Do men in healthcare suffer from burnout?

Nurses General Nursing

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I know there aren't as many male nurses as females but the ones I have met all seem to seriously love their jobs and don't complain much. I have also met physical therapists and the females were the ones that were burned out. Do you think men in healthcare last longer in their healthcare related field than women do? Is it cause women are more emotional than men and will suffer from 'compassion fatigue'? Or are male nurses treated better?? What are your thoughts?

Specializes in acute rehab, psych, home health, agencey.

Been in the field almost twenty years, as a male i have watched both sides crash hard and even come close myself several times. I am not sure it is gender specific but more related to as a nurse starts to spiral downward what are the factors. Is it just the job and its stress factors or more often a combination of both unrelenting job stress and crushing outside work factors like family,medical or social stresses. I think that what happens is that the individual nurse loses a very valuable piece of their psyche: ther coping skills. I also dont have any hard data but do have good observational skills still

Specializes in Acute Care, CM, School Nursing.

I agree, men are more likely to leave work, and forget about their bad shift. Women are more likely (IMO) to go home and stew about it. I know I am guilty of doing this!

On a side note, women are also more likely to have to finish their shift, go home, and start "working" all over again. Meaning laundry, cooking, childcare, cleaning... Not to say that men don't deal with these things, but probably most of it falls into the laps of women.

Specializes in CCRN, Med-Surg, ED, Geri, Psych.
I do it like this: When I'm not there, there's not a damn thing I can do for anybody. Worrying doesn't do a damn thing for anybody. If I stay there all the time and don't take care of myself by going home when I should, there's not a damn thing I'll be able to do for anybody. My co-workers are smart professionals, if I can't trust them to do the job as well as I do then either I need new co-workers or a new job...

:up:

Men do suffer "burnout"... but it has been my experience that it is rare in the "Assertive" male.

Probably because the "Assertive" ones tend to "fix-problems not blame"... take action versus react and if improvements aren't forthcoming in a reasonable period of time... seek employment elsewhere (facility or specialty or profession). They usually don't play "victim" well and therefore take responsibility for their dissatisfaction.

When my vehicle leaves the parking lot... I'm looking out the front windshield... NOT in the rear-view mirror... ;)

When I got tired of being overworked, underpaid/valued, and arguing about "mandatory overtime"... I didn't blame anyone else, nor did I just "suck it up."

I did some research, completed some more prereqs, and returned to school. For 3.5 yrs, I worked nights and weekends only, went to school in the mornings and did what I could for my child when I could (yes as a single parent)

So yeah... I think some of us do suffer burn-out but I think we are more likely to take action to alleviate our "burn-out" versus simply react to the "burn-out."

Just thoughts based upon MY experiences...

Lannister

Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.

Just my experience:

There were, oh, about 10 male students in my graduating class. It's been a little over 5 years since we graduated. I personally know of three of the males that are out of the field and could not be talked back into it no matter what you offered. One left before he was done with his first year at his first job. The other simply got tired of it and went in a different direction completely. The third was OK with nursing until the recession hit. When the recession hit, conditions at his hospital went down significantly and there was a wage freeze..........and he walked.

You could look at it two different ways:

1. I am stronger/better adjusted hence able to endure nursing better.

2. They had other options and took them.

Trust me.............its #2.

I'm not going to sit here and say I'm still in nursing because of any great coping mechanism I've created for myself that someone else couldn't get. TBH, if other options had presented themselves on certain days (you know..............THOSE DAYS), I'd probably be out of nursing too.

I think the same line of thought could be applied here when comparing male/female job satisfaction. Its probably not a matter of one side having a tendency to do anything better. Its just a matter of "other opportunities" being there for the ones who don't want to be as much.

So.....................IDK what the number is. Lets say 10% of nurses are males. Lets say, for every ten nurses, 4 want to get away from nursing. Of those four...........two get an opportunity that allows them to leave the field.

Now, apply the same math to the female nurses. For every ten, 4 want to get out, and two do. But......women make up 90% of the nursing field. So, the number of female nurses hanging around wishing they could be done is enormous compared to that of males. In fact, using the (fake, for example only) numbers I'm using........they'd outnumber us 9:1.

But..............here is the difference. I don't think the numbers are equal as I've made them up to be. I think women have a harder time moving on. There are less "opportunities" given to them. I would venture to say, of the four who want to get out of nursing........really, only one gets a chance to, sometimes. Thats an assumption on my part, yes.........but I make it with a lot of hearing about how the males "still dominate the workforce" stories on here and in my personal life.

So, the idea that there are more women who don't cope as well is a bit of a mirage. A mirage created by the fact that, well, the women simply outnumber us. If there were a way to break down the statistics in an honest/accurate manner, I bet satisfaction wise women and men would be about the same.

So, in short..........yes, I know way less Cry Baby Billy's than I do Whinny Sally's...........but its only because women outnumber the men by such a large number and because men get more chances to move on, not because any gender copes better than the other.

Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.
Actually at least when it comes to nursing men are almost twice as likely to leave the profession as females according to this study done by the University of Pennsylvania.

"7.5 percent of new male nurses dropped out of nursing within four years of graduating from nursing school, compared to 4 percent of women"

http://www.upenn.edu/researchatpenn/article.php?435&hlt

But that may have been from lack of respect or being forced to do the "heavy jobs", not just burnout.. Traditionally I think women in general have more on their plates then men. And most women are more sensitive than men.. Just my 2 cents worth.. no one get all offended or anything.

Specializes in CCRN, Med-Surg, ED, Geri, Psych.
But that may have been from lack of respect or being forced to do the "heavy jobs", not just burnout...

Yep...!!!!

We have all worked places where the one male nurse that works there gets ALL the "quarter-tonners," dangerously mentally ill or simply "difficult" patients day after day after day... :crying2:

Lannister

A humorous way to maybe explain why men wouldn't burn out as quickly as women and why men can "shut off" after work.

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