Do male nurses get less abuse than females by nursing supervisors and patients ?

[Lanceman]

My aunt (RN) was telling me that in her experience male nurses tend to not get yelled at as often and in general receive less abuse from fellow co-workers, supervisors, and patients. I am a male and will be entering a nursing program soon so I found this interesting. I would think that a great deal of After reading some of the bullying stories/threads on here I can't imagine people getting away with some of confrontations that were shared. I've been in the military for the last six years and except for bootcamp abusive behavior of subordinates or peers is not tolerated in any form. My question is "Has anyone else witnessed this type of double-standard when it comes to abusive behavior during face-to-face interactions ?". I am not asking about overall respect but rather confrontational situations. I have never cared what somebody thought of me personally but I will not tolerate somebody yelling into my face or vocally demeaning me. I am in no way suggesting anybody is better than somebody else or that it is right, deserved or whatever. I figure a lot of it depends on the individuals, specific situations and the overall atmosphere at the workplace. Thanks for any insight that is offered.

Lance

[SmilingBluEyes]

rofl I love how you think, Mike.

[hipab4hands]

I've been yelled at many times by patients over a wide variety of issues. I haven't noticed if it's more or less than female nurses.

I have found on many occasions a female nurse will in report tell me what an awful mean and demanding, or needy patient they have had all day, and they are a completely different patient to me. I've always thought it was my kind, caring demeanor and effective therapeutic communication style. Never thought it was because I was a man.

I don't think one can generalize here, but it might be true in some cases, but I doubt it's widespread.

My male coworkers tell me that they have noticed that they don't get the verbal abuse that we females get. I don't know if it is because they have a more authoritative tone to the voices or if they just don't put up with the S*** from patients.

[hipab4hands]

I'm having a hard time understanding why hospital employees don't seem to believe they have the same rights as others. It is true that we occassionally get assaulted and/or battered by people with altered mental status, but in my observations, those instances are far less frequent than offenses by people who know better, and could be held legally accountable for their actions. Whether or not the administration likes it, a doctor who assaults a nurse can be put in jail. I don't think I've ever seen a doctor who wouldn't get the point after a few times of that. (Actually, I wonder whether a felony conviction might get a doctor out of the doctor business for good.)

As for hospital administrators who allow such conditions to persist, a few civil settlements would probably get their attention, too. (No, I'm not naive about retaliation, but with a nod to SmilingBlueEyes, I'll bet the CEO's house would make a pretty nice severance payment, too.)

Verbal and physical assaults are not reported, because we are brained wash to believe that it isn't nice for the nurse to make waves for the docs-"do you really believe the doc was trying to hurt you or do you really want this to go on their record?"

Nurses, who do report on these incidents see to be targeted by management afterwards, - change of assignment, more frequent evals, etc., as a means of discouraging others from reporting it.

I have reported docs for verbal abuse and insisted that it be made part of their work record. If any of them tried to physically assault me, my first call would be to 911, not administration.

[RN34TX]

I worked for a hospital in Dallas where a nursing supervisor physically pushed a CNA up against the wall and screamed at her in a panic over a patient who fell out of bed. There were 4 agency nurses, the charge nurse and an RT who were in the room trying to get the patient back in bed.

The next day after a complaint was filed by the CNA, we were short staffed because 3 of the 4 agency nurses got their contracts cancelled and were no longer allowed to work there. The only agency nurse that stayed miraculously "didn't see anything" when the incident occured. All of the others backed up the complaint by the CNA. The charge nurse also was eventually fired and reported to the board on bogus charges after months of harassment and scrutiny over her work. The RT also backed up her story and how he remained employed there was a mystery to me except maybe that he wasn't under nursing authority.

I'm very happy to say that the one agency nurse who "didn't see anything" eventually got hers.

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

I worked for a hospital in Dallas where a nursing supervisor physically pushed a CNA up against the wall and screamed at her in a panic over a patient who fell out of bed. There were 4 agency nurses, the charge nurse and an RT who were in the room trying to get the patient back in bed.

The next day after a complaint was filed by the CNA, we were short staffed because 3 of the 4 agency nurses got their contracts cancelled and were no longer allowed to work there. The only agency nurse that stayed miraculously "didn't see anything" when the incident occured. All of the others backed up the complaint by the CNA. The charge nurse also was eventually fired and reported to the board on bogus charges after months of harassment and scrutiny over her work. The RT also backed up her story and how he remained employed there was a mystery to me except maybe that he wasn't under nursing authority.

I'm very happy to say that the one agency nurse who "didn't see anything" eventually got hers.

Are there no hungry lawyers in Texas? We're studying the big Tulia drug bust in my Race, Class, and Gender course. That, and some of the stories on these boards, make me pretty darned proud of my "insignificant, little state." But I gotta believe there's an attorney somewhere in Texas who would see an incident like this as a new Mercedes, ripe for the picking. But even if you don't believe in litigation for fun and profit (which, truthfully, I don't) the nursing supervisor could very reasonably have been sent to jail for his or her battery of the CNA. I hope the CNA wasn't injured, so I don't see a lot of financial damages there, but everyone who was retaliated against did have a cause of action and a right to be compensated for their monetary losses. Also lots of room for federal civil and criminal charges, and those don't matter what state you are in.

Damn--I really don't want to go to law school, but things like this make it hard to resist.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

verbal and physical assaults are not reported, because we are brained wash to believe that it isn't nice for the nurse to make waves for the docs-"do you really believe the doc was trying to hurt you or do you really want this to go on their record?"

nurses, who do report on these incidents see to be targeted by management afterwards, - change of assignment, more frequent evals, etc., as a means of discouraging others from reporting it.

i have reported docs for verbal abuse and insisted that it be made part of their work record. if any of them tried to physically assault me, my first call would be to 911, not administration.

i worked with a lovely woman in spokane -- she was agency and was finally allowed into the icu because we were so short staffed. she said she had lots of l & d experience -- in fact, she used to be the manager. until one day, a doc had a screaming fit followed up by slamming a nurse up against the wall. the manager witnessed the situation, wrote up the doc, called the police and had him arrested. as a result, both she and the nurse who was assaulted were fired, and charges were dropped since no one else saw anything. (yeah, right).

another place, there was a doc who used to get likkered up and come to work where he'd verbally abuse the nursing staff and on more than one occaision punched a nurse. nothing ever happened. the nursing supervisors would always talk the nurse out of writing it up or calling the police. then one day he decked a doc --- and he went to jail. go figure!

[SmilingBluEyes]

IN the case like above, it would be time to hire an attorney, and sue both the doctor AND hospital. I would in that case, in a New York minute. Esp since there WERE witnesses, and unless they were ALL to lie under oath, I would stand a good chance of making someone pay for this, and stopping future incidents (which would be of the utmost importance, to me). In this case, the hospital is highly culpable, too. I would go after em all. If that makes me "evil" so be it. No one is gonna get away w/assaulting me, if I can help it. Being a "nurse" does not mean "doormat". :angryfire