Benefits of being a male nurse vs Female nurse

[girtenbt]

Hi, Im a sophomore in a BSN program and I was just wondering if there are any benefits of being a male in nursing versus being a female in nursing such as job outlook, pay rate etc.

[remifentanil]

I wouldn't know... I haven't tried being a female nurse yet.

I tried it.. but the thong panties bothered me.

[bnurse1988]

Other than the fact that males are better? I can't really think of a reason....

[Noimanurse]

i did hr before i was a rn. the issue is not a constitutional one but has more to do with class action suits in the name of equal rights for women. no hospital in their right mind would pay a male with the same experience, credentials, etc more than they would pay a female in the same situation. it would be in the same class as paying minorities less than white folks. however, incentives such as moving allowance, sign-on bonus, etc would be a different matter as they vary from person to person. that being said, if a sharp lawyer could show a pattern of preference towards males regarding higher incentives, chango-presto, here comes another class action suit. imo hospitals probably have much less of a glass ceiling than any other employers.

while i don't believe that men get paid more for being a nurse than a woman, i still wonder about how this would play out due to the man actually being a minority when it comes to being a nurse. in many situations there would be a problem paying the man more, but it is a proven fact (hence the 6%) that men are a minority when it comes to nursing. i do believe that men are eligible for many minority type scholarships not based on their race, but because men are a minority when it comes to nursing.

as others have said, the only real advantage is standing to pee and there is rarely a line for a urinal. i will say, at my small hospital there are more female bathrooms than male...what do you think of that?

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

Yeah, there's a huge difference. It's in the way our families treat us.

I see female nurses' work being thoughtlessly interrupted by phone calls on the most minor family non-issues. I hear about rude demands being dropped on night nurses right in the middle of their sleep, demands that may cost several hours but that could easily be met by those making them.

In many cases the female nurse is the major or only breadwinner in the house, yet families cheerfully screw them up and risk their jobs with a complete lack of gratitude or respect.

Someone wrote earlier they couldn't compare being a male nurse with being a female nurse because they'd never been a female nurse. I don't have to be a female nurse to know I'd never put up with a fraction of the crap they take from their families.

I never would have thought of this one on my own, but I have to agree - it's really nothing to do with being a nurse, but more to do with our whole society's view of family roles. It seems like nearly every day I am at work, I hear a woman on the phone attempting to deal with a family emergency long distance. Everything from squabbling kids, to a car the won't go, to not enough food in the fridge, everyone expects mom to solve it over the phone in the middle of a twelve-hour shift. I can't think of the last time I heard a male dealing with things like that. And another related issue: I was a nurse manager for quite a few years (thankfully no more!!) and most of the women in my small department had school age kids. Most of their use of sick time had to do with their kids being sick, not their own illness. One day I woke up to the fact that all those kids had fathers, but it was apparently assumed by everyone that it would always be the mother who would take time off to stay home with the sick kid - it just seemed natural to all that was her role, not his. Hopefully something that will change as we evolve a bit more?

[pedicurn, LPN, RN]

Yeah, there's a huge difference. It's in the way our families treat us.

I see female nurses' work being thoughtlessly interrupted by phone calls on the most minor family non-issues. I hear about rude demands being dropped on night nurses right in the middle of their sleep, demands that may cost several hours but that could easily be met by those making them.

In many cases the female nurse is the major or only breadwinner in the house, yet families cheerfully screw them up and risk their jobs with a complete lack of gratitude or respect.

Someone wrote earlier they couldn't compare being a male nurse with being a female nurse because they'd never been a female nurse. I don't have to be a female nurse to know I'd never put up with a fraction of the crap they take from their families.

Agree

I frequently note male nurses receive more respect from families.

Also from doctors and nurse coworkers.

I have never seen a male nurse be the recipient of that type of catty 'pink ghetto' type behaviour that some of my female coworkers love to dish out. They are never ignored or not treated to a smile

Male nurses always manage to swap a shift because of child issues (most of my coworkers think it's cute and wonderful when male nurses are parents) .... lots of people rally around when they have a family problem.

No-one seems to give a toss when the single parent female nurses have exactly the same family problem .... quite noticeable.

The few male nurses who have some negative cultural issues ( sexist ' I'm a natural leader because I am a male, you follow because you are a female' ) still get promoted despite complaints.

I have seen some males be promoted to senior roles with nada post-grad education, where females need at least half a masters.

And also, males with previous degrees tend to have these noted whereas they are ignored in nursing for females ... I think this helps males climb the ladder quicker.

Subtle discrimination does exist but I lay the blame on female nurse managers and other senior nurses on selection panels .... not HR

[Bill E. Rubin]

Agree

I frequently note male nurses receive more respect from families.

Also from doctors and nurse coworkers.

Interesting discussion. There definitely is the expectation that the female takes care of the family issues (though that may be different when it comes to things like plumbing emergencies or automotive problems, which tend to be my problem rather than my non-nurse wife's).

My wife does get expected to take care of most of our household and childcare issues... but not because she's a woman, but because she's not a nurse and her job affords her more flexibility in coming and going than mine does. However, I believe that many times, husbands in other professions probably still expect their wives who are nurses to deal with childcare and household issues because of their presumed gender roles and the husbands' ignorance of the realities of nursing.

I have never seen a male nurse be the recipient of that type of catty 'pink ghetto' type behaviour that some of my female coworkers love to dish out. They are never ignored or not treated to a smile

You definitely don't work in my unit. I have been the recipient of more than my share. Plus, being an older guy in a unit of younger women, there's the age-discrimination that is heaped on with the gender issue where I'm kind of assumed to be out of it, incompetent or otherwise have to prove myself every shift (which frankly gets kind of tiring... I imagine women in, say engineering jobs often have to deal with this). If something gets left undone at the end of my shift, nobody even considers thinking that I had a cluster-f^*ck of a shift.... another of my coworkers would be given the benefit of the doubt, but I'll get the snide comments about leaving stuff for the next shift which sometimes get passed to my manager as "feedback" which finds its way back to me.

Male nurses always manage to swap a shift because of child issues (most of my coworkers think it's cute and wonderful when male nurses are parents) .... lots of people rally around when they have a family problem.

No-one seems to give a toss when the single parent female nurses have exactly the same family problem .... quite noticeable.

Never noticed this, but there are only two other male nurses on our staff of approximately 50 and one's kids are older (he's my age) and the other is childless. I certainly don't feel like people give me any preference for switches than anyone else.

The few male nurses who have some negative cultural issues ( sexist ' I'm a natural leader because I am a male, you follow because you are a female' ) still get promoted despite complaints.

Thank God we don't have any male nurses like this on my unit. Luckily, if we did, they'd get chewed up and spat out by the female nurses who won't take that kind of nonsense.

And also, males with previous degrees tend to have these noted whereas they are ignored in nursing for females ... I think this helps males climb the ladder quicker.

Hmmm.... this is interesting.... maybe. I wonder whether there's a correlation between what the previous degree and/or experience is in or whether it's solely gender-related.

[noctanol]

where i work at we have two nurses who don't engage in gossip/stupidity. i dont think there is any advantage apart from doing "manly duties," picking up obese pt's and psych pt's who go psycho.