This is an ad I ran in Kijijii. I have been an unemployed nurse here in the province of Ontario now for going on 6 months. Prior to that I was employed at two seperate part-time, temporary jobs. I left one temporary job for another that promised I could stay on past the contract, but in the end, when the nurse on pregnancy leave came back, I was let go.
I have sent out hundreds of resumes and have heard nothing. Meanwhile, we hear all about how male nurses have some sort of advantage. This is clearly a joke. The job I was laid off from was in mental health nursing (an area you might expect would be giving preference to men - wrong). I was the only candidate in my hiring group who in fact was male, and, moreover, was the only candidate hired on a 'temporary' basis. All of the female nurses in the room were hired on a 'permanent' basis. So much for this supposed preference.
Now, I have applied for hundreds of jobs, in all areas, (minus some areas of nursing like labor and delivery, where men aren't hired anyway) and nada. A couple of months ago, I stopped applying for jobs just in nursing, but, unfortunately, everyone sees nurse and thinks why would this guy want to work at a gas station?
Well, I'll tell you why: that job ad has been the only source of interviews in the 6 month period (2 total) with neither one leading to a job. For all the resumes I have sent out, I've heard nothing.
I am sure that there is discrimination against men in nursing, because I've been told up front by employers in the past that I couldn't be granted the same number of hours in homecare for example, as my female counterparts - not even half as many hours in fact. However, I think there is a bigger problem here in the province of Ontario - the new grad guarantee. The government has stepped in and basically made it more difficult for older nurses like myself to find work, by agreeing to finance 6 months of full time work for all new grad nurses. What this means is, there is an absolute dearth of employment opportunities left over.
I upgraded last year with a coronary care course to find those temporary part-time jobs, and this year, plan to upgrade with a critical care certificate in order to improve my chances, but I am really getting desperate as I burn through the last of my savings.
Don't believe the hype guys. I talked to other male nurses (who will only talk about these things to male nurses) and guess what? They talked about massive discrimination and harassment - all of which they keep quiet to hold onto their jobs. I know the media is putting on a big drive to move men from the single digits in nursing to closer to the levels that women have achieved in medical programs (60%), but I think a lot of you will just end up like me, or like a lot of other men, who had to leave the profession to become truck drivers and construction workers for example.
Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
Maybe I am mistaking how you come across, but it sounds to me like you expect preferential treatment because
you're male. Why should your sex make you a more desirable employee? I don't know how things work in Canada, but in the US it's illegal to discriminate based on sex. (Not that it doesn't happen.)
The nursing market is tough for everyone right now.
I didn't see anything in the original poster's note that indicated he wanted preferential treatment.
What he was saying that in Ontario they have a program where guaranteed employment for new grads is pushing out the more experience RN, and that also he was told by a Homecare agency that as a male he would get less hours then a female would, and as a male was less desirable, less hirable.
You're not alone. I'm male, live in the good 'ol USA, have over 10 years bedside experience, and have been looking unsuccessfully for well over 6 months myself. Savings are about gone, and just barely scraping by essentially on what I can scrape together via Craigslist (shovel snow, occasional sales). The job market here, too, is brutal. Great degree to have in your pocket, a BSN. Wish I had gone into engineering or something else. My bedside spies relay that the environment there is caustic, and nurses are leaving/trying to leave in droves. You would think that this would open up positions, but I guess not (just up the nurse/pt ratio).
Though I am a female, after 38 yrs I am reinventing myself. My new business has nothing to do with nursing but everything to do with helping people. There is hope!
MrChicagoRN, RN
2,610 Posts
I didn't see anything in the original poster's note that indicated he wanted preferential treatment.
What he was saying that in Ontario they have a program where guaranteed employment for new grads is pushing out the more experience RN, and that also he was told by a Homecare agency that as a male he would get less hours then a female would, and as a male was less desirable, less hirable.