Male nurse in L&D

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Hi, I am a male nurse married 3 kids. I have applied to a position on my facility on the Labor and delivery unit. And they pretty much told me they don't want to hire a male nurse. I don;t think they can do that I think is discrimination. what do you think? do you think ladies would stop coming to our hospital because they don't want a male ob nurse?

I simply don't believe you.

It's true,at a county hospital in the Midwest,1981. But then,if you are new to nursing there would be much you

would be surprised to know. Yet,who in 1981 would imagine that in 30 years there still exists inequality in nursing.

That males in nursing are shunned from working in L&D and there are no male mammographers.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

In my OR and in all the past ORs I've worked in, staffing does not allow for gender specific requests. Our male techs and nurses do GYN cases all the time. And patients do not get to request a specific gender on the L&D floor either. You get who we can spare at that time- period.

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Specializes in Operating Room.
That is gross! I guess all the male obstetricians are just perverts too.

What is the motivation for females working in L&D are all female L&D nurses just closet lesbians getting their thrills working in L&D.

No, they aren't and neither are the males that want to work on L&D perverts just because they want to work in L&D.

I guess now we know who the most biased gender is.

Also, who in their right mind would be aroused by a laboring woman or most of the GYN patients? Not the most physically attractive time of any woman's life..

I had a relative that swore up and down that she only wanted females taking care of her. But, her Myspace pictures were the height of exhibitionism and bad taste. Guess some people are selectively modest.:rolleyes:

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
In my OR and in all the past ORs I've worked in, staffing does not allow for gender specific requests. Our male techs and nurses do GYN cases all the time. And patients do not get to request a specific gender on the L&D floor either. You get who we can spare at that time- period.

We tried doing an all female surgical team for a patient request a few months ago, but we couldn't manage it either. We only had one female anesthesia provider at that point and she couldn't be there that day. The smaller the hospital and the more specialized the team member the harder it gets to provide for gender specific patient requests.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Also, who in their right mind would be aroused by a laboring woman or most of the GYN patients? Not the most physically attractive time of any woman's life..

Most of my L&D patients are 200+lbs, some do not have good hygiene practices, their water is broke half the time, they are leaking all over the bed etc. It is not my idea sexual attractiveness. You have to be really strange to find a laboring patient arousing.

I like working L&D. It is very satisfying to me to be able to make someone that was in excruciating pain comfortable enough to deliver to a baby and still smile while doing it.

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Specializes in NICU Transport/NICU.
I agree - VERY well said. Put male nurses in L&D for those who don't have a preference, but leave it up to the patient to decide if they want a male taking care of them. And... what are the motives? Seeing a baby born into this world? Yeah right.....

Wow, so am I to believe that you are saying my motives for being an Obstetrics nurse are to get a cheap peak? That statement is naive and rude and shows your level of unprofessionalism. I've said this before, and I'll say it again, I have a stack of customer compliments and praises that state otherwise. If your opinion is true, I must really like to butter my pt's up just for that 30 sec. peak I might get.:uhoh3:

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Specializes in NICU Transport/NICU.

I found the post below that I posted in an old thread. I think it's a good response to the arguement that male OB's are okay because of long term established relationships.

"As the first male on my unit in the history of the hospital, a lot of the women wondered the same thing. I just go in and do my exam just the same as anyone else would. Here is what I have learned in my short time in a birthcare center. A lot of the women come in in labor and end up being delivered by the on call doc. Most of the time this is a male. They don't really know him and haven't really established a bond with him. He may be in the room for a total of 30 min depending on the circumstances. On post partum, they will see the doc for 2 min. per day. As a nurse, I am there's for 12 hours. It is a much more intimate relationship than that of the docs. We help them to the bathroom, get them up for the first time, get them to the shower, help them feed and change their baby, talk to them, educate them, ease their pain, and just about anything else they need. By the end of the shift, I will have spent more time with them than the doc did in 9 months. Sure, some of the women are a little uncomfortable when I walk in for the first time, but I go in the way any female nurse would go in. I'm confident and warm and I am truely passionate about what I do and I think they sense this. Their guard immediately drops and I have no issues. And maybe it also helps that I am married and proudly where my wedding ring.;) "

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab, Gerontology.
Hi, I am a male nurse married 3 kids. I have applied to a position on my facility on the Labor and delivery unit. And they pretty much told me they don't want to hire a male nurse. I don;t think they can do that I think is discrimination. what do you think? do you think ladies would stop coming to our hospital because they don't want a male ob nurse?

This is terrible! When I delivered my first child, I was planning to breast feed and had no idea how to get started. When my breasts were engorged and my baby couldn't latch on, a MALE nurse came in and wrapped my breasts with warm towels before bringing my son to me and then showed me exactly how to encourage the baby to latch. This was over 30 years ago and I never felt embarrassed since this nurse was very professional in his demeanor and I was very grateful to have him help me during a difficult time. It may be a little unusual to have a male nurse in L&D but it should certainly not automatically disqualify.

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Specializes in Thoracic Cardiovasc ICU Med-Surg.

It's bad enough to have a male doctor poking around in places that he has no idea what it feels like, I absolutely would have refused a male nurse during my L and D. I actually feel it would be inappropriate to have a male l/d nurses. I think folks need to remember that a large number of women have been abused by men at some point in their lives. Just having the baby can be traumatic

Sorry, I am a female nurse only proponent for labor and delivery.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

To me, this is just as much an EO issue as refusing to hire someone based on their race/religion/marital status/sexual orientation. Sex is a protected class, so the hospital has no case to refuse to hire him in L&D JUST because he's male. Imagine the uproar that would happen if they said, "Sorry, we won't hire you because we prefer [insert ethnicity here] in this department"...or "Sorry, we won't hire a woman to do that. It's a man's job."

Now, of course, if a patient feels uncomfortable, she can request a different caregiver. That's a different matter than discrimination in hiring.

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Specializes in pcu/stepdown/telemetry.

The problem too is that staffing would be very difficult if all the patients were refusing the male nurse, the work gets thrown to the female nurses. The hospital management has to take that into consideration too. if you have to staff every shift based on whether a male nurse will be refused then what's the point of hiring, It doesn't benefit the hospital if they pay your salary but women are saying no, so not sure if it's discrimination that is against the law. It's surprising how many women recall their nurse in L&D. I have no clue who the nurse was with me, she was female, not too memorable, and besides the midwife was in so much pain it wouldn't have mattered. Now post partum was more memorable and didn't like any of the women who took care of me.

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Getting back to the original post it is discrimination not to hire a male on the L&D floor, and unless it is only 1 or 2 bed L&D it will put no undo burden on the unit. It is grounds for EEOC complaint.

I say apply for the job, and if the OP doesn't get it file an EEOC complaint.

This may be your opinion, but it is not factually correct. There is a legal exception to the equal employment regulations that in certain circumstances allows hiring based on gender, and L&D is one of those areas where it has been successfully used.

If the facility can show that the BFOQ exception is applicable in their circumstances, then there is no illegal discrimination and the OP doesn't have a leg to stand on.....

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