Can a male nurse work in home health?

caliotter3 · May 24, 2011

Of course. Many clients prefer male nurses.

MrChicagoRN, RN · May 25, 2011

I did it for 13 years

suanna · May 25, 2011

I'm sure that if you do a comprehensive review of States BON practice acts you will find in most states a nurse who has a member is strictly forbidden to practice in the home health setting, or any other area where the are out of constant supervision of multiple non-membered nurses. In some areas of the country, entering a patients home while in posession of both an x and a y chromosome is not only grounds for licence suspension but can be prosicuter as a felony. It's just common sense than men are not capible of doing home health care in any safe manner. That darn "maleness" does so get in the way of so many of our nursing interventions, I don't know why men ever go into nursing to begin with.

caliotter3 · May 25, 2011

suanna, he, he, he. LOL! So MrChicago has been felonizing for 13 years!

bloodlikefire · Jun 20, 2011

here in cal,

i am a male nurse and have been doing home health since 2009. my companies policy is that male nurses can only work on male clients, no such gender assignments for the softer (and much prettier) sex. is it legal or necessary? who knows? but there have always been enough male clients for me to get 40 hours of work in a week. it's just part of the gig when you have external genitals in this business. send me a private if you want to hear the horror story which was my ob rotation in lvn school.

CrashVector · Jul 11, 2011

here in cal,
i am a male nurse and have been doing home health since 2009. my companies policy is that male nurses can only work on male clients, no such gender assignments for the softer (and much prettier) sex. is it legal or necessary? who knows? but there have always been enough male clients for me to get 40 hours of work in a week. it's just part of the gig when you have external genitals in this business. send me a private if you want to hear the horror story which was my ob rotation in lvn school.

no, its not "just part of the gig". its blatantly illegal.

bloodlikefire · Jul 11, 2011

no, its not "just part of the gig". its blatantly illegal.

do you have a law degree? do you have the 10,000 dollars to hire a lawyer?

any company can get away with anything that they are not sued about and its not worth my time or money to fight something that in the end doesn't matter to me. as long as i can work a full week every week it truly doesn't matter what the gender of my patient it.

i have less than six months left with this company, as once i earn my bsn i plan on moving on to the next job. each company is different and sets their own policies. you can always refuse to work for a company that has a similar policy if you chose.

CrashVector · Jul 11, 2011

And if other groups had that attitude, women still wouldnt be able to vote and there would still be slavery.

Noimanurse · Jul 11, 2011

I understand exactly where Bloodlikefire is coming from. I live in a rural community, but I WAS interested in finding a part-time home health position for experience, it seems like something I would be interested in, and I see a great value in home health to patients. The problem is, one of the main companies in my area that hires part-timers told me outright that they hire female nurses, not men. What happened was, I sent my resume in, the MALE recruiter called me, and then seemed surprised that I was a man and a nurse all in one...it was after that, that he told me his company rarely hired men for nursing because their clients generally would not allow a male nurse in their home. So I've been a bit turned off by it and continue enjoying my full-time hospital job and providing excellent care to my patients in the hospital.

bloodlikefire · Jul 11, 2011

i understand exactly where bloodlikefire is coming from. i live in a rural community, but i was interested in finding a part-time home health position for experience, it seems like something i would be interested in, and i see a great value in home health to patients. the problem is, one of the main companies in my area that hires part-timers told me outright that they hire female nurses, not men. what happened was, i sent my resume in, the male recruiter called me, and then seemed surprised that i was a man and a nurse all in one...it was after that, that he told me his company rarely hired men for nursing because their clients generally would not allow a male nurse in their home. so i've been a bit turned off by it and continue enjoying my full-time hospital job and providing excellent care to my patients in the hospital.

whoooooo hold on here! i was hired after one interview and trained for my patients. i was told that i could not work for a female patient because it was company policy, which is fine because i work 40 hours a week. if i was told i would not be hired because i was a male, you are talking about lawsuit territory. they are gender discriminating against men. while i do not care enough to make a stink while i am working full time if i had no hours or job because of a policy now you are talking about money damages i.e. lawsuit.

crashvector, check yourself. i am a male, jewish nurse my whole life involves knowing which battles are worth fighting and which battles are not. do not compare a bad company policy with the belittling or suffering of fellow human beings which is just flat out evil.

MrChicagoRN, RN · Jul 12, 2011

I understand exactly where Bloodlikefire is coming from....
t was after that, that he told me his company rarely hired men for nursing because their clients generally would not allow a male nurse in their home. So I've been a bit turned off by it and continue enjoying my full-time hospital job and providing excellent care to my patients in the hospital.

I can't believe that you and BLF are so accepting of blatant & illegal discrimination. Substitute white for "female," black (or other minority) for "male" into your posts and you'll hopefully see how unacceptable these attitudes and behaviors are.

And no, it won't cost $10,000, anything out of pocket to sue; an EEOC complaint is free, and lawyers will take winnable cases on contingency.