In nursing school clinical did you experience discrimination / bias from instructor?

[biltz]

Hey guys,

So I am an older male nursing student and I just failed a clinical course in pediatrics. Prior to this course I had great grades and very good clinical evaluations. Because this was a semester course and the Peds portion was during the 1st half, I went on to complete my OB clinical during the 2nd half and received a great evaluation. Therefore I know this Peds evaluation was bogus and biased. Unfortunately though, the department's policy is if you fail a clinical you are out of the program.

An acquaintance of mine talked to a nursing professor from another nursing school with a BSN program and told her about my situation. One of the comments that the professor made was that it is typical for males to have problems with clinical instructors in Pediactrics and OB clinicals, especially older males.

I definately believe this was the case in my situation. Without going into a lot of details, it was apparent on the first day of class that my instructor had issues with me and even stated that, "we have issues that we need to work on or we aren't going to pass the class". This culminated in her making many factual falicies on my final evaluation. Bottom line was, among other things, she did not like that I spoke up for myself when she accused me of doing something wrong or, more rightly put, she wrongly accused me of doing something I didn't do.

Anyway, I am defending myself based on the many different factors and not just on the gender bias and/or discrimmination I felt occured. I wanted to know though, if any of you on this forum ever faced any discrimination or gender bias in your clinical classes? What happened? What did you do about it? Do you have any literature that details statistics about gender bias/discimination in nursing schools (I'm having a hard time finding any)? Did any of you seek legal help for it? Who did you handle it with your school/department? How did they handle it?

Any help, info, input, discussion, encouragement you can offer would help.

Thanks

[docomo]

I recently graduated myself, and as a male, I can tell you that I hated nursing school with all my heart. We have a policy in our school that says any exam question can be challenged. Throughout the entire program, I never received credit for a single exam question that I challenged. Some of the female students would get credit for 2 or 3 questions per exam.

There were countless times that I felt discriminated, but I never said a word. Personally, I think the entire nursing profession suffers the same illness that all professions which are dominated by a single sex suffer from. I don't know what the name of that disease is, but the phrase "nurses eat their young" pretty much describes it all. I'm a new grad and everyday I wonder how I'll manage to get by when I have to deal with other nurses who have hateful attitudes. I see it so often, even in this forum. So many who think that the are so wise, when in fact, all they are is hateful and full of spite and prejudices.

[Revvy1337]

When I was going through the OB/PEDs clinicals, I had a lot of downtime since many women were uncomfortable with male nurses. However, I stayed attentive and helped out where I could so my instructor said I passed with flying colors. For example, the female students helped the mothers, and I did all the baby checkups/vaccines. I feel bad for you men that had rough times there are still pockets of resistance as I call it in the nursing field. Afterall, they trust male doctors but not male nurses in the OB world.

[docomo]

When I was going through the OB/PEDs clinicals, I had a lot of downtime since many women were uncomfortable with male nurses. However, I stayed attentive and helped out where I could so my instructor said I passed with flying colors. For example, the female students helped the mothers, and I did all the baby checkups/vaccines. I feel bad for you men that had rough times there are still pockets of resistance as I call it in the nursing field. Afterall, they trust male doctors but not male nurses in the OB world.

You couldn't have said it better. OB was hell for me. The patients were fine with male students, but the nurses despised having male students. For the most part, I think it's also worth acknowledging that you are correct when you say "pockets of resistance". Most nurses are intelligent people who realize that gender doesn't matter, and no one should let a few bad apples deter them from enjoying their chosen profession. Also, they are not entirely unjustified. Just before graduation, during my preceptorship I witnessed a male nurse covertly peeking up the gown of young woman that had just come back from surgery. Inside I felt angry and betrayed at having seen this. I thought that it's because of perverts like this guy that I so often have a hard time in this line of work. But then I thought of female teachers who sleep with their underage students and decided that it's not something that is unique to men. Perhaps more common, because of the roles males and females have in society, but not unique.

