Male Nurses

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Having typed into the search bar and gotten no results, I begin. The profession once dominated by females now has male nurses. I have never had a problem with male nurses as co-workers, but I have noticed an alarming rate at which the males have ascended to the top positions. I recently visited the VA Hospital ER and it was totally staffed by male nurses. I worked in an ER where the head of the Trauma Unit was a male nurse. The flight nurses tended to be predominately male. What is it that female nurses do not ascend to the top anymore? Is it lack of ambition? Why is it that so few male nurses are promoted above their numerous female co-workers? I am not trying to start a gender war, I just want to understand the trend I am witnessing.

I just wrote an article about this. While fewer than 6% of nurses are male, almost 50% of CRNAs are male. They tend to go to school at higher levels or pursue higher levels of education. They tend to put in more hours, be more available for extra shifts, don't take time off for childraising, etc. All this adds to more experience, which helps them climb the ladder.

This is backed up by stats, as I found for the article.

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Theres still very few men in nursing...if you take a step away from the ER in most hospitals you may not see a male nurse for hours. While the nursing shortage is somewhat over, there is still a male nursing shortage in my opinion, and there are usually almost no men in OB and Peds.

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Testosterone.

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

Here, in NC, I've never seen a male nursing administrator or a mostly male nurse facility. There is still a dire need for more male nurses here. It might be according to what area of the country your in too. Hope this helps.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTAC, Critical Care.

Most of the male nurses in a hospital (around here anyway) are in the specialty areas (ED, ICU/PCU/ Cath lab, surgery). Most of the male nurses you see on the med-surg floors are LVNs. I work a med-surg/tele/stroke/whateverthehellelsetheygiveus unit. As soon as I finish my RN program I am headed for the glorious promised land of ICU ( I just hope I ain't gotta wander in the desert of nursing school for 40 years to do it :D).

Working as a male nurse on a female dominated floor has it's advantages (and NUMEROUS disadvantages). I am now very well versed in just how diabolical and emotionally manipulative females can be (y'all do it to screw with us! I know the truth now!).

Around here, it's a rarity to see a female Doc, even in OB.

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I worked with a few male nurses that thought they were gods gift to nursing. I also noticed that the male physicians treated them with more respect than female nurses. So maybe the male nurses are apt to climb the nursing ladder r/t the fact most physicians are male? Someone just told me that a nurse who graduated only 6 years ago is in charge of an emergency room. He did have EMT experience, but that seems like not enough nursing experience to be in charge of an E.R.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

I graduated 3 years ago and have been in charge of surgery for 2+ years..... I'm the only Mae manager in the hospital. We have mostly female staffing.

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There are still a woefully small amount of males in nursing. I believe recent starts have females at 93% so there aren't tons of them out there.

The fields you mention tend to draw a lot of males. The ER and trauma end could be due to some males coming into nursing from the EMT and medic field. Our ER has a three males but it is still mainly female. Our OR has only one male as does our M/S. The vast majority of our management positions are held by females too and I work for a TC.

Exciting is relative and depends on what you like. Some find caring for dying patients as rewarding and exciting while others love to see new babies enter the world. It's all about what fulfills the individual.

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

I think some of the disparity in nursing may have to do with the disparity outside nursing. A lot of families need two working parents. If a nurse's spouse is female, she may well earn less than the nurse, and the nurse's job will take precedence. But a nurse whose husband can make 60K in WV or 80K in OH is likely to be moving to OH, since nurses can make about the same living anywhere. (Or, at least, that's how it has been, until recently.) I think male nurses may tend to change employers mainly when it's a chance to move up, whereas female nurses are more likely to make a lateral move.

I don't really see a lot of systemic discrimination within nursing. At my facility, our CNO is a woman, and there's only one male nurse director. All of the other NMs and NDs are women. But I do think our CNO is the only, or maybe one of two, female at the VP level. Most of the suits are still guys, but women do pretty well run nursing.

As far as "exciting" specialties, I do see a trend of more males in ED and ICU. But there are several guys on my floor and I don't know that any of us are looking to move. Most of us are also nightshift, in part because of the diff. I don't think there are any male nurses or aides in our OB department, and few, if any, in peds. I've heard rumors that OB won't hire males, although I did work some shifts there in my previous, unlicensed job as more-or-less an orderly. I have never been inclined to test the rumor by trying to transfer as a nurse. I can't see giving up a job I like for one I probably wouldn't just to prove a point.

