Being a man in the field

cota2k · Oct 23, 2006

I have always enjoyed being the male in a female dominated profession. It's been repeated often here that both sexes, as with any two people that work together, will change the dynamics. We all bring something different to the table. We had a discusion in my BSN class a couple weeks ago about males in the profession, my comment was "As an ED Nurse, I get asked for help with all the lifts, transfers and drunks." Our instructor asked if this bothered me? No. Are the females bothered to go with the docs for pelvics? NO. Are the female nurses bothered when I ask one to accompany me to place a foley in a female? No. This is just how tasks have evolved. One of our docs even said he's not heard of a female nurse being sued for sexual indescretion by a male during foley placement. I practice as a professional, and I am treated by all the hospital staff, in and out of the ED, as a professional. The bottom line is team work. We don't all ahave to get along, but from 9-5 we do need to accept each other for what are. Nurses.

Nitngale · Oct 23, 2006

I understand what you're saying but still it is a hair on the sexist side to be honest.Its just the nature of the conversation though.

I don't agree with the term "sexist". It has a legal conatation which points toward discrimination. I've worked almost exclusively with men in male dominated jobs my whole life and there is a difference (on average) between men and women and the way they approach and perform a job. I don't think that one is better then the other just different. I quote from a former boss when I showed him that I could perform a certain task as well or better than my male counterparts. He agreed that I did but put it this way . He said, about 90%the men where I worked (there were 5000+ employees) could do the same work while only 15% of the women could. As for the education and actual performance of nursing, I think anyone with intelligence and persevervance can graduate-----but to be a good nurse, comes from the heart and has nothing to do with gender. I think gender does play a role when it comes to the patient's choice. How many men go to a female urologists?