Male nurses student and skipping OB/L&D clinicals

[Jfarmboy]

I am actually a pre male nurse student.

I am looking at a college in which I will attend if I decode to do nursing.

I have never experienced it so I want to shadow a nurse in the summer.

I want to make sure it is what I want to do. After I have made that decision I want to pursue it with all my heart at a young age. I am 19 years old and so if its what I want to do I don't want to wait until I'm 30 some.

Anyways I don't wish to do any OB or L&D stuff if I don't have to. I don't see what that has to do with ICU care (where I am wanting to go). Also I may have a different mind set that others. I don't want to do L&D because is a major invasion of a woman's privacy, imo.

If it were my wife (not married and faarrr from it) and there was no doctor, yes of course I would do it. But checking up on female patients every few hrs... Like- hey I just need to see you are doing down there...major privacy invasion. What female patient wouldn't feel uncomfortable? I think the only reason why most female patients don't mind a male OB is because they are in too much pain to notice. All I know is if I were a woman I would not want some guy staring up there. Same as me being a guy I don't really like female doctors or nurses checking me out down there...really weird and awkward.

All that said I want nothing (or at most little) to do with preforming procedures/assessments on women(I am talking where it exposes them..I don't need to see that). Is it likely that I can just do ped or something else at those clinical hrs?

I know most women would not want me there as well as some RN/instructors and myself. It is not something I would want to see and it would seem as if that would give me the title of "pervert".

Sorry this is so long. I know some of you may think I should do all that stuff, as maybe a good learning experience. I just don't see much to learn in it except assessment of a infant or a C-section.

[Skips, MSN, RN]

You're going to see lady partss and memberes, and you may have to cath or clean them. It's part of the job.

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

Sorry, you have to do clinicals in areas that are not to your liking. I'm not a male, so I don't know that awkward feeling that my male classmates felt during OB clinicals. All I can say is, it will pass. And well, you may not have to check a lady's cervix for dilation. I never did a cervix check once. The most I did with lady parts was assess them during my postpartum assessment. And OB clinicals are not just L&D and postpartum units. You may get the chance to do a rotation or two in the NICU, and you might find that you like NICU. Learn what you can, even during your awkward clinical rotation.

[DixieRedHead, ASN, RN]

You're going to see lady partss and memberes, and you may have to cath or clean them. It's part of the job.

I have always wondered if the plural of member is peni?

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

I feel bad for this guy because we also had a guy in our student OB/L&D group and he was pretty much pushed out of every birth by the patient. Never mind that the doc was a male. But having a male L&D nurse was apparently beyond the pale for most women.

[hlr2752]

It all boils down to how you perceive the situation & how your patient perceives the situation. What I mean is, if you go in to do a procedure and are obviously uncomfortable, the patient is going to pick up on this and will begin to feel the same way; possibly even question your competency. whereas, should you approach the same situation with confidence and a professional mentality, you will be perceived as a professional young man who is serious about a career in the healthcare field. If you are serious about a nursing career, this is a fundamental part of it. You can do it if you truly have your heart set on becoming a Nurse; go for it man....... or not, its totally up to you.

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

Don't worry, son. They don't have teeth, and won't bite you.

Well...most of them.

[mrr5745]

I understand your question. I had/have zero interest in pediatrics and when I was in school I tried to wiggle my way out of peds clinicals. Well, of course, that didn't work. I went and put on a happy face even though I was miserable. And, I actually learned something. Obviously, I still know peds is not for me, but it sure came in handy the night I was floated to PICU (kicking and screaming the whole way).

As far as your career path, I highly recommend taking a CNA course and working in a hospital. There is no better way to figure out if nursing is for you than working as a CNA for a while. The course is usually short and cheap. If your planning on shadowing a nurse anyway, if you work as a CNA you could at least get paid for it! If you decide nursing is for you, then your experience as a CNA will place you leaps and bounds ahead of your classmates. If you hate it, than you would save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run. Personally, I think CNA work should be a requirement of all nursing schools. Anyway, best of luck to you! Props for doing your homework before diving in. I'm sure everything will fall into place for you!

[MrWarmHearted]

First things first - you have to get into nursing school first before you can even begin to make any concessions with nursing curriculum

[Clovery]

You will probably start out your clinicals at a nursing home or med-surg floor, assisting with ADLs. There will be female patients, and hopefully your instructor won't do you the disservice of always assigning you to a male patient. You will have to change adult diapers, assist with bed-pan use, get patients on and off the toilet. You will have wipe or assist with wiping, making sure the patient got everything clean down there. You will see a lot genitalia. When you insert a catheter into a female you will probably see more of their genitalia than when you do a typical postpartum assessment.

When I'm at clinical, there's a different mindset that washes over me. Everything feels very um, clinical... and issues I normally have with things are not present because they are in a totally different context. For example, at home, I will sometimes gag and wretch while cleaning up cat vomit or changing a particularly disgusting baby diaper. This doesn't happen when I'm at the hospital, I just feel somehow removed from the situation.

By the time you get to OB, you will already have been desensitized quite a bit. Women who are having babies are also very desensitized and are usually not overly modest. By the time they are postpartum, they're so used to someone just coming into their room, lifting up their gown and looking at their genitals, it's nothing to them or their husbands.

You're not going to get out of your OB rotation. It's uncomfortable for a lot of male students, but you can persevere. It's not that long and you will be learning. I think once you actually start the nursing program, you will have a better understanding. Until then, try not to fret over this. You will get through it and it will make you a better nurse. If after your A&P course, you are still uncomfortable with discussing female genitalia, looking at clinical pictures, etc., you might want to reassess your maturity level and/or whether or not nursing is right for you. There will be many lady partss in your future, but I think this will become a non-issue as you progress in your education.

[AngelofLTC]

He's a boy....give him a break. He will learn just like the rest of us when he goes "down there" first semester!!

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

I'm going to admit this straight out so the OP doesn't feel like he's truly alone. My OB instructors knew I didn't like babies so for my entire OB rotation ( which for LVN's is 4 days ) I wasn't required to touch one. I just held the mother's hand etc and did scut work in the NICU/PICU. Now I was coming from a position of strength having grades that were through the roof ( consistently in the high 90's not bragging just putting it into perspective ) I also think it made the other students feel like that had a niche that I didn't and I gladly gave them that. Half of my rotation was guys and the women didn't want them there so they mostly just observed C sections

The irony is my first job out of NS was pediatrics.

Oh I have lady parts btw. Though being that your still prenursing and OB is usually one of the last rotations and you'll have a lot of time to get comfortable with all the stuff you have to do. Being a nursing student is all about being weird and arkward

[Guest 360983]

I'm a woman, and I really didn't like OB. I sucked it up, learned, and got through it. Yes, it's a little harder when you're a man because of the patients, but if you act confident and compassionate most women really don't care. 20 minutes into my first day I was checking cervical dilation. I asked the mom if it was ok for me to check and she said "I don't care what you need to do. I just want this baby out!" That seemed to be a pretty common mindset among the patients I worked with.

I know others have mentioned this, but here's some times my ICU friends have seen very fresh postpartum moms:

1) Mom's blood pressure was checked shortly after delivery and was 200/something. This hospital was not equipped to handle high risk moms so she went to the ICU.

2) Mom had a C-section, went into DIC and ended up in the ICU.

3) Mom starts hemorrhaging after delivery to the point she gets shocky and sent to the ICU.

And as a reminder that OB isn't just about moms and babies....

4) Woman has hysterectomy, then gets sepsis and spends weeks in the ICU.

Nursing isn't about you. It's about providing the best care to the patient, regardless of what issues they're facing.