Better Looking females get better grades?

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I know this isn't a direct nursing article but nurses spend their fair share of time in the classroom and many on here are still students and wanted to know your thoughts on this. What do you guys think? What has been your personal experience in the matter? Attractive nurses do you think you get special treatment? I thought this was sad. I think the difference is worse when it comes to earnings. Why even in this day and age are still so much emphasis put on a female's looks.

More attractive female students enjoy higher grades in the classroom.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Thanks for sharing...

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Specializes in retired LTC.

There have been all kinds of previously documented and published studies about preferential treatment for different populations of subjects in different settings.

There are all kinds of classic discrimination studies. That's why there are 'protected' classes. I guess the other end of the spectrum is the person who 'FAVORS' rather than 'discriminates'. I would say it manifests unconsciously, maybe consciously; or covertly vs overtly; deliberately or not.

Hard part is trying to prove it. I guess that's the stuff investigations and lawsuits are made of.

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Specializes in Family Practice.

Well most nursing professors are older women. So my personal experience was that because I am conventionally attractive, I had to work harder for my grades because they hated me. There was the general thought that if you're young and pretty, you clearly were not serious and/or knowledgeable. This was more apparent in my master's program than my undergrad program.

As for my actual nursing practice, I definitely had docs that I could manipulate based on my looks. I'd give them a smile and a bat of the lashes and they'd write the order no one else could get. It's messed up but if the patient needs it, then so be it.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

To blondenurse - many, many years ago, I lost a BIIIIG amount of weight and became modestly attractively 'hot to trot'. And to reward myself, I bought a blond Dolly Parton wig.

Let me just say that life is different as a blonde!!! :cheeky:

Like George Bailey and Ebenezer Scrooge, I had the opportunity to see and experience life differently in a before & after capacity.

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Not sure why this is news to some of ya'll, attractive people in general have it easier anywhere, whether male/female, and regardless of profession. There have been social studies proving this.

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Specializes in Telemetry.
To blondenurse - many, many years ago, I lost a BIIIIG amount of weight and became modestly attractively 'hot to trot'. And to reward myself, I bought a blond Dolly Parton wig.

Let me just say that life is different as a blonde!!! :cheeky:

Like George Bailey and Ebenezer Scrooge, I had the opportunity to see and experience life differently in a before & after capacity.

Just think how different life would have been if you'd also gotten a Dolly Parton rack!

( • ) ( • ) :D

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Even back in the 1980's or so while yes nursing instructors/staff of nursing schools were mainly females so generally being "attractive" didn't always work in one's favour; when it came to core/non-nursing classes things were often different.

Know for a fact young girls especially attractive ones received better grades than those not so. It was an open secret at my former college which male professors would "give the A" to attractive pre-nursing or nursing students. These were professors in various sciences, math, and English departments who were not under the control of the nursing department.

Needed that B- upped to a "B"? A little flirting or if necessary pleading along with tears often did the trick. Failing a chemistry class? There were professors who would give the A or B grade because they thought you knew all the chemistry a nurse needed to know.

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I resemble Antonio Banderas (so I'm told) and yes I tend to get more money in the hospital environment where all my superiors are female...

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I was waiting to read how increased confidence and assertiveness, perhaps even better received social skills from years of positive reinforcement, might have an impact but the study didn't seem to touch on that.

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well according to this study... it didn't make a difference with men!

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Specializes in ICU.

Damn, that's why my grades suck!!! I'm not pretty enough.

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