Lost in a sea of sub-specialties! LOL.

Specialties Ob/Gyn

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Hello everyone! I'm Eric, a 17 year-old male who wants to be a nurse. You probably won't find many high school guys who would even consider being a nurse, lol, but I find it a very exciting career. There is such a huge variety of specialties and areas you can work in. I volunteer at a local hospital as an assistant to our SCU (Special Care Unit). We work with all out-patients who come in to recieve various procedures and get meds by IV, and then are discharged. Although I like it very much and get along well with the RN's, of course 99% of the patients are elderly. I'm more interested in working with a younger population. I'm deciding between pediatrics, neonatology, and L&D. Probably not a whole lot of males go into OB/GYN nursing, but I can't help but think that assisting in the delivery of a new baby would be a very special moment. And the majority of gynecologists are men. In fact, a few years ago, men were probably more respected than females as women health docs. So if anyone would be willing to give me some insight into the world of maternity nursing, it would be very helpful and appreciated.

THANKS!

~Eric :roll

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Whatever you seek, you came to the right place, Eric. OB/newborn nursing is ALL I care to DO...and as a man, you would be a welcome addition to our ranks. There are several male nurses who post here regularly who can give you valuable insights to how it is to be a male OB nurse. Just for your info, during my last pregnancy, the BEST ob nurse I had was a MAN. He was professional and kind beyond words.

I am sure you see will men post replies to you soon. Good luck and I hope you achieve your goal. NEVER give UP!:cool:

hi eric, L&D can be a terrific place to work.I really enjoy it and can think of nothing else i would rather do.It is an awsome experience to witness a new life enter the world. but be prepared to face resistance related to you being male. well i got to run,gotta go give report on my patients. write me if you are interestred. [email protected]

Hi Eric I'm glad you already know what you want you want to do. I too decided to be a nurse when I was 17. I finished my prerequisites when I was 19 and was excepted to a nursing program but ended up turning it down for a job that paid more then nursing. 8 years later I couldn't stand it anymore and left my job to go back to school. I am so glad I went back to school I cant imagine anything I would rather do.

As for being a male in OB/GYN I've been the only male on the OB/GYN unit for the past 2 months. My patients love me. I don't think most patients even give my sex a second thought. Some nurses I work with still have hang ups but they are coming around. Nurses in other parts of the hospital are surprised to hear where I work.

When I first started I didn't know what to expect and thought of my self as being out of place. Now everything feels so natural I have a hard time remembering what I was so worried about.

When you do get threw school and apply to OB/GYN or nursery, think of your self as a nurse and not a male nurse. Some people will think you are strange for wanting to work in these areas. Ignore them, if its what you want to do, then do it and don't let other peoples ignorance effect you at all.

Never allow your managers, instructors, classmates or coworkers to treat you differently because you are male. Realize that even good people sometimes fall prey to societies prejudice. It's not their, fault they have been taught to think of male nurses differently. You can be the one to show them that male nurse are just nurses.

When I first started on OB/GYN nurses would ask patients if it was all right for me to come into a room. This made me feel awkward as if there was something wrong with me. So I started asking the same thing when they would come into one of my rooms. Now they don't ask that anymore. =P

Because of our society we are preprogrammed with allot of garbage. Society tells us that males should not express love or caring and if they do they must be gay or up to no good. God made us to care for one another and if you are able to get past all the garbage and do this, then you are a special person, your patients and coworkers will see that (although it may take your coworkers some time).

Someday soon male nurse and female doctors will just be nurses and doctors.

i had the same problem with nurses telling my patients they were going to have a male nurse and asking their permission. I made them stop! I prefer to go into my patients room introduce my self and let them get to know me. I do not tell them i am male as that is obvious and it just plants that seed of doubt at times. never let anyone stand in your way of your dreams. it can be a hard road to travel but i love every day of it. It is funny sometimes when people from other parts of the hospital call and i anser the phone then often think they got the wrong unit and hang up just to call right back.

I think my part of my post might have been worded badly.

When I first started on OB/GYN nurses would ask patients if it was all right for me to come into a room. This made me feel awkward as if there was something wrong with me. So I started asking the same thing when they would come into one of my rooms. Now they don't ask that anymore. =P

What I ment was I starting asking my patients if it was Okay for the female nurses to come into the room. I did this in front of the nurses that asked if it was okay for me to go into thier patients room.

I woudl ask "is it alright for Sara to come in and help me make your bed? if you are at all uncomfortable I can get soemone else"

I guess Im a littel passive agresive at times =P but it did solve the problem and I got a nice littel private laugh out of it.

Once a nurse asked me why I had embaresed her like that and I asked her why she had done the same thing to me the day before.

hey you sound like a nice young man. i don't have lots of advice. i just wish you much success. we need more people in nursing who are energetic and enthusiastic. i started as a jr. volunteer in the hospital over 20 years ago and i've been a nurse for 15 years now. i think it's great you've been around nurses and pt's and have an idea of what you're getting into.

Hi Eric and Welcome to the board,

There was a recent thread about males in nursing that you might find interesting....here's the link

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18530

I think it must be a bit easier for you male types to be OB-GYN nurses now than it would have been when people my age were birthin' our babies.

Why? Think women's movement - women's lib. When I was a young adult (heh heh - age-specific development) we all had to be feminists. Kind of started the back to midwives movement for that reason. Midwives were almost all women in the olden days. The idea was to stop the evil MALE evil DOCTORS from making money on things that only women do/have/need.

I (flame retardant underwear on, here) prefer a female OB-GYN doc. That's something that I have some control over (even though I have an HMO) so I *have* a female OB-GYN. Okay, GYN in my case.

I wouldn't have a choice of a male or female nurse if I was laboring/delivering. I certainly wouldn't kick up a fuss if I did have now. . . but when I had my babies? I don't know. I might have done. It's a doubly moot point of course, since that was so long ago that male nurses in OB-GYN were virtually unheard of.

Love

Dennie

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Welcome to all nurses, Eric, and I wish you well in your endeavors to become a nurse in whatever field of nursing you desire to be in! :balloons:

You are already gaining some very useful experience about the world of nursing with your hospital volunteer work. Hang in there, and stay encouraged. Let nothing come between you and the goals you are setting for yourself. I'm sure you'll find lots of positive help from us nurses here on this BB, so stick around a while. :nurse:

Specializes in Perinatal/neonatal.
originally posted by ericjames85

in fact, a few years ago, men were probably more respected than females as women health docs.

thanks!

~eric :roll [/b]

interesting take on that matter eric...maybe it's because the medical community (which consisted of a male majority!) conducted a witch hunt and had midwives (women) burned at the stake! :o it's the hospital birth that gained more "respect" and popularity over the home birth. (who was doing those hospital births?);) i'm not trying to give you a hard time, honestly. i want to welcome you to nursing and i wish you the best with your career goals. :kiss

happy nursing~angie

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