Anyone else feel like they got "shafted" in clinicals?

Nursing Students Male Students

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I'm in my 2nd semester in an accelerated program. I'm the only male in a group of 7 students for our summer rotation of Med/Surg II, Peds, and Maternity. I was literally the "odd man out" when it came to patient assignments the entire summer and put in less favorable experiences. For example, I have classmates who have had 3 births while I've just managed 1 because they would be assigned to the L&D patients most likely to deliver early in the day.

When it came to signing up in the fall, I signed up for a different group that will be 8 people, 4 of which are guys so I won't get screwed like this again.

from my experience if your clinical professor did it right, she/he had to go into the room and ask the pt if it was ok for students to be in the room. most female pt's don't want men in the room, that's just facts, it sucks. so don't feel like you are treated different or it's unfair, it's usually up to the pt not the professor or the nurse.

You are right on from my experience as well. I'm just glad to have gotten OB done and over with. I realize there is a certain comfort level that patients need to maintain, but I would also think that once they cross a threshhold in labor it wouldnt matter anymore. I observed one C-section throughout the clinical. She had polyhydramnios. I've heard of the water breaking, but this was like a geyser. It got in 1 of the doctor's mouth as he had his mask down at the moment- it was hilarious although I kept my amusement to myself in the OR.

Specializes in Med Surg, PCU, Travel.

I think its the staff and the instructors that make a big deal of males in the OB area, when it should be the patient's decision. How they present male nurses students to the patient makes a big difference and in some cases I've read here its obviously not being done in a professional manner. Why should a male nursing student even be asked , do you really want to work in L&D? most OB/GYN doctors are men and yet this view is not held in that profession. Do nurses walk into a patient room and say hey alert male doctor!!! is coming in, do you mind? thats how male students seem to be presented and its wrong.

As a former EMT I can tell you male nursing students that experiencing life in a field while most patients sucumb to their injuries and die it was very rewarding to have delivered and experienced several childbirths. For men to be deprived of this solely on gender is rediculous. For most female patients they did not care whether the EMT was a male or female they just were just thinking "GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME!!!" and as for a male point of view there is nothing sexually arousing about birth and a woman yelling at you and crushing your hand so I don't know why women make all the fuss about male nurses in L&D.Would female nurses find it arousing if a male patient was bleeding from his privates and yelling in pain? I think not. I think L&D wards need to grow up and act profesionally and ease the tension that the male nursing student would be having and present them as an aspiring medical professional rather that a testosterone sexually driven male. I'll be applying to RN programs soon Iḿ glad I have my EMT experiences to fall back on and I don't care if they kick me out of L&D clinicals when that time comes, been there, done that.

We can never partner with another student during any clinical rotation, no matter what. We each take individual patient assignments, and we run with them. This past semester our instructor had an interesting way of doing things. If there were enough patients on the floor, she let us pick one patient on our own. Then she split up the remaining patients and handed us another patient based on what she thought we needed to learn. For instance, if she thought we needed to better our assessment skills, she gave us a complex case with a lot of assessment and judgement calls. If she thought we needed a firmer foundation in medication administration, she gave us a fresh surgery that needed tons of medications. Because we all got to pick one patient, census permitting, we felt like things were fair. If there weren't enough patients and we all had to take one, our instructor alternated. One week she would let us pick, the next week she assigned us a patient, etc, etc. Usually there were plenty of patients and we got to pick one of our own. I always liked the hardest cases, so I took fresh surgeries, traumas, patients with chest tubes, hemovacs, wound drains, JPs, etc. Our floor also did ICU step-down, and I usually jumped on every ICU step-down patient I could. Even if I ended up spending the majority of the day in one room doing Accu-Checks, vitals, medication administration, I&O, etc, I was happy.

I want to be an ICU nurse, and I have no interest in L&D. As far as I'm concerned, I don't even need to see a birth during my rotation. I would be happy to give care pre and postpartum, help care for the baby, and call it a day.

