Male nursing moments.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, free clinic.

I am not sure what to call this; maybe someone has a better suggestion. I want a term for moments in nursing for something (beneficial) that male nurses do that female nurses are unlikely or unwilling to do.

Example #1: I love this kind of story, told by a mother about the care her son received from a male nurse at Children’s Seattle.

Her 11 y.o. son was hit by a car while walking in a crosswalk. He was hospitalized for many weeks with lots of rehab. As his neuro recovery progressed, a male nurse gave him a nerf ball and stood at the end of the bed and said “OK kid, hit me.” This became a major focus for the boy’s energy and he practiced constantly. When the nurse passes by the room, he would stand in the door and smile and the boy would try with all his might to hit him with the ball. This was terrific therapy for the boy and helped him recover more quickly.

The mother said “A female nurse would never do that.”

Example #2: Before I started nursing school, I used to volunteer at Children’s Boston. On the heme/onc floor there was a 5 y.o. girl who had been there for many months. Her mother did not want her back as she was so difficult to care for. One morning I arrived on the floor, and found the child fussing, crying and inconsolable. She was surrounded by three young (and very pretty) female nurses. When she saw me in the door she thrust up her arms for me to pick her up, tears still streaming down her cheeks. One of the nurses came over and said “She is starved for male contact.”

We all know that nurses are wonderful, and female nurses are great, but these are examples of something that male nurses can provide that females cannot. Can someone add more?

Thanks,

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It' s away from kids, but I think it's a similar theme. Take the older gentleman who comes in with urinary retention. Female nurses are certainly capable of inserting that foley, but do they understand the stress and pain caused by retention. I have helped many gents feel better, with a simple procedure

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Specializes in pulmonary.

We pee on the seat.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I think Ariko is onto something really important -- and I hope some of you guys pick up on it and add to this thread.

Men probably DO think act a little differently or approach a patient differently in ways that would be very helpful to be explored and highlighted. There are probably lots of good ideas there to be discovered and incorporated into standard nursing practice, textbooks, etc.

I think the topic would make a great doctoral dissertation, Master's thesis, book, or journal article. Or perhaps ... someone has already written the definitive piece on that and I have simply not seen it.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.
Men probably DO think act a little differently or approach a patient differently in ways that would be very helpful to be explored and highlighted. There are probably lots of good ideas there to be discovered and incorporated into standard nursing practice, textbooks, etc.

I absolutely think this is true, llg. Men's minds just tend to work differently - not better, not worse than a woman's - just different. And we women would do well to watch and learn from some of the men in our field!

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A soon to be graduate ADN (Pinning tomorrow, NCLEX in 2 days) and an EMT-I for about 4 years.

I had 2 instructors that every so often would say "Nursing needs guys like you" and comments to that affect. When questioned about it they would say that it is just the difference, and that some patients relate to different personalities. It is an interesting topic, just have to watch out for comments that put one gender above the other. That is most definitely not the case. We all are nurses and have expected standards. Just everyone may do it a little differently.

Remember way back when I was in hospital for an extended period, and as a teenage boy I would be more comfortable with males. Though I did have a male nurse that first thing he'd ask was if I needed a bath and talked about enemas a lot (ok so I did have very infrequent bowel movements at first.)

Anyways I've had in my limited experiences both women and men being happy with a male nurse, and on the flip side cases where both were uncomfortable. Never bothers me a bit.

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Specializes in Neuro, Cardiology, ICU, Med/Surg.

I think the topic would make a great doctoral dissertation, Master's thesis, book, or journal article. Or perhaps ... someone has already written the definitive piece on that and I have simply not seen it.

One of my college professors' main research area is men in nursing:

http://www.curry.edu/Campus+Directory/Faculty+and+Staff+Alphabetical+Listing/1168743.htm

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Specializes in RN.

Patients do well to have access to both genders because there are REAL differences. Both good and beneficial but definitley gender specific, generally speaking.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, free clinic.

Could you be more specific? Do you have any examples you might be able to add? I think we all recognize that there is something there. I am trying to characterize it more clearly.

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nice thread.

I am a newly grad Practical Nurse. I had my last clinical in peds rehab. I was very thankful for being in there. I love peds and plan on working there when I get my general class license in a month or so.

Story 1: I had a female pt, 16yrs old with CP. she had a hip surgery and was recovering in rehab. She preferred me over the female nurses because she can see her dad in me. her parents were divorced, so I really had to be careful and sensitive about the topic. Knowing that info, I used it to my advantage to give her the emotional and physical support she needed (she was very depressed about the whole situation)

story 2: a 16 year old male who had a motorbike accident.

He has a history of violence and bullying other pt's and nurses. Gave him the man talk when i first met him. Never had any problems when I was giving care and female nurses would call me whenever they are having problems with the kid.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.
Example #1: I love this kind of story, told by a mother about the care her son received from a male nurse at Children's Seattle.

Her 11 y.o. son was hit by a car while walking in a crosswalk. He was hospitalized for many weeks with lots of rehab. As his neuro recovery progressed, a male nurse gave him a nerf ball and stood at the end of the bed and said "OK kid, hit me." This became a major focus for the boy's energy and he practiced constantly. When the nurse passes by the room, he would stand in the door and smile and the boy would try with all his might to hit him with the ball. This was terrific therapy for the boy and helped him recover more quickly.

Reminds me of one of my patients when I did my peds rotation during nursing school.

One of the patients assigned to me was a 14 year old with severe mental retardation. He was there for a severe bowel problem that required surgical intervention. So in between the times I'd assess him, bathe him, empty his urinal and colostomy; we ended up playing video games.

I tell you, this kid might have a hard time putting together a cohesive paragraph... but he was a PHENOM when it came to video games!! I'm not kidding! At first, I tried to play it "easy" and 'let him win' but soon he caught up on that act and became very upset! He refused to talk to me till I apologized and challenged him to beat me at Tetris (a game I'm pretty darn good at).

Let me tell you - he chewed me up in NO time!! I tried my best but that kid was beyond awesome! So I challenged him next in Mario... thinking that since he was younger than me, he probably didn't know the game that well....

WRONG once again!! He thrashed me through and through!

I guess the best part of this whole experience was how often he'd show his silly, lop sided grin whenever I'd show up. He'd run through our assessment with bated breath because once we were done, his agenda was "please play a game with me so that I can whup you again!" :chuckle And I'd accept his challenge each day, thinking "this time, I'm gonna beat him!" ... only to lose each time again!

His Mother loved seeing him this 'active'. She loved it so much that she made it a point to tell the staff nurses to have me "assigned" to her son whenever I was there for clinicals [and she wasn't the only one apparently. I didn't know till I graduated as to the reasons for "why was I being assigned the same patients"... my clinical instructor told me when I graduated that "all the family members kept asking for you!"]

cheers,

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.
I think Ariko is onto something really important -- and I hope some of you guys pick up on it and add to this thread.
Agreed.

Men probably DO think act a little differently or approach a patient differently in ways that would be very helpful to be explored and highlighted.

I absolutely think this is true, llg. Men's minds just tend to work differently - not better, not worse than a woman's - just different. And we women would do well to watch and learn from some of the men in our field!

So let's start a discussion right here, on an.com.

Can we present a "sample patient" scenario and analyze how our male members versus our female members approach and react to said "scenario" ? Or do we need something more substantial than that?

- Roy

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