% infants in Peds? Male RN in Peds?

[Lemon Bars]

Hi. New grad RN/BSN here looking for career advice. I used to be a 5th/6th grade teacher and I love kids. I am thinking of applying for nursing jobs in Pediatrics. There are two concerns that I would appreciate advice on. My first concern is that I'm not sure if I want to work much with infants. I have only a tiny amount of personal experience with infants. I don't dislike infants, it's just that I can't speak to them like I can speak to older children, and they have teeny tiny veins!

My second concern, which really shouldn't be a concern but I think it may be, is that I am a man. During nursing school, I spent only two days in Pediatrics, and I had a bad experience. The Peds nurses (all female) didn't seem to like me at all. At that time on this particular Peds unit, nearly all of the patients were new mothers with babies, overflow from the Labor & Delivery unit. The RN supervising me would not let me care for her patients, nor be present in the patient's room during teaching and discharge instructions. The RN told me that one of the patients had specifically asked that no men provide care for her. Another patient had not insisted on no men, but was being giving instructions on breastfeeding, and the Peds RN told me that it would be too awkward to have a man in the room.

My questions are: In your Peds unit, what percentage of the patients are infants or mothers with infants, as opposed to toddlers and school age children? Also, are male nurses shunned by nurses and/or patients in Peds units generally?

Thanks for any advice!

[ventmommy]

I don't think your experience is the norm. I work in a children's hospital. We don't have L&D here. We have NICU, PICU, surgery/PACU, hem/onc, general care, dialysis, transplant, etc. There are male nurses (and RTs and PTs and OTs and CNAs) in all of these units! I honestly can not picture any one I know at my hospital discriminating against a male nurse. Are there times that a male nurse might have to swap a patient? Sure, there might be a female child abuse/rape/gyn patient that is not comfortable with a male nurse but I think that is the exception, not the norm.

[Amethya]

YES! Well said.

NotReady, you reminded me of a really touching encounter I had a few months ago. I was caring for an infant who was coded, then passed away. The baby passed in the middle of the night, and his parents couldn't be there. After we called the code, all of the other staff (all female) cleared out, but one of the nurses (who happened to be male) stuck around. He held the baby's hand and sang to him while he passed so he wouldn't be alone. Afterward, while I performed post-mortem care, he set up the room for the parents with photos and holiday memorabilia (i.e. footprint cards) our Child Life folks had made during his stay.

I was so impressed by the care that he provided, and also taken aback because it was so far from my normal gender expectations. He went above and beyond simply providing medical care in order to also meet the patient and family's emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual needs. Truly excellent work.

That is the most touching, saddest thing ever. That nurse is an amazing person and I hope he still works at in pediatrics.

I would be so heartbroken and would sing along with thim.

[PeakRN]

I'll let out the slightly jaded answer first. Sick patients and parents of sick children don't care about the gender of their clinical staff. I've never had a laboring mom refuse me caring for them, I've never had a heme/onc parent refuse me taking care of their daughter, I've never had a parent refuse me cathing their daughter (of all ages) after they have had other staff attempt 5-6 times. I've taught moms how to breast feed, I've done cervical dilation exams, I've taught school age and teen girls about menstruation and reproduction. I have taken care of boys and girls, men and women, who have been sexually abused by men. Since it was commented earlier this has included many Arab families.

We don't overflow mom/baby into peds, the majority of our patients are toddlers or infants. Disease is the most profound at the extremes of the age spectrum, the very young and the very old. You will build your clinical skills caring for infants, it comes with time and practice.

I will say that sick kids are not like healthy kids. How you interact with a 10 year old appy is going to be different then how you would interact with them in the classroom.

We have plently of male nurses on our peds units, PICU, and NICUs; gender does not play a role in patient assignments or hiring decisions. We don't have any men on mom/baby and I doubt we ever will, it has nothing to do with men not being able to provide care but I don't think that it is an area that appeals to many guys. We don't currently have any male nurses working in L&D but we have in the past and they provided equally good care as the female nurses.

[HiddencatBSN, BSN]

You'll probably see fewer male nurses in pediatrics compared to other specialties but not so few that it's surprising to see them. And honestly in my experience it's actually pretty similar to the overall percentage of nurses who are men if not higher.

Most of my coworkers, even the female ones, wouldn't be able to help with a difficult latch regardless, and the main time I've seen a patient request a same-gender nurse is if there's going to be a GU exam (usually they're more concerned about the provider's gender) or EKGs on a teen girl, and usually a female PCA or nurse can step in briefly to do that if the patient is uncomfortable.