It's just too bad that the one female in the class who was studying in the same hospital as myself wound up with 4 times the births as the guys. Hospitals can and will dictate who does or sees what, and nobody has issues with that, however, I don't think too many women in labor at home will refuse an all male crew to wait for a female to show up! Thats the irony of the whole thing, beggers can't be choosers in the real world!

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If you've been in nursing a long time and respect paramedics thats great, but its not the norm. All too often the ER nurses didn't listen to half of our report. I just don't understand why nurses see themself as so much more superior than paramedics.

so far thats been my experience too. before i decided to take up nursing, i was considering becoming a paramedic. i mentioned this to a nurse friend of mine and she and her friends told me i should just be a nurse because "we are higher than them." her friends agreed. now that has nothing to do why i decided to pursue nursing but they did seem to think they were superior.

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Specializes in Telemetry, OR, ICU.
I had basically the same experience during my OB clinicals, except it was our clinical instructor who decided it wasn't appropriate for the male students to be present at lady partsl deliveries.

IMHO, that particular clinical instructor is making inappropriate gender-bias decisions and would never get my vote for instructor of the year. Whether or not a male nursing student is present at a lady partsl delivery should be at the discretion of the expectant mom.

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I will start off by saying I am a male nurse. I actually find myself disagreeing with most people on this post. First, my honest opinion is that you can get into serious trouble over this incident. The patient is the pregnant wife, it is the "husbands birth" too BUT it is also the woman's body that is being exposed. She had the right to make this decision without her husband knowing. The nurse trusted you to tell you that the pt did not want you in there. End of the situation. Idle conversation such as talking about being a paramedic is ok but in no way should you have told that husband what the nurse told you about his wife refusing to allow you in there. If I was the nurse and that was my pt, either you as a student would not return to that floor or I wouldnt.

Most patients don't want to be rude, hence they wont tell you how they really feel and I cannot believe you talked to the patient about this. The nurse/pt relationship is one of trust. They will often tell the nurses things they wont tell the doctor or even their own family. How do you know the nurse was being dishonest? Because a patient or husband who you directly addressed and shouldnt have told you what you wanted to hear? Even though the husband told you first that you could watch this, ultimately it really wasnt his decision.

I think you are expecting too much. The nurses there are there for the patients. The patients are there to give birth, they arent obliged to give you a learning experience. I have been a nurse for 10 years, would I let a female student watch an personal examination on me? Absolutely not. I would be too embarassed. A lot of women feel the same way, it does suck for us, but you have to honor the fact that it is their bodies.

I am not trying to discourage you, but I really feel that you could have gotten into major trouble over this, including being kicked out of the program.

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The doctors were a lot nicer to me as a Paramedic student too... they took the time to explain things, showed me how to perform certain procedures, etc.

I'm a former (volunteer, female) paramedic in nursing school now. I think there's a difference between the way paramedic students and nursing students are treated and IMO it has to do with the autonomy aspect. Everyone knows paramedics are working alone in the field, running on nothing more than their training and their gut instinct. Frankly its shocking what they let you do with only 400 hours of training. So I think everyone invests a lot more into making sure paramedics have a good sense of what is going on. Paramedics garner more respect than nurses, which may or may not be deserved (here I am thinking about standing out in the dark on a major highway at 1:00 a.m. with an overturned semi truck on fire-- with godknowswhat hazmat in the back-- and a tiny compact car whose former driver's brain is on the dashboard...you get the picture). There's a lot more glamor in emergency medicine- let's face it, would the TV series "MedSurg!" ever be as big a hit as "Emergency!" was?

Last week, I was on my psych rotation. We wear street clothes, so I wore a casual-type but very professional suit. One of the docs was in the staff room, he came over saying "I don't believe we met--" and then cut it off when he saw my name tag that said So-and-so Nursing Student with "--oh, you're a nursing student" and walked right past me.

That's o.k. I know who I am, even if he don't...

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Specializes in ER, HH, CTICU, corrections, cardiology, hospice.
I will start off by saying I am a male nurse. I actually find myself disagreeing with most people on this post. First, my honest opinion is that you can get into serious trouble over this incident. The patient is the pregnant wife, it is the "husbands birth" too BUT it is also the woman's body that is being exposed. She had the right to make this decision without her husband knowing. The nurse trusted you to tell you that the pt did not want you in there. End of the situation. Idle conversation such as talking about being a paramedic is ok but in no way should you have told that husband what the nurse told you about his wife refusing to allow you in there. If I was the nurse and that was my pt, either you as a student would not return to that floor or I wouldnt.

Most patients don't want to be rude, hence they wont tell you how they really feel and I cannot believe you talked to the patient about this. The nurse/pt relationship is one of trust. They will often tell the nurses things they wont tell the doctor or even their own family. How do you know the nurse was being dishonest? Because a patient or husband who you directly addressed and shouldnt have told you what you wanted to hear? Even though the husband told you first that you could watch this, ultimately it really wasnt his decision.

I think you are expecting too much. The nurses there are there for the patients. The patients are there to give birth, they arent obliged to give you a learning experience. I have been a nurse for 10 years, would I let a female student watch an personal examination on me? Absolutely not. I would be too embarassed. A lot of women feel the same way, it does suck for us, but you have to honor the fact that it is their bodies.

I am not trying to discourage you, but I really feel that you could have gotten into major trouble over this, including being kicked out of the program.

+1 well said.:wink2: I had a fecal expirence in my ob/gyn rotation. That said, when I first read this I got the distinct impression that the nurse was covering for the Pt. and that both medics were less than honest(gasp!:nono: ) It can happen. For the record, medics get to do more fun stuff in the field. Nurses get to give most every drug under the sun. NPs et to write orders for all of the above:rotfl: .

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