How do Female View Males in the Nursing Profession?

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Nov 25, 2013

In my experience, this has become a non-issue. I have yet to hear a derogatory comment from a patient about a male nurse. I think nursing is pretty close to being gender neutral as teaching is now. Teaching used to be a "female" profession and now there is no longer that distinction. Hopefully in 5 years this kind of thread will no longer be brought up.

My female classmates don't treat the male classmates any different. Instructors have no bias against the male students and none of the nurses during clinical have any issues with men being in the profession.

Baubo516, RN · Nov 25, 2013

There are only a few instances in which I have seen it matter whether a caregiver was male or female. We had a patient on our unit who was of a middle eastern culture and he requested to have only male caregivers for the more "intimate" cares, like toileting or bathing. For him, it was a modesty or "properness" issue. We also had an aide from another unit come over one evening shift and "borrow" one of our CNA's (who was male.) They had a little old lady patient on their unit who was a retired nun. She had requested that a man put her to bed! :)

In all seriousness - sometimes patients will have a preference about the gender of their caregiver, but usually this is not an issue. As far as coworkers go, I like to work with nurses who work hard and are team players, regardless of gender.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Nov 25, 2013

I had a male midwife for one of my pregnancies. "Mark" was great at his work, and because my then-husband was a jerk Mark was better at handling him than the women but only because the guy was a jerk and didn't listen to women about anything. Oh, did I mention that was an EX-husband? :)

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Nov 25, 2013

who has time to consider race, ethnicty, gender, sexual orientation, religion ---? We just get in there and do it together. THis is not a social atmosphere. It is work.

NutmeggeRN, BSN · Nov 25, 2013

This is a great thread. I'm a male nursing student and I'm also gay (so I'm not exactly bucking that stereotype about male nurses, sorry to the guys who are on here). And I would think some of the girls in my class would be OK with it, since I think in general women are more comfortable around gay men than heterosexual men, but I definitely catch some bad vibes from a few of them. And it's not like I'm effeminate or do girl stuff around them, it was something that I divulged to the group so that it's out there and there would be no 'surprises' of any sort later on. It's nothing malicious - they just seem a bit colder to me than they are to other people. We still treat each other with respect - although I think that has more to do with one of the criteria for passing clinicals, which is observable mutual respect and professionalism for each other.

That just plain sucks.....A professional is a professional.....makes one wonder how they view lesbian, bi, questioning or transgendered females/males...or patients....SMH... :barf02:

canigraduate · Nov 25, 2013

I enjoy working with males. They aren't usually as serious or as drama-oriented as the women I work with. The culture around where I live is still very old fashioned with submissive females and dominant males. There's a lot of passive-aggressiveness in my unit, which BITES.

Everline · Nov 25, 2013

I actually couldn't care less even if I tried.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Nov 25, 2013

Extremely positively. I will be the oddball who does throw out a preference here, I guess, but there are a lot of male nurses at my job and I am always relieved when I walk in the door and find that there are more male RNs than female RNs working with me that night. There's a lot less drama, and they're typically stronger than I am, which really helps me out when I'm turning or bathing a patient. I had one night where myself and another small female nurse were trying to bathe one of my very obese patients on the vent... it just about killed both of us and it was way more difficult than it should have been. I asked a male nurse the next night and it was the best bath ever. xD I would much rather work with men than women. Not saying all women are bad, but the female nurses at my job are a lot cattier than the male nurses, and tend to be weaker (like me).

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Nov 25, 2013

This is a great thread. I'm a male nursing student and I'm also gay (so I'm not exactly bucking that stereotype about male nurses, sorry to the guys who are on here). And I would think some of the girls in my class would be OK with it, since I think in general women are more comfortable around gay men than heterosexual men, but I definitely catch some bad vibes from a few of them. And it's not like I'm effeminate or do girl stuff around them, it was something that I divulged to the group so that it's out there and there would be no 'surprises' of any sort later on. It's nothing malicious - they just seem a bit colder to me than they are to other people. We still treat each other with respect - although I think that has more to do with one of the criteria for passing clinicals, which is observable mutual respect and professionalism for each other.

I am still suprised when I read these things....I could really care less about one's sexual orientation unless it involves children or animals. I have worked with flaming gays to macho man and as long as they are competent nurses...it matters not what body parts they possess.

TU RN, DNP, CRNA · Nov 25, 2013

The other day I was at one of my girlfriends family events and a relative of hers who doesn't know me too well went to me, "So how have you been? You're working as a male nurse right?" So I responded "Well yeah, ever since the operation.." He was embarrassed, and I thought myself very clever. The end.

StudentOfHealing · Nov 26, 2013

I'm a male and I've noticed I've rarely (knock on wood) had any bad encounters - IF any with nurses during clinical. My female classmates on the other hand have tons of stories of the "mean nurses".

It is in my very own and modest opinion that perhaps --SOME-- females view other females as competition.

I only had ONE nurse (new born nursery) blow me off as if I wasn't there while blatantly being talkative with all the female students.

However, can't say I ever had a bad experience with the NICU Nurses. They were awesome at teaching and just awesome all around. :) Females and Males alike.

Carrie RN · Nov 26, 2013

It hasn't mattered to me when working with males and females. I have noticed less politics out of the males.