Do Male Nurses Get More Respect?

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In your experience, do male nurses get more respect from providers than females? I have seen examples of this, not always, but enough to make me wonder if it's widespread. How about you, what's your experience?

In terms of respect from patients and their families/loved ones, I would say yes. However, I can tell you unequivocally that male nurses are routinely discriminated against from the day they enter nursing school until the day they leave the field. I was systematically harassed and blatantly discriminated against when I first tried to go through a local RN program by two nursing instructors who I later learned were described as "men haters". They were overheard by many students lamenting that only women used to get into nursing and now that the pay went up, they were angry because men started flocking into the field. They can't get you academically if you are book smart, so where they get you is in clinical check offs and clinicals themselves. During a check off, you can hear them coaching or reminding the female nurses when they forgot or messed up, but when men went in to get checked off, you had better remember everything and not make the slightest mistake. They are more likely to shadow you during clinicals, this one guy was kicked out of the program because he left a bar of soap in the wash basin after giving a bed bath (!!). They harass men with a viscious double standard and try to put additional pressure on us with clinicals and those care plans. Mine were always articulate and detailed, but would come back with a ton of red ink and always needed "revision". When I looked at the care plans of the other female nursing students, they were general and simplistic and that nursing instructor who was harassing me saw us comparing notes and told the other students "I don't think its a good idea for you to be comparing notes". In other words, she made no secret about her double standard and the implied threat was "help him and you'll be next". These are true stories, and if men try to go somewhere to complain about this flagrant sexism, it is suggested that they have an overactive imagination or that they are too sensitive and of course, good luck proving you are being harassed or discriminated against. So if you somehow are allowed to graduate then you enter the work force. I haven't experienced as much discrimination in hiring, but once a man gets on the floor, watch out. It doesn't take much to get fired as a male nurse, women managers like to make it look like they are tough and "kicking some butt" by going after the largest alpha male first. Being a huge, strong man I have found the DONs and other management maggots are harsher with their words, quicker to write men up and/or terminate them. The last LTC facility I was at, the DON would say HI and be all pleasant to the nurse on the other side, but would wait for me to walk by her office so she could hurl a dagger at me. Something nasty, threatening, or sarcastic. When I asked her a year or so later (after they fired her) why she said she didn't even know she was doing it, that it was her way of making continue to do an "outstanding job" (the other nurse dumped half of her work off on me, another routine occurrence) and that she was sorry and all that. I am an adult, I don't need to be continuously threatened and harassed in order to do a good job. There is so much more I could talk about, but the library closes soon. Make no mistake about it. Men are routinely harassed and discriminated against in the nursing field. I am living proof

Never experienced this in the slightest bit. Sorry that you did. That must be tough.

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"However, I can tell you unequivocally that male nurses are routinely discriminated against from the day they enter nursing school until the day they leave the field."

That was your personally experience, and is by no means the norm.

Neither is this one:

In my nursing program, there was only one male student.

The program director had lost a son several years back, and coddled the male student.

She didn't even do anything when a pt fell and was hurt as a direct result of something this student did.

I saw several of his assignments and care plans, and they were terrible- sloppy, with spelling and grammatical errors, and just poorly written. I would have been embarrassed to hand in such work. He always got good grades, though.

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Specializes in Management, Med/Surg, Clinical Trainer.

They get more respect from the male doctors until they see they are an RN.....then no.

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They get more respect from the male doctors until they see they are an RN.....then no.

Thats exactly why I went back to school for my masters to become an NP, because RNs do not get any respect. I have heard physicians refer to RNs as "the stupid".

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Thats exactly why I went back to school for my masters to become an NP, because RNs do not get any respect. I have heard physicians refer to RNs as "the stupid".

Interesting. I've always gotten plenty of respect. The one resident who called me stupid (or something like that) was IMMEDIATELY straightened out by his attending. Generally, you get the respect you've earned.

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I have personally seen male nurses take less flak from patients and docs because frankly they are less likely to take it.

I vividly recall a young male ICU nurse telling docs and patients alike if they want to run their mouths or threaten (in the case of the patients) him that they can take it outside right now and he would finish it. He was damn good at his job too.

Alpha males get alpha male respect.

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Specializes in Management, Med/Surg, Clinical Trainer.

I vividly recall a young male ICU nurse telling docs and patients alike if they want to run their mouths or threaten (in the case of the patients) him that they can take it outside right now and he would finish it. He was damn good at his job too.

Alpha males get alpha male respect.

That kind of behavior is unprofessional. If the best communication tactic he can come up with is let's go outside...that is not good. That said, I will not take abuse or snide remarks. I will tell the person, who I am, what can and cannot be done, and let them know that they can be upset and digress into a circular pattern of discussion but that will not solve their problem and will only delay their care.

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I have personally seen male nurses take less flak from patients and docs because frankly they are less likely to take it.

I vividly recall a young male ICU nurse telling docs and patients alike if they want to run their mouths or threaten (in the case of the patients) him that they can take it outside right now and he would finish it. He was damn good at his job too.

Alpha males get alpha male respect.

Im all for standing up for yourself, but threatening to "take a patient outside" for running their mouth is clearly crossing the line. I'm skeptical any nurse could do that and keep their job.

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Im all for standing up for yourself, but threatening to "take a patient outside" for running their mouth is clearly crossing the line. I'm skeptical any nurse could do that and keep their job.

You don't work where I work. Most of the patients are either drug addicts, from the local jail or just plain violent and abusive. They threaten, not just run their mouths. Even if management didn't like it they have no one to replace him with and he does excellent patient care. He just puts up with 0 BS.

Any other normal place of work would call the police on a good percentage of our patients.

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In terms of respect from patients and their families/loved ones, I would say yes. However, I can tell you unequivocally that male nurses are routinely discriminated against from the day they enter nursing school until the day they leave the field. ......Make no mistake about it. Men are routinely harassed and discriminated against in the nursing field. I am living proof

Well, "LPN with an Attitude", perhaps it was YOUR attitude that landed you in all these messes? I find that whenever someone has difficulty with pretty much everyone.....it's not everyone else that has the problem, it's the guy who thinks everyone else is the problem.

As for the content of your post, your experience was YOURS, but not the norm, not by a long shot. I can quote you stories and point you to people who were treated exactly the same as every other student, male or female. I have seen floundering female students and excellent male ones, and vice versa. IOW, I put more faith in there being a problem with ONE person rather than an entire school faculty, year after year ....as well as the administration of every facilty you have tried employment.

I have worked with some excellent male nurses, and ones who were friendly and easy to get along with. Good co-workers, good team players. And I have also worked with some true jerks, real PITAs who felt they were owed more than anyone else on the unit, for varying reasons (none of them valid). Maybe they felt "discriminated against" because their co-workers didn't roll over and give them whatever they wanted, because they simply wanted it. Don't know, don't care, because they weren't worth the value THEY placed on themselves.

"Routine harrassment" because you are a male....or because you are exceptionally difficult to deal with? Based on what you've written here.....I have my guesses.

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"Routine harrassment" because you are a male....or because you are exceptionally difficult to deal with? Based on what you've written here.....I have my guesses.

My thoughts exactly. If this is a common theme in this nurse's life- there is only one common denominator.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

Yes, I feel management loves male nurses.

I haven't come across any docs who treat any nurses different based on sex.

Id like to say probably 60-65% of the mid levels and docs in the ER are females.

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