Not really anxious to go to peds, either. We get a few kids for seizure monitoring, but usually their only problem is the seizure disorder (and, it seems, a slightly higher-than-average rate of developmental problems). But it seems more typical of kids that they are either healthy or desperately ill, and the healthy ones aren't in the hospital. A 12 y.o. with staring spells can be fun. A 6 y.o. with leukemia or 17 y.o. with CF needs care, for sure, and I think I could do it if I needed to (I've cared for 18-19 year olds who were desperately ill. They're still babies, to me, and it's a terrible shame they're sick, but you do what you can and hope for a miracle) but I'm content to leave peds nursing for those who really want to do it, and if they are mostly women, so be it.

I have recommended nursing to several female friends. Not because I'm a sadist, but because I think it's a field where women can do really well, with better opportunities than a lot of other jobs they might consider. I know a couple of (female) aides who are working now toward getting jobs as coal miners. Good luck to them, but I'd rather be a nurse, myself, and I suspect they'd have more opportunities to advance as nurses than as miners. There might be a glass ceiling in nursing, but if so, I think it's still a lot higher than in a lot of other fields.

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Specializes in multispecialty ICU, SICU including CV.
Having typed into the search bar and gotten no results, I begin. The profession once dominated by females now has male nurses. I have never had a problem with male nurses as co-workers, but I have noticed an alarming rate at which the males have ascended to the top positions. I recently visited the VA Hospital ER and it was totally staffed by male nurses. I worked in an ER where the head of the Trauma Unit was a male nurse. The flight nurses tended to be predominately male. What is it that female nurses do not ascend to the top anymore? Is it lack of ambition? Why is it that so few male nurses are promoted above their numerous female co-workers? I am not trying to start a gender war, I just want to understand the trend I am witnessing.

Just an FYI for you, in addition to the previous posters mentioning that specialties like ER/ICUs attract men, the VA system attracts a disproportionately high number of men. I work in the VA system and many, many of our staff nurses are male ex-military medics that went through an RN program after they got out. Many are still reservists or national guardsmen as well. The VA is a kind employer to anyone from any branch of the military that wants to work there -- your seniority is based on the date you joined the military (not when you started at the VA), you get preferential hiring, they are beyond understanding when it comes to your reservist schedule, etc. So, in the VA especially, there are a lot of "male nurses."

At my VA, we have probably 12 inpatient units, and only one of those managers is a man though. None of the nursing management above him is male. MANY of the CRNAs are male though, like one previous poster mentioned.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
QUOTE=nursemike;4385310] . . . .I have recommended nursing to several female friends. Not because I'm a sadist, but because I think it's a field where women can do really well, with better opportunities than a lot of other jobs they might consider. I know a couple of (female) aides who are working now toward getting jobs as coal miners. Good luck to them, but I'd rather be a nurse, myself, and I suspect they'd have more opportunities to advance as nurses than as miners. There might be a glass ceiling in nursing, but if so, I think it's still a lot higher than in a lot of other fields.

That just struck me as funny! Have things really reached the point that we need to point out to our readers that we have a perfectly reasonable explanation for doing something as obviously sadistic as recommending nursing to our friends?:lol2:

You made some excellent points, though. I've worked with several male nurses in peds-- but they just had a knack for it, and loved being able to express a bit of their silly side, which the kids love btw. Very few seem to choose OB, and I'm not sure how much of that is the fear of meeting resistance from the female populace, or a commonality among men in general.

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That just struck me as funny! Have things really reached the point that we need to point out to our readers that we have a perfectly reasonable explanation for doing something as obviously sadistic as recommending nursing to our friends?:lol2:

You made some excellent points, though. I've worked with several male nurses in peds-- but they just had a knack for it, and loved being able to express a bit of their silly side, which the kids love btw. Very few seem to choose OB, and I'm not sure how much of that is the fear of meeting resistance from the female populace, or a commonality among men in general.

IMHO the reason so few "male nurses" stay away from OB/GYN is probably the attitude (if that is the correct word), they get from nursing school when doing clinicals. One reads posts there of the varied and often sad experiences of male student nurses when it comes to their OB/L&D rotations. It seems almost from the get go they are put on notice and presumed "guilty before charged". One student wrote he basically was consigned to sitting by the door to the floor and buzzing people in, others are allowed to do just enough to pass the class and know enough for the boards. However they often aren't allowed to enter a female patient's room alone, observe certain treatments and so forth.

If that is the kind of welcome one gets whilst in school, it pretty much would tell me that I'm not going there after graduation.

Odd bit of nursing trivia:

Some old nursing programs for male nurses only, or males in a co-ed school allowed the men to skip OB/GYN since the chances were nil they ever would be employed there. In this case the men actually graduated one semester ahead of the female students because of the gap.

This was mainly before and around the 1900s or so, still quite interesting. Bellevue Hospital's nursing school had a male program (Mills School of Nursing), and it would be interesting to see what their courses were.

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