Male Nurses in OB

[belin5]

With in the nursing profession, it has always been viewed as a woman dominated field. In 1970 2.7% of all nurses were men, as of 2011 9.6% of nurses were men according to (Healthcare Traveler Newsletter Staff March 05, 2013). Men work in all different aspects of nursing, the one area that I have not seen or heard of many men working is in OB. I have heard many women and pt's say that they feel male nurses are more compassionate then female nurses; with that being said why are there not many male OB nurses? Is it due to a staffing issue with having to have a female accompany the male nurse into the room all the time? Is it female OB nurses not wanting a male nurse working with them? Why is that if male nurses are considered more sensitive and caring nurses doesn't it stand to reason that there would be more men working in OB?

[DoGoodThenGo]

Why would the nurse need to advertise that fact? How does that benefit the patient?

Often there is no "advertising" it just happens.... Like that famous song from the Kinks about a woman named "Lola" says; patients pick-up on something that just isn't right in their minds.

Have seen/worked with transgender nurses and nursing assistants in the past. Some were so passable that they fit the "drop dead gorgeous" female category, others indeed looked like Caitlyn Jenner: who am told in person without the professional hair, make-up and professional retouching of photographs looks what she is, but we're not on that right now.

Patients both male and female have made requests/complaints about having "him" assigned to their care. When supervisors/other staff take the request they are like "who is "He?", since from what they know the nurse in question is female. That is when the cat is let out of the bag so to speak. Then you have nurses who began transitioning after hire and are protected by strong state and local laws against discrimination such as what we have in New York: New York State and New York City Guidance Focus Transgender Discrimination | The National Law Review

To be fair a certain segment of the patient population wants nothing to do with obviously effeminate male nurses either. But they as well are covered by the above .

[Get2theChoppa]

I understand from what perspective she is speaking. And I am asking her, as a patient, would she not want any nurse taking care of her in L&D who had not given birth before? Because her argument against a male RN is lack of empathy and shared experience.

I posted earlier about how I would not want a male OB/GYN for likely similar reasons as the person in question. I would be willing to expound upon my reasoning. It's just long, and I wouldn't want to be accused of derailing the topic. If people are cool, however, I can share.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

It's also possible they are too shocked at the crassness of the question to reply. If someone asked me why I accept gynecological care from Dr. X and refuse gynecological care from nurse Y, my answer would be: "Dr. X is my OB-Gyn physician, whom I selected as my physician, who I have received care from for X years, and who I trust and feel comfortable with (I might also mention, if it was true, that I also feel comfortable receiving care from other male OB-Gyn physicians in my OB-Gyn physician's practice), however, Nurse Y is a random male nurse assigned to my care whom I have not selected as my health care provider." I don't think this is too hard for most people to understand.

And the EXACT same would be true for a female nurse assigned to care for you!