Do Male Nursing Students Get It Easier Than Female?

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 10, 2005

You probably are going to get a lot of yes answers, but please don't generalize that that's the way it is.

Out of 60 students in my class there were two males. We were treated equally and fairly and not cut any slack. All the people that were cut slack, if there is such a thing, were females.

We stood out like sore thumbs and were under the microscope from all our peers and instructors. I had no background in nursing so I fumbled around my first clinical and got a "marginal" on my first clinical, which is just below satisfactory. I got burned for leaving a wash cloth in the shower and for being nervous and disorganized.

Any school that doesn't treat all students with fairness and equality is not a good school.

I would like to think the females in your school were cut some slack now and then too, but you just didn't notice because males are more under the microscope.

But I've heard it before, and you'll surely here it here, that males get better treatment in nursing school and beyond, so it must be true in some cases.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · May 10, 2005

It is also true that there are some real man-hating nursing instructors out there. I witnessed completely unfair treatment of one male nursing student from a med-surg instructor.

I think she decided he'd make a bad nurse because on the first day we went around the table and told her why we wanted to be nurses. My answer was fumbling; I didn't want to be very specific. As was his. He tried to play it light, but I could tell he had something in his history--as I did--that we didn't really want to share with a bunch of strangers on the first day of clinical.

She picked on me for awhile, but her main focus was him. She'd interrupt him while he was giving an answer, she'd refuse to acknowledge his questions, and she'd make quite a show of highlighting his mistakes.

Talking to graduate students, I was told that this instructor "always had it in for one student" all semester.

I was so relieved when she left mid-semester. She made me a nervous wreck. And the guy in our class did very well with the rest of school and is a wonderful nurse today.

z's playa · May 10, 2005

We were asking a question in PSY class as to why most male's handwriting is so much sloppier than a female's. (yes I know there's exceptions to the norm)

We discussed the possibilty that all through school, boys are expected to be sloppier, rougher and aren't expected to excell in certain areas. Basically, boys are not expected to do as well in school as they are in the gym.

Now I am NOT saying I totally agree with this but I do see a point.

Z

markjrn · May 10, 2005

I am a nursing student and I have noticed that in my school teachers let male nursing students slide a little more when they make mistakes. So I decided to write a research paper on the subject.
I would like to know....
Do male students get better treatment in nursing school than female students, or are they allowed more slack?
When responding please state what school you go to and your year of study.
thank you
Maria

My wife and I went through nursing school together. There is no doubt about it - I was treated far better than she was, although she was getting better marks and getting higher grading in clinical. I was always "satisfactory" or "above satisfactory", she was always "above satisfactory" or "excellent". Anyways, there were probably 6-10 of us guys in there and it seemed that we were always treated very well by instructors. I have never experienced the "man-hating nurses" or the "discrimination" others have, and I have worked in alot of different facilities.

ETA: graduated in 1996, Canada

zambezi, BSN, RN · May 10, 2005

thankfully, i never did see alot of favoritism one way or the other...the nursing students that "got picked on" in my class were all at least partially deserving, imho...i only had one male in my class and he was right there along with the rest of us...i work with a high ratio of males in my workplace and i don't notice them being treated too much differently...some of them bond with the physicians more than the females but i think that is a personality thing...i bond with many of them too because i have some traditionall "male" hobbies....and i am nice and respectful when it is deserving...i think that much of the time is boils down to personality and not gender...of course and angie stated...there are some male-hating instructors and students...the student that i am precepting says that he had a male hating instructor that made it very hard on it and basically failed him until he presented his case to the dean...I am sure that some males are shooed in in some places...I think a little favoritism goes on everywhere...

SmilingBluEyes · May 11, 2005

it was true where I went to school.

fergus51 · May 11, 2005

You can't even imagine how much the guys in my program got away with. I'd write it down, but I doubt people would even believe me. It became a big joke at the school that all you had to do to pass was grow man-atomy (manly anatomical bits).

z's playa · May 11, 2005

You can't even imagine how much the guys in my program got away with. I'd write it down, but I doubt people would even believe me. It became a big joke at the school that all you had to do to pass was grow man-atomy (manly anatomical bits).

Manly anatomical BITS?!! :rotfl: :rotfl:

Too cute fergus.

Z

fergus51 · May 11, 2005

Well, it's true. I swear, my old nursing school friends and I still laugh about it and I think about it anytime someone says anatomy since it rhymes. We even had a guy show up drunk to clinical and not get kicked out of the program. It was absolutely insane.

z's playa · May 11, 2005

Well, it's true. I swear, my old nursing school friends and I still laugh about it and I think about it anytime someone says anatomy since it rhymes. We even had a guy show up drunk to clinical and not get kicked out of the program. It was absolutely insane.

I just showed my guy your post. He's all like "At least call them monster pieces!!"

*sigh :rolleyes: boys....

Z

allnurses Guide · May 11, 2005

Nope, no favoritism in my class. The instructors treated us all the same . . some were nice and very unorganized, one was a terror and picked on the students over anything she could find, whether you were male or female, one was extremely professional and very smart and just wanted us to be exceptional nurses and expected alot from us.

As to the handwriting question, my second son had terrible handwriting and had to do all his work over for an entire year - so he wasn't cut any slack because "boys have bad handwriting".

steph