male entering the NICU ward... sigh

[madmaxls6]

Hi there, I am about to graduate with my associates degree in nursing (thank God it is almost over) and have been hired to work in the NICU at the hospital near where I live. I am VERY excited about this fact but, I am also just a little bit worried because of the fact that I feel like a testosterone canoe in an estrogen ocean. My question to the general population is how do you as future and current nurses feel about a male entering such a female dominated area. Do you feel that a male can be just as effective with mother's and children? Lastly, what kind of situations do you think I should prepare for regarding fathers? (I foresee the fathers having more problems with the fact that I am a male than the mothers)

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to this post.

Max

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

I'm an older dude with plans to work in either NICU or even well-baby nursery when I graduate next spring.

I've spent a good bit of time in both this semester, and realize I've found my "calling". To make the transition even more weird, I spent 15 years working on death row in the Texas prison system before I entered nursing school.

Good luck to you and your kayak, and consider me officially jealous of you having the job I so desire. :)

[missjennmb]

I am not a nurse (yet) but I am a mother of 3, and there have been many times when my children were inconsolable until my husband was there to pick them up and talk to them. There's just something about a man's voice (and maybe their touch) sometimes that can be comforting when all else fails.

I work at a hospital currently, and of all of my Respiratory Therapists, the one that I really think has the best bedside manner is a 6ft tall black man who works NICU/PICU. He always gives off a calm relaxed caring confident manner even in the most emergent of situations, and that, I think, makes him really great at what he does. Babies sense things like that, and I think that is more important than anything else.