Do doctors treat male nurses different than female nurses?

[Nolander]

My mom, who is a nurse, recently told me of a story of a doctor who became rather sarcastic towards her and her other female coworkers, and that his god-complex attitude leads him to do that often. I wonder that when I graduate and finally get settled in a job how the doctors will treat me and my male counterparts. I know it is probably no big deal but I wonder if male nurses tend to get treated differently, whether better, worse, or about the same in the job setting.

[jasnms]

As a male nurse, I will say that physicians do treat male nurses differently. Most are not sarcastic or show the God like complex to me. I have seen physicians treat female nurses with disdain as though they were his peons. Then this same physician would speak to me in a very courteous manner. The fact is that male nurses are treated differently by both physicians and female nurses. We are working in a world predominately filled with females. But my main concern has been and will always be providing patient care.

[Nolander]

As a male nurse, I will say that physicians do treat male nurses differently. Most are not sarcastic or show the God like complex to me. I have seen physicians treat female nurses with disdain as though they were his peons. Then this same physician would speak to me in a very courteous manner. The fact is that male nurses are treated differently by both physicians and female nurses. We are working in a world predominately filled with females. But my main concern has been and will always be providing patient care.

How would you say the female nurses treat their male counterparts differently?

[sauconyrunner]

I think these days Men in nursing are pretty common. I do see that Male Doctors treat Male nurses, and our Male Unit secretaries, and our Male Xray techs differently than they do females. But, it's mostly just because they can talk guy talk with each other. (I often come across the guy staff all discussing modifications to paintball weapons, or something similar).

We have a fair number of female doctors these days- you seem to be forgetting that!

I am also lucky I guess, usually I don't get treated poorly by the medical staff...maybe they know better.

[EdistoDan]

Good question as a student I wonder the same thing.

[whereslilly]

As mentioned in a previous post, female docs are now very common. Female surgeons are common. Im sure some of the seasoned nurse can relate, I can remember when a female surgeon was very rare. As far as your question, I think alot of the male docs now treat the male RNs' perhaps a little better than the female RNs'. Kinda like a "boys club". There are so many more male nurses around! I can remember when they were pretty rare as well. Most worked in specialty areas, like critical care, ED, or Psych. And YES I can remember instances when I worked in Critical Care when 1 or 2 other nurses were around my pts bedside helping and one was a male nurse, if a certain male attending came in, he would speak to the male nurse only. We Just got used to it. It seemed he thought he was more "capable".

[mcknis]

Yes, I also have to agree as a nurse I am treated slightly differently by some of the male physicians, or just male staff in general. Thankfully, and yes most of us will agree to this point, we are not in your 'girls gossip group' and are ok with talking about cars, working out, construction, etc, more often than we enjoy talking about the current smut books, sex lives, "that time of the month", or any other female dominated issue of the moment. This is not to say we do not enjoy talking to you, or with you, it is just a matter of fact that men are men and women are women. We also like to talk about sex and issues affecting our lives, but are typically much more discreet, as we are the underdogs in this profession.

So do we get spoken to differently (by male docs), typically, but female docs typically not. Once again, you are focusing on another minority in the healthcare field.

[PunkBenRN]

I believe that some do; I don't like to generalize and say all, but there are instances I remember a clear difference in approach.

When I worked in LTC, there was one physician that would talk down to the female staff (very innappropriate and demeaning), but would talk to me very politely. Maybe he had a nasty divorce? Needless to say, when he was on, I was the liason between.

Another physician acted very strange with me. I have a theory that he was intimidated by me. He was fine with female nurses, but when he spoke to me (over the phone or in person), he would talk faster, stutter, become very irritable and terse. It didn't make sense at first, but I'm wondering if that was it. (He didn't treat other male RN's that way. I am a bigger guy who is fit and has tattoos, but why would he respond like this over the phone?)

I feel that some physicians respect you more, others may respect you less. Some like to flirt with women, others seem to feel they can connect better with men.

I guess there is gender bias anywhere you go.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Not where I work - depends on the nurse and the doc. We have one male nurse who is kind of an airhead - docs do not like him much.

Our docs wants nurses who know what they are doing and are patient advocates.

Sex had nothing to do with that.

Rural nursing rocks.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

We have a lot of doctors who are from countries other than the United States. We have noticed that some of them treat the female nurses like "third class citizens." Most "fit in" and do not discriminate, but we have a few that are very arrogant and talk down to the nursing staff, especially the female nurses. One in particular gets upset and demands "the nurse be fired," over very trivial things that the nurse really has no control over. No one has actually been fired because of this, yet, because administration sees this behavoir and realizes it is unfair. I understand in their native country that females are "third class citizens," and nurses may be treated badly, but you would think if they come here to practise, they would know we have equal rights in the US!

[jjrodriguez, BSN, RN]

Throughout my clinicals, I got along fantastically with nearly all the physicians I came into contact with. I thought, and still think, it was in their best interests to provide a good solid experience for a student like me. However I was told that they probably treat me different because I am male. I hope that is not the case though, but I can't deny that some of my female clinical-mates recall the cold shoulder when working with some physicians.

[veggie530]

I think men treat men differently than they treat women in any field, honestly. Male nurses treat me differently than they treat female nurses, and I treat male nurses differently than I treat female nurses. I wouldn't expect less from a Physician.

To the point of being rude, unprofessional, demeaning, etc.: In the world of males, that kind of behavior typically ends in someones fist going through your face. Even though that is unlikely to happen in a hospital setting... I think that is socially bred into males, honestly.