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?
Sorry, I don't have any specific stories off the top of my head, just now. Well, I just woke up and was starting to get ready for work when I suddenly realized I'm off tonight. I'd say I'm having mental status changes, but lately this seems to be my baseline.
So, anyway, I have found that I sometimes do well with confused/combative patients, and also sometimes with PITA patients. We seem to get a lot of both, so it's something I've really worked at. There have been times I've had to dig pretty deep to find the compassion that a needy, demanding patient or family member needed in order to behave appropriately. And, I gotta admit, it has bugged me, occassionally, when one or more female peers have said, "It's because you're a guy." Well, I am, but I'm also a caring, sensitive person who tries to look at what the person needs.
That said, the longer I do this, the more I do see my Y chromosome as an advantage, at times. Some patients/families do seem less inclined to try to bully a male. Others, I think, may be a bit surprised when a male comes to them from a caring perspective--they notice it more than they do with an equally caring female. And, really, with our neuro patients, sometimes just having a deeper voice seems to help. Also, some little old ladies just like having a man fuss over them.
Still, I know a number of female nurses who also tend to do pretty well with difficult patients and families, so I tend to think it has at least as much to do with attitude and demeanor as with gender. I'm middle-aged, too, and that both gets you a little respect that younger nurses don't automatically receive and gives you a perspective that younger nurses don't automatically have.
I played sword fights up and down the length of the paeds ward with a 10 yr old boy who had just got over meningitis...it was cool...was almost 20 yr ago and still makes me smile...
I'm a new nurse, but in my 30s, so I have limited examples to give thus far.
Example 1: During my medsurg rotation in school, I had a pt that had undergone a Whipple and she refused to ambulate to the chair. She had told me earlier that I had reminded her of her late husband when he was young. Remembering this, I asked if she liked to dance, to which she replied "yes." I offered to "dance" her to the chair. I stood her up securing her by the waist and shoulders and we sidestepped to the chair. I would come back and ambulate her form the chair to the bed to the bedside commode throughout the shift. My female preceptor questioned me when she saw this "bizarre behavior" until I explained my reasoning. It turns out that she had refused all earlier attempts to ambulate. I got an A.
Example 2: Working in a pediatric cardiac ICU I had a large 16-year-old male pt who required a lot of effort to reposition. I had to take him to MRI and to CT (before we got our portable CT). He was recovering from surgery and was being prepped to go to the floor. He told me, "I like you better than the women nurses." I asked him why. He stated, "When you move me you always make sure my pee tube doesn't pull my thing." In a later conversation he told me that he was scared because he might need a new heart. I told him I would be scared too. I asked him if he had cried at all, and he told me no because he was a boy. I told him that I would cry if I were in the same situation as he. I held his head in my chest as he cried... we then played video games.
I've done the "dancing" thing, too, although I didn't think of it. When I was an orderly, I was helping a lady to the bedside commode, and on the way she laughed and said, "We're dancing!"
I often have orders to page docs for mental status changes, and used to joke that someday I was going to page to report a pt was AOX3 when they hadn't been. (I work nights, so good news can usually wait until I see the doc on the floor, rather than paging at 0300.) But one morning I really did page around 0500 to report to the neurosurgeon on call that the patient who'd been stuporous for the past 48hrs was sexually harassing me after getting platelets and plasma overnight. He was pleased to hear it.
nursemike, ASN, RN
1 Article; 2,362 Posts
Sorry, I don't have any specific stories off the top of my head, just now. Well, I just woke up and was starting to get ready for work when I suddenly realized I'm off tonight. I'd say I'm having mental status changes, but lately this seems to be my baseline.
So, anyway, I have found that I sometimes do well with confused/combative patients, and also sometimes with PITA patients. We seem to get a lot of both, so it's something I've really worked at. There have been times I've had to dig pretty deep to find the compassion that a needy, demanding patient or family member needed in order to behave appropriately. And, I gotta admit, it has bugged me, occassionally, when one or more female peers have said, "It's because you're a guy." Well, I am, but I'm also a caring, sensitive person who tries to look at what the person needs.
That said, the longer I do this, the more I do see my Y chromosome as an advantage, at times. Some patients/families do seem less inclined to try to bully a male. Others, I think, may be a bit surprised when a male comes to them from a caring perspective--they notice it more than they do with an equally caring female. And, really, with our neuro patients, sometimes just having a deeper voice seems to help. Also, some little old ladies just like having a man fuss over them.
Still, I know a number of female nurses who also tend to do pretty well with difficult patients and families, so I tend to think it has at least as much to do with attitude and demeanor as with gender. I'm middle-aged, too, and that both gets you a little respect that younger nurses don't automatically receive and gives you a perspective that younger nurses don't automatically have.