I think it is ridiculous for an instructor to take away that opportunity based on your gender, and I am very sorry it happened. I get pretty ticked off when people make a huge fuss about male nurses, yet welcome the mostly male Docs, no questions asked. Personally I couldn't give a rats *** the gender of who is delivering/assisting the baby.

Specializes in Orthopedics, Rehab, LTC.

I felt like my clinical experience was pretty solid, except for OB.

I was in a group of 8, all of us females. All of my classmates got to see either a live birth or a c-section.

Well, I never got to see a c-section for whatever reason (I can't remember) and the woman I was supposed to see give birth requested not to have students in the room. Never did quite work out for me.

But then again, I'm not interested in OB so I'm not all that disappointed.

No doubt it helps to have a good instructor but it has a lot to do with the facility you’re at. I have heard that many facilities simply aren’t very welcoming to male nursing students. I was lucky as my OB clinical was great and I too was the only male in my clinical group. I was able to witness two C-sections and one lady partsl birth during my rotation. That was actually more than some of the female students got to experience. I just wanted to share this as at least in my case my gender wasn’t an issue.

Specializes in Med Surg, PCU, Travel.

Do female nurses/students get kicked out of cat lab when they have to insert a catherter into a guy and for most men, their "member" ALWAYS has a mind off their own and often get hard due to having a female doing the procedure??? I know becuase Iǘe spoken to female nurses who this happen to and it embarrassing for both the patient and the nurse. Lets be frank! noone says hold up I'll get a male nurse for this patient and to be honest I'm not sure if that male patient would want a male nurse either...you know we got big egos...lol

Hey well there is one sure solution for male nurses to get OB rotations...get married and plan to have a baby to be born during your clinicals, I garranttee you will have a new respect for your wife and women. For those who think they are not missing out, sorry but you are.

Specializes in ED.

I feel bad cause I kinda have that, "if you don't want me, I don't want you" mentality regarding OB. I had a pretty excluding experience myself in clinicals so it makes it hard when you feel excluding to even care about that side of the hospital. I'll be looking into ED, and ICU when I graduate.

Specializes in OR.

I'll start off by saying that I am one of those young 20 something year old females terrified of childbirth... I realize that this "miracle" may be an inevitable avenue if I wish to have kids... but I involuntarily stutter when I even talk about it. I saw one lady partsl birth and that was more than enough for me (while encouraging the mother to push I was looking over at my friend mouthing the word "never")... it was kind of like that scene from "Knocked Up."

That being said I had a two guys in my OB clinical that weren't permitted to witness a birth as per the mothers' preference (my professor did her best though). I decided that when and if I decide to have children that I would specifically ask if there were any male students that day who wanted to come in. If I'm focused on pushing out an 8lb bowling ball I would venture to believe that I don't care who's looking at what as long as I'm getting my pain meds. As far as I'm concerned this is the most effective type of sex ed there is for both sexes... it's good to know what you could "accidentally," get yourself into if you're not careful.

Hopefully more women will develop this perspective as well and in the future male nurses will be able to see more... but for some of you a YouTube video or two might cover it. :)

Specializes in cardiac-telemetry, hospice, ICU.

My experience in being excluded in OB is similar to many already voiced. I'd like to add that the impression given to me by some of the nurses on the floor was less than warm as well. By that I mean I got the impression I was an 'unwanted observer' as a male student. I felt the attitude was that I would never be accepted nor work in OB, so I wasn't treated with the same level of cooperation as the female students were. I learned a fair amount, but I was on the outside looking in, and yes, I would never work in OB so I guess the attitude by the nurses is well founded.

Hey man.

I was the only guy in a group with 9 other females. I saw 4 lady partsl births and 2 C-Sections. Way more than I wanted too. Count yourself lucky and that OB is over. Haha. OB clinicals are seen as kind of a "joke" by most of the nursing faculty at my university. It's one of the "easier" classes in the cirriculum. Best of luck man! Don't dwell on one bad OB rotation! It's a very specialized area, sort of like oncology or critical care.

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