Stereotyping male nurses have reached a disreputable level in my society and beyond, to the point that it started to affect the mindset and the efficacy of male nurses. An eye opener should be addressed on this topic in order to tackle and seal this "infringement". The use of both qualitative and quantitative data is necessary to acquire a stone based stand - interviews, surveys, content analysis, participant observation, secondary data analysis, case studies, meta-analysis, statistics and others. In addition, I hope the outcome of this topic would be to reach definitive answers and solutions rather than fashioning and escalating a new controversial topic.
I wrote this topic for an English research paper and I would like to hear from male and female nurses about this topic - any stories, quotes, personal point of views and real life situations would be helpful.
I have considered the idea that they may be looking out for my best interest (in case of harassment accusations), however, there is no concern for my best interest when it comes to any other patient demographic. Frankly, if the patient is considered a young, attractive female then I have other staff intervening and providing care for my patient.
I'm not sure if i completely understand your comment, but I will respond. Apologies if I misinterpret some points. When it comes to providing care to patients that involves very private/personal situations, I think there are very very few patients that are actually completely comfortable having a nurse assist them. On my unit, we have many young male patients ( 17+ yrs) who receive total care from female nurses. I don't believe these young males are any more comfortable receiving care from female staff than young females receiving care from male staff; I believe it has more to do with body image issues, and societal beliefs. I think females are generally much more concerned with body image and judgement thus would not want a male staff. Also, I feel that the social bias of men being sexual predators influences the decisions made by co-staff (at least in my experience, this is accurate...see my comment above, regarding the male CNA that was sent home due to non trust for caring for a female patient on night shift).
I do not believe they are protecting me from lawsuits. I am able to protect myself by speaking with the patient and discussing the matter directly.
Also, female patients requesting a female staff is much easier to accommodate than if the roles were reversed. If one of our young male patients wanted a male nurse, he would not have a choice but to have a female nurse. Just because its easier to accommodate female patients doesn't mean we should be doing so. When it comes down to it, Nurses are professionals and their gender should not come into play. We are not "male nurses" and "female nurses," we're NURSES.
We accommodate patients because we want them to be comfortable. Each patients subjective believes are based on their individual knowledge and life experiences. As a result, some female patients are comfortable with male staff and some are not...and same with the male patient population (some are comfortable with female nurses and some want a male nurse). Now, if we break the genders down to gay male nurses and gay female nurses, does that change a patients view on what nurse they would be comfortable with? Would a female patient who did not want a male nurse now be okay since she found out he was gay? What about ethnicity or religious affiliation (where garments worn denote that religious affiliation)? If a patient were to refuse a nurse based on ethnicity or religious affiliation, it would not be tolerated by the staff or management. The patient would bee thought to be racist or prejudice. Why then is it okay to subjectively judge nurses based on gender? If a female patient is not comfortable with a male nurse, then why is that? I don't think its okay to refuse a male nurse just because your not comfortable with them? If a patient said they were not comfortable with a black nurse, or an asian nurse, or caucasian nurse it would not be tolerated. Now, i'm not saying that a male nurse should still go ahead and provide care for a female patient who does not want a male nurse; that would just lead to significant sexual harassment cases. I think it should be dealt with in the same matter that issues with race would be dealt with; Acknowledge and denounce the behaviour, yet comply with the patient's request.
You seem set on where you stand. I already saw your side, but can see theirs as well. You made no mention of a patient actually turning you away so maybe this is solely a coworker issue. I read this late at night . Maybe they're just used to asking ahead for male patients for years. I don't know how long you've been on the unit or they have. To stop it, speak with your supervisor. If that is unsuccessful, the next step would be HR.
We accommodate patients because we want them to be comfortable. Each patients subjective believes are based on their individual knowledge and life experiences. As a result, some female patients are comfortable with male staff and some are not...and same with the male patient population (some are comfortable with female nurses and some want a male nurse). Now, if we break the genders down to gay male nurses and gay female nurses, does that change a patients view on what nurse they would be comfortable with? Would a female patient who did not want a male nurse now be okay since she found out he was gay? What about ethnicity or religious affiliation (where garments worn denote that religious affiliation)? If a patient were to refuse a nurse based on ethnicity or religious affiliation, it would not be tolerated by the staff or management. The patient would bee thought to be racist or prejudice. Why then is it okay to subjectively judge nurses based on gender? If a female patient is not comfortable with a male nurse, then why is that? I don't think its okay to refuse a male nurse just because your not comfortable with them? If a patient said they were not comfortable with a black nurse, or an asian nurse, or caucasian nurse it would not be tolerated. Now, i'm not saying that a male nurse should still go ahead and provide care for a female patient who does not want a male nurse; that would just lead to significant sexual harassment cases. I think it should be dealt with in the same matter that issues with race would be dealt with; Acknowledge and denounce the behaviour, yet comply with the patient's request.
