Men Nurses ???

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am confident in myself & my abilities, but I am curious on the publics view on men nurses in general > fellow employees, hospitals, patients, etc., any opinions ???

Pete :rolleyes:

I think having male nurses is a good idea ;)

I love the male nurses, I find that they are easier to get along with for the most part. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks as long as it's what you want to do!!

love working with the guys. The only pt problems that I have come accross have been in long term care, some of the older confused ladies have been afraid of the male nurses. "I just woke up and he was standing there!" And in home care. I currently care for a totally dependent 11 y/o vent pt. When the agency sent out a guy her heart rate elevated and she began to cry. Since she is non verbal we began to ask yes and no questions and at question number 1,000 we found out she was embarassed whe he did peri-care. Also in home care I have found that the dads have jelousy issues. I personally have found that men come at nursing with a whole different thought process and it is refreshing.

I must say that everywhere I've been, there have been female nurses that have tried to "protect" the female patients from male nurses. Has/does anyone else experience this? For some reason, being a male automativally puts up a question mark as to your sexual discretion. How you can find a patient attractive is beyond me. Still, I have heard of female nurses marrying their ex-patients, and heard some (again female) nurses talking about finding a particular male patient attractive, so I guess it can happen.

What angers me is that this possibility and any action taken on it is assumed to be a male thing. Quite often a nurse in charge has done a part of my care on a female patient for no apparent reason, particularly for the younger females... things that have to do with the breasts or perineum, even ECGs. Or they come in and talk with me casually while I am doing a wash... Of course when you've worked on the ward for a while they back off but I find the whole process quite insulting.

Interestingly, most cases when a nurse has had sexual relations with a patient are in the psych/corrective services areas, and there are more female "offenders". In those cases the sex was consensual, but still an abuse of the nurse-patient relationship. In our state nursing students cannot do any of their clinical prac in the corrective services because several female nursing students have had sex with male inmates.

It is disgraceful that Obstetrics, gynaecology, L&D and paediatrics are almost without male nurses. I am happy that nurse4kids works in a paediatric department with a 50:50 male to female nurse ratio. This is exceptional.

Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.

We're not 50:50; I get the pleasure of working with the only 3 male nurses on the unit. They only comprise about 10% of our staff. My head nurse is also male and MAY be the reason it's that high. These guys don't have much problem from the patients, the teen girls drool over them and the rest of the kids think they're cool. Occassionally a female will request them to get one of the females for caths, etc.

One of the guys did have a young parent complain "he made me nervous, he looked at my baby too long". Welllll, he was doing a complete assessment.

Jamis, I could have cared less if satan had been in the room during labor!! lol

You should be allowed to do L&D, Jami..keep trying!

Hi All,

Gotta say, do love working with the guys. There are three working critical care on nights right now. There have been no problems with patients and the little old ladies love em'!!! They are excellent nurses and are a great asset. There are a few on the floors at night and they haven't had any problems. One of our guys just put in for a transfer to birthing :( I'll miss him as he is the one I work with most often and have for the past 6yrs or so. But it's something he really wants to do and the nurse manager has said in the past that she would love to have him. I'm sure he'll be terrific there as he is in critical care.

So Pete, go for it!

Specializes in Everything except surgery.

On my unit is fifty percent males, and I enjoy working with them. Working with males on the floor helps to break up some of the estrogen :D. I have never been able to understand why men can be doctors, and women show them all, but not nurses. I also could have cared less who was helping me with labor, as long as they got it OUT.. :D!

Brownie

I am a male nurse . Once in awhile, we have patients which request female nurses, however,it never bothers me. You learn to work around whatever obstacles you encounter. There are many positives.

Once, I had a sixteen year old female, fx femur, and she wanted to know if I would be caring for her the next night. I said, 'most likely". The next evening she has 5 of her girlfriends show up. She introduced me to each and they all had a great time giggling like crazy. The call light was on half the night.

The female staff had a great time, with all their little quips, as well. "Oh, that's room #316's call light, I'm sure she would like her own personal nurse to respond!" "Oh 'boy toy', you are wanted in Room # 316." It took weeks for the staff to finally lose that "boy toy" label.

Don't lose a sense of humor and all will be fine. Remember, it is not enough to just care for our patients, we need to care for our co-workers, as well, and humor is part of that caring or should I say, "therapy".

:D

[ May 20, 2001: Message edited by: RNed ]

[ May 20, 2001: Message edited by: RNed ]

Being

I can't believe this myself, but in 7 years of nursing I have never worked with a male nurse. I live in one of the largest metropolitan cities in the US, too. How wierd!

Specializes in CV-ICU.

I work with some of the best guys in nursing ever. Of a staff of about 70 nurses, I think that close to 20 of them are males (it's critical care).Someone said that there is no discrimination of females caring for male patients; well, when I was a student (in a Catholic Nursing school), I got called on the carpet for "finishing a male bath!" I'm not sure who the nun was trying to protect, me or the patient; but I had worked as an aide in a nursing home for 3 years in high school and didn't know that in my 2nd year of nursing school I shouldn't be "cleaning a male's genitals." I guess I should have left all of the old men with---- never mind. :eek:

If I ask another nurse for help with transfers, I expect to help that nurse with something also. I've traded tasks this winter while I was on a weight restriction: if a nurse (male or female) got my patient up in the chair, I would do their pharmacy sheets, or draw their labs, or do their glucometers for them. All it takes is to ask for the help.

Jamistlc, would you have better luck getting into L&D/OB/GYN if you were an RN? I don't know, but the only 2 male RNs that I've known in OB/GYN were RNs. Just a thought/question you might ask.

male nurses are excellent and awesome. All but one who thought he was a Doctor. Most of the patients thought he was a Doctor also. They assumed because he was a he. Dont let that get to your head.......it will happen to you too. Glad you are coming on board. We need more males in nursing. :)

+ Add a Comment