Do Male Nursing Students Get It Easier Than Female?

Nursing Students Male Students

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I am a nursing student and I have noticed that in my school teachers let male nursing students slide a little more when they make mistakes. So I decided to write a research paper on the subject.

I would like to know....

Do male students get better treatment in nursing school than female students, or are they allowed more slack?

When responding please state what school you go to and your year of study.

thank you

Maria

My experience is that most of the instructors treat us all the same, but there are a few exceptions.

I did have one clinical instructor who I think went a little easier on me in clinicals because I was male.

Several of my classmates, both male and female students, insist that one of the clinical instructors who I never had was very easy on the female students and very demanding of the male students.

I went to school 30 yrs ago ago, so there were only 4 males in my class of 60. They got to wear white pants and labcoats and look like doctors. We had to wear silly pink starched dresses with white pinafores and starched caps.

I think the instructors stayed clear of confrontation with the guys due to fear...LOL!They were such an oddity nobody wanted to risk accusations of favoritism and discrimination, even in the 70's, so the instructors took the easy way out and looked the other way. At least the girls thought so.

But then, the guys thought I was cut too much slack...since I was a LPN and working part time in the facility I was allowed some latitude by my hospital based program, since I was already a nurse. It really bugged them too...as well as some of the girls..they were quite vocal about it which I found humorous. An LPN going back to RN school is just what RN instructors love and I was a pet. ;)

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. :)

I just graduated from an ADN program in Western Ky. I know that we started with 6 guys and 44 females. We finished with 2 males and 28 females. :rolleyes: Do the math and you will see that we did not get cut any slack. :uhoh3: We were treated fairly and we had to make the grade the same as the females. :p

Specializes in Emergency.

Treated better? No. Treated different? Yes. The men in our class repeatedly got the "women are more empathetic" lecture. And then there is the "No, I don't have children, but worse, I do have a boyfriend." joke - 50 or 60 times. But I imagine this is about the same as women get in engineering classes. You do get treated differently, and from the outside, it could appear better or worse, depending on your perspective.

Specializes in OR.

The males in my class are treated differently. They are given much more slack. Two have been given second chances after second chances. One male student on vacation during the semester for a week and was allowed to take the test a day after the rest of the class did with no penalty (there is supposed to be a 10% penalty for taking a late test). This particular student moans and groans and just complains if he does not get the clinical rotation of his choice, which he almost always does (except for 1 time). the policy is that if a student comes to clinical without the necessary paperwork and is nto prepared, the instructor can send them home. Well, 1 male student has a history of showing unprepared and writing labs and drugs during report and has no care plans at all, but he has never been sent home. and last year a female student showed up to clinical with no care plan and was sent home in the middle of report. Whether there is preferential treatment all depends on the instructors.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
The males in my class are treated differently. They are given much more slack. Two have been given second chances after second chances. One male student on vacation during the semester for a week and was allowed to take the test a day after the rest of the class did with no penalty (there is supposed to be a 10% penalty for taking a late test). This particular student moans and groans and just complains if he does not get the clinical rotation of his choice, which he almost always does (except for 1 time). the policy is that if a student comes to clinical without the necessary paperwork and is nto prepared, the instructor can send them home. Well, 1 male student has a history of showing unprepared and writing labs and drugs during report and has no care plans at all, but he has never been sent home. and last year a female student showed up to clinical with no care plan and was sent home in the middle of report. Whether there is preferential treatment all depends on the instructors.

Is there a chain of command you can report this favoritism/discrimination to. Why do you and your fellow students put up with it. If I were treated differently so blantantly I wouldn't put up with it. Perhaps the females can put up a united front.

Specializes in Critical Care.

It was certainly easier to get into the program, since they took all males over the females and so I got to walk to the front of a 2 yr waiting list.

But I thought school treated me equal. (I could be wrong, I consider myself intelligent but sometimes 'lazy' with bookwork/paperwork. Maybe they did green light sub-par work, but I didn't think so, after all, the same level of work got me through non-nursing classes. But I do remember thinking that if some of the book worms knew how little I read and studied to pass, they'd have heart attacks. I just attributed that to the fact that I have always 'pulled it out' when necessary, but maybe I'm just conceited and was being coddled through. Wow, that might give me a whole new perspective on nursing school to ponder . . .)

In the old days, I used to run into man-hating nurses, but not now. We are inevitable now and even the man-haters are resigned to us.

But all said and done, I've never once felt like an outsider or minority in nursing.

~faith,

Timothy.

What a loaded question! Depends on what "it" is...:kiss...and who you ask (I'm married so my answer is a qualified no).

Do Male Nursing Students Get It Easier Than Female?

Ah come on ladies give us guys a little break. We are out numbered by a very very high percentage of females in nursing school. I don't believe that anyone should get any special treatment but understand that we are all there to learn and help each other. I do believe that no matter what school and class teacher do have their favorites....just help us out a little ladies, we really don't mind

A lot of schools encourage and welcome male nursing students more. I'm not saying it's right, but it's real. Maybe they try to get more male nurses in the field and they understand the growing numbers of males now trying to be nurses so they take us in the program easier and quicker ahead of females on waiting lists. Ladies us guys don't want to take anything from you, we just want to blend in that's all. :)

.....

Specializes in Intermediate Care.
I just graduated from the Univ. of Michigan Second Career Nursing Program. 3 of the 24 of us were men. I didn't notice any significantly different treatment based on gender. I'm usually pretty aware of stuff like that, after having been in a male-dominated profession for 14 years. There were very significant differences between the expectations of various clinical instructors, and occasionally a clinical instructor really took a shine to one of the students (male of female). But nothing systematic. I enjoy having a variety of backgrounds and personalities among my classmates and co-workers, and would like to see more men in the nursing field. Vive la difference!

Liz, do you mind if I pick your brain about this program? It is the exact one I will be applying to in the spring and I'd like some "insider info"

Let me know!

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