How well does misogyny work out in your facility?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

An article passed my way last night written by an East Carolina University student arguing about the availability of birth control in the student health center.

http://theeastcarolinian.com/?p=1138

What was really disturbing wasn't thebile spewed towards women taking responsibility for themselves (advocate for birth control or not, I'm not here to argue that one). It was that this young man is a senior in the nursing program.

The article was slightly sanitized on the site, but it was captured for all eternity on the internet. I suggest reading it (if you can stomach it!).

http://rebekahtodd.tumblr.com/post/10814214583/east-carolinian-releases-outrageous-column-on-birth

That's right! This young man is going to be entering our ranks in a few short months!

Someone who believes that a woman who engages in sex is actually a prostitute.

Someone who wants to be in an industry around a large majority of coworkers that will be offended when he insults them for having a ******** (but he uses the real word).

Someone who wants to be a nurse, but doesn't know that his case of the sniffles is going to be treated with fluids and rest.

If you were a preceptor and one of your students acted like this, what would you think about their ability to provide adequate and equal care? Would a nursing instructor think he was sleeping in his nursing ethics class and not paying attention to the section on triage in his textbook? More importantly, if young Ben Cochran passes his NCLEX and is licensed, what is a nursing manager going to think when she googles his name before the interview and this is the number one hit?

If he becomes a nurse someday, I'm going to be ashamed on behalf of my gender. I apologize in advance to all of you ladies.

ETA: I forgot to mention that I don't believe the apology in the editorial. His Facebook page shows him gloating about receiving all of the attention and hate mail.

Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.

yeah, he's looking for attention. he says on his facebook page "keep the hate mail coming!"

any attention is just going to feed him.

that being said, i'm pretty sure he is going to have some nursing school repercussions. if anyone in my school publicly said ANYTHING like that, we'd at the very least be put on probation, most likely kicked out. as a student he is a representative of his nursing school.

I'm curious to see if his school school lets him graduate- freedom of speech and all...and yes, I do think he's disturbed on some level.

Specializes in Med/Surg.

There are several comments to the article, saying things like, "I hope the BON in your state gets wind of this, you'll never get a license to practice," "I hope your nursing instructors retroactively fail you," etc....and some that don't say "I hope," just say that they WILL. Sorry...that just makes THOSE folks look kind of stupid. Just because the guy posts some ridiculous article, is NOT a reason for the BON not to grant him a license, for goodness sake. Mind you, I don't want to see this d-bag become a nurse, but this isn't going to keep it from happening.....

Specializes in Emergency, Case Management, Informatics.
If you click on the link for his Facebook page from the article, he has an open profile/wall....

Ah.. I didn't go back that far. I stopped at the "keep the hate mail coming" bit.

I doubt that the school will kick him out or keep him from graduating based on this. First amendment and all.

Perhaps someone should forward this information to his state's Board of Nursing. At the very least, they may call him for a sit-down and make him sweat while reviewing whether or not he's of "good moral character".

Sorry...that just makes THOSE folks look kind of stupid. Just because the guy posts some ridiculous article, is NOT a reason for the BON not to grant him a license, for goodness sake

Depending on your local BON, you'd be surprised. A classmate of mine from my original LPN program years ago had to go to Nashville to meet with the BON (well, actually, she said it was only 3 members, which is the minimum for a quorum here). According to her, it was a pretty brief meeting and they asked a few vague questions relating to her moral character. One question that she was a little worried about (and probably the only reason she even told me the story, to see if I knew anything about it)... they asked, "Do you have any enemies?" (I'm paraphrasing from my poor memory here).

They never would give her any details of why she was even brought before the board. No criminal history, no problems with previous employers. She had broken up with her boyfriend a couple of months before she graduated, so she had questioned whether or not her ex did anything to try to muddy up her application.

Never heard anything else about it, but it just goes to show how little it takes to be called to the BON for initial licensure. Once you've actually gotten your license, you have to screw up pretty bad. But up front, they're pretty strict. At least in Tennessee.

Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.
There are several comments to the article, saying things like, "I hope the BON in your state gets wind of this, you'll never get a license to practice," "I hope your nursing instructors retroactively fail you," etc....and some that don't say "I hope," just say that they WILL. Sorry...that just makes THOSE folks look kind of stupid. Just because the guy posts some ridiculous article, is NOT a reason for the BON not to grant him a license, for goodness sake. Mind you, I don't want to see this d-bag become a nurse, but this isn't going to keep it from happening.....

no, it's not a reason for the BON to not grant a license, but it is a reason for the school to suspend him. you are expected to act professionally as a student, and are expected to represent your school of nursing in a professional manner. this is a public, blatantly sexist and medically ignorant rant. people in my school have been kicked out for far, far, far less than this. i would advocate for some sort of remediation, but you can't change how one thinks.

if you google his name and nursing school, several articles of protest pop up from OB/GYNs and fellow students, written to the dean. this OB/GYNs letter is perfect:

http://thewelltimedperiod.blogspot.com/2011/10/nursing-student-ben-cochran.html

Well, according to his facebook profile, his likes include cantaloupe, Ayn Rand, Ebeneezer Scrooge, Mathew McCounaghey, cartoons, and romantic comedies.

He sounds like a very young, very confused, not too bright, overly-strident douchebag. His parents must be so proud. It also sounds like he doesn't know what the flippity flop he wants to do with his life, so nursing studies? Perhaps he thinks it's a guaranteed job, with lots of security, good pay, and weekends and holidays free.

I doubt he will last. So the controversy raises some good discussion about women's health and advocacy, but I'm not too worried about his future in nursing.

Specializes in Med/Surg.

I appreciate the info. I can understand if he would be suspended, or whatnot, for violating the code of ethics for his school. That makes sense to me. Having an instructor fail him for a class didn't, though, and that's more what I was referring to.

An interesting mess, for sure. I DO sincerely hope any potential future employer Googles him and finds this. THAT to me would be well-justified.

Specializes in FNP.

I hope he gets kicked out of, or not accepted to (whichever applies) the program.

I would also like to sentence him to 6 months FT volunteer hours at an inner city community women's health center.

He thinks this is so funny. He doesn't realize yet that he just ruined his nursing future. I'm not worried about him caring for patients anymore because it is not going to happen. The repercussions of his article have blown up. On facebook alone it has spread like wildfire. My FB network is 1000 miles away from Greenville and we're hearing about it. Often it is nearly impossible to weed out those who should never become nurses. Ben Cochran made it extremely easy for him to be weeded out. From day 1 nurses are taught to put compassion first and leave judgement at the door. Ben missed that day. How many nursing questions have we seen on exams that are along the lines of "A nurse is preparing to care for a patient of a different culture/religion. The nurse's PRIORITY action is to what?" The answer is to examine one's own beliefs and make sure they do not interfere with providing culturally competent and acceptable care, along with cultural awareness. Ben's behavior shows he is lacking in all the keypoints of culturally competent nursing care.

He sounds like a young, dumb, angry, immature guy who probably doesn't have a girlfriend (and is angry about that). There's no way he will ever get a job in any area where he'd be dealing with contraception, given that his real name is attached to this article, forever immortalized on the internet. The job market is tight for everybody so if his attitude in writing is anything like his attitude in real life, I doubt he will get a job in any nursing specialty, women's health or not!

Specializes in ICU.

Holy crap. What an ignorant idiot. I can't believe he even graduated high school.

I think the funniest part is that he was waiting to "get mucous extricated from his lungs" he was waiting in the campus clinic for a bronch?

Sitting in the waiting room for birth control makes more sense than waiting for some cough syrup and water.

Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

IME misogyny has equaled disdain for nursing. If you think about it, how can it not? If you hate women and think they are inferior, how can you effectively work in an environment that is 90% women? The one nurse I worked with who was a outspoken misogynist was the worst nurse I have ever worked with. He ignored everything, including his Dr orders and CNAs desperately trying to tell him about important changes of condition. His med pass took 30 minutes while every other nurse takes at least 3 hours. That wasn't a triumph of time management, it was plain neglect. It was a great relief to fire him.

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