I think you are an idealist and I wish more people were like you. At least once a week the male nurses in my unit get refused by patients. At least once a month some uppity elderly white woman gets upset that her nurse is black and requests a white nurse. If there are any gay nurses working with me, which I seriously doubt - they hide very well if they are silly enough to work here - I am quite sure they would be refused by patients of either gender and harassed by the staff, whom I have heard talk about how "unnatural" and "wrong" being gay is in regular, everyday conversation. The average individual here, regardless of whether I'm talking about a patient or staff member, is incredibly close-minded, judgmental, and racist. The funniest part about the racist white people here is that this city is more than 50% black - you'd think that the idiot racists would find somewhere else to live.
I just had a conversation with one of my coworkers the other day about how she felt like she'd never belong here or feel like a good nurse because the second she developed a good relationship with a patient, he or she would say, "You're good for a black nurse," or something along those lines. And then the patients claim they aren't racist!!!
For you to say these things are socially unacceptable probably means you live in a more equal and fair area of the country than I work in, and I'm jealous of you for that. Maybe after I get my first year or two of experience, I'll be able to move somewhere that people like you live. I really hope so. For the record, I was born and raised in the South - but I had never seen prejudice this deeply entrenched until I moved into a more rural area of the South. I thought this kind of prejudice against anyone not white and straight was long dead, but I was wrong. It is really depressing.
As a female who has worked in a primarily male field at one time, the discrimination sucks. I was actually pulled away from clients and sent to do secretarial duties because "so and so is a stronger sell on those...." (So and so was male.) When I finally reached the point of overwhelming frustration by the small and subtle gender jabs, I sat down, wrote out all of my feelings respectfully but clearly, and happily went on my merry way with life.
Occupations that are primarily one gender will probably always carry undertones of discrimination, or at the very least, different treatment toward the minority gender. I see the male students in my cohort get treated differently by female staff or faculty. It's not necessarily in mean or disrespectful ways, but they do behave differently toward them. Students behave differently toward male faculty. One girl in particular drove me nuts with this. She had a friendly nickname for a clinical instructor that clearly embarrassed the crap out of him. I was embarrassed for him. Why treat one gender differently than another?
Not really. This is what I have seen and continue to see where I work. I should speak up, but that is not as easy as it sounds when being the minority. I am ever so gently trying to approach and correct the behavior, probably will be an unsuccessful endeavor...Basically, I wouldn't want to be a patient in the ED for a trauma, males are stripped of their clothing, left open and exposed to everyone, as if some sort of exhibit. While females, are given extreme privacy to the point that it is almost embarrassing to be a male RN in the room. Heck, I've seen female trauma patients that don't even get their clothing removed after rolling a vehicle and having neck pain!! .."do you have to cut my yoga pants off? "No, we can leave them on..." Etc...Male patient, low back pain but came in walking, treated as trauma, stripped, clothing cut off...
Probably specific to my ED...but I am not convinced....
Not really. This is what I have seen and continue to see where I work. I should speak up, but that is not as easy as it sounds when being the minority. I am ever so gently trying to approach and correct the behavior, probably will be an unsuccessful endeavor...Basically, I wouldn't want to be a patient in the ED for a trauma, males are stripped of their clothing, left open and exposed to everyone, as if some sort of exhibit. While females, are given extreme privacy to the point that it is almost embarrassing to be a male RN in the room. Heck, I've seen female trauma patients that don't even get their clothing removed after rolling a vehicle and having neck pain!! .."do you have to cut my yoga pants off? "No, we can leave them on..." Etc...Male patient, low back pain but came in walking, treated as trauma, stripped, clothing cut off...
Probably specific to my ED...but I am not convinced....
I don't have professional experience with this but in my personal experience... As an 18 year old female after a car accident that resulted in a blow to the head and sternum on my steering wheel (airbags weren't standard back then), every last bit was cut off me. I can't remember if it was Hopkins or St. Agnes now, but I wanted to share that with a little hope, it isn't ALL EDs. Also, in my school's program, we're taught sensitivity toward both genders equally. I couldn't imagine leaving a male exposed if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
I don't have professional experience with this but in my personal experience... As an 18 year old female after a car accident that resulted in a blow to the head and sternum on my steering wheel (airbags weren't standard back then), every last bit was cut off me. I can't remember if it was Hopkins or St. Agnes now, but I wanted to share that with a little hope, it isn't ALL EDs. Also, in my school's program, we're taught sensitivity toward both genders equally. I couldn't imagine leaving a male exposed if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
I havent really experienced any discrimination because of me being a male...If anything, i feel more appreciated and welcomed in my profession. As a float pool tech, whenever they see me walk throught the doors in the morning everyone is excited and welcomes me. However i know that the discrimination DOES exist. EG. My supervisor told me that he has previous mother baby experience, and when he was floated to mother baby back when he was a floor nurse they told himthay they didnt want him working there because of his sex. He has ample experience in tha tfeild and he was offended because of it. Not sure of the details, but none the less the discrimination is there...i just havent noticed it as much as you stated in your post.
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@ adagiogray
I have considered the idea that they may be looking out for my best interest (in case of harassment accusations), however, there is no concern for my best interest when it comes to any other patient demographic. Frankly, if the patient is considered a young, attractive female then I have other staff intervening and providing care for my patient.