[docomo]

i experienced the exact situation where i went to school. you mention some keywords; "sociopath", loading up on ammo, and ostersized by other students. it has become clear to me that we are amongst sociopaths everywhere and we don't even know it. huge disadvantage for us! while we are constrained by our morals, values and conscious, they (sociopaths) are aware of this and exploit it. my former nursing director, in my opinion, is a sociopath, and like you, she gathered ammo without me knowing it. she had a network of moles(students who would do anything to stay in her good graces) feed her information about other students. lies and slanders is an understatement. professors which i previously had a good rapport with before, i could easily sense they were now against me. by the time i knew i was under attack, it was too late. they could not get me in lecture as i was pulling a's, and you either know the test material or you don't. you determine and have control of your lecture grades. clinical is a different story; they can say and do anything, in the end it is their opinion, lies or not. it was all propaganda and lies. i left that school and am now doing fine in a legitimate nursing school. it was an awful experience but a great lesson learned. this career field is full of cutthroat, sociopathic people. btw; that director has now been sacked and no longer is part of the program. the school finally figured out she was costing them thousands of dollars because of her wicked ways. i am sure this rotten person has a history behind her, people laying in her wake of sociopathic behavior, hospital to nursing school.

.

"by the time i knew i was under attack, it was too late. "

that was your fatal mistake, and one you are likely to repeat. you should read sun tzu's "art of war" you are always under attack. everyone you meet is not your friend, not matter how nice they pretend to be.

[nursemartin00]

I am a female nurse and If I had a choice, I would choose to work with a male vs a female nurse every single time. Less Drama!

When I went to nursing school, there were 3 men in my class. One dropped out cuz of grades/attendance issues but the other 2 passed and I would say were very much so favored if anything by the instructors. It never bothered me but it was extremely evident.

[acosenza2]

I feel sorry for the guys that have felt discriminated against in nursing school. My class graduated with 3 or 4 guys and my clinical group always had at least 2 guys, and at one time we were 50% guys. I never felt discriminated against because of my sex, although many of our instructors seemed to hate the entire class so I did not take that as a personal offense. My clinical instructor my first year was a man so no issues there. The second year both of my instructors were women but they never treated me differently.

The staff at my clinical site were always fine with me and I never felt any push back from them; many of them said they are happy to see more men moving into the field.

I do remember having an elderly male patient that asked me how my father felt with me becoming a nurse, but I assume that was more based on his generational thinking that only women are nurses.

At any rate, I do not let me gender become an issue in my practice and I have only ever had 1 female patient ask for a woman to help her with toileting, but she was fine with me doing everything else.

[brainkandy87]

I had a very similar experience in my peds rotation. Our instructor was a woman who had no business being in a clinical setting, despite the fact that she had an MSN (she couldn't identify the ST segment on an EKG slide while trying to teach us rhythms in another class). She actually ended up getting fired after the semester of my peds rotation. She overtly showed in class whom she favored as well as the ones she did not like. Those that she didn't like happened to be most of the men in class. She would make snarky comments at our expense and come up with the most ridiculous things to say to us. Those of us she didn't like had never done anything to her or had any problem with her prior to peds. We'd really only had a couple of class days with her beforehand. But for some reason, she just did not like the guys in class.

I finally called her on it one day over a test question that came straight from our ATI book. She changed the answer to the question because she felt the ATI book was wrong. It was a question over a pain scale for peds. Several of us lined up outside her office to review the test. Well, one of her favorites came out before me and looked it over with me. We both recognized the question from the ATI book. We both put the same answer that was from the ATI book. I saw she had marked it wrong for her, but changed it. The favorite said she told the instructor she shouldn't change the answer from ATI and yada yada yada, the instructor gave her credit for the question. The instructor didn't know I knew this. So when I proposed I get credit for it and my rationale behind it, I was denied and told "I need to start using critical thinking skills" and how she didn't think I would pass this class.

So, I told her I knew she had given her favorite credit for the answer. And then when we went back to class and she asked how we all were after the test, I made some smartass comment, something along the lines of pulling answers out of her ass. And then I went to the dean.

And now she works in hospice. I feel awful for those poor people, having to exit the world with her at their bedside.