Male nursing students/nurses

Yellow Rose RN · Feb 1, 2004

I honestly think that we need good male nurses. You are an asset and don't be discouraged from the "stats". Good for you for entering a career that has been mostly occupied by women in the past years. I know many great "male" nurses and am proud to call them my collegues and friends. We had one male nursing student in my class of 25 and he dropped out. I commend you and wish you the best of luck. Hang in there!

CarolineRn · Feb 1, 2004

Dude. All I know is that if you go into surgery, or some other such place where you spend hours on end with a doc, you will gain respect. (as long as you are intelligent)

Yet these same docs have little to no respect for women in the same positions. Sometimes, I guess. Honestly, I think it all depends on personality. Guys, in general have no shame or ambivalence towards treating a surgeon like an equal. In the OR settings I have been exposed to, most female nurses have some kind of imaginary "line" that they refuse to cross. But the male RN's.. You can almost hear them saying "F-you" to a prima-donna surgeon.

In my admittedly limited experience, guys do very well in OR settings, and their female counterparts sit back and put up with all kinds of abuse. All the male RN's I have spoken to as a student continuously reiterate to me the importance of treating and speaking to the surgeons as equals. Why do women RN's who have worked with these same Docs for years and years not get what the guys do? maybe (just a guess) back in the day RN's were taught in school to defer to and back off from a Doctor's words. Oooooh. So not cool, especially knowing how much RN's who've been doing this for awhile know. I just wanna know one thing.... WHY do RN's back off? No, not all of them, but many. WHY back off when we sometimes know more? I doubt any RN will admit to a weak moment when she backed off instead of being the pt. advocate, but we know almost all of us do it under pressure. My Q is: how did you deal with the aftermath, and how many of you have felt like crap because you were right but deferred to a doctor?

ADNRN · Feb 1, 2004

Originally posted by krebs.cycle
I am a male nursing student in the midst of my second year of schooling towards a degree. I find the underlying of most everything in this program to be oriented towards women, whether it be the lack of pictures of male nurses in the text books or the necessity of describing one's "feelings" for a good grade.

My working years, to date, have been in male oriented areas, and I am increasingly aware of the inequity of acceptance and opportunity available to men entering nursing. The stereotype of nursing being for "women only" greatly influenced me by decreasing my desire to be a nurse, for many years, and still at times I feel the subtle segregation of being one of only three males in a class of 26.

Positive promotion of men in nursing is absent. The most recent portrayals have been "Oswald" from "The Drew Carey Show", "Jack" from "Will & Grace", and Ben Stiller's character on "Meet the Parents", which have all had negative connotations attached to them.

It would be great to see a "male-friendly" image of nursing that would encourage more men to decide on nursing as a career option.

Opinions and comments on ways that this can be accomplished or on my experiences and thoughts would be appreciated.

First off, in Meet the Parents, I think a really positive image of men in nursing was protrayed. But I suppose that's in the eye of the beholder.

Men will increasingly enter nursing. In fact, there are more men in nursing now than there ever have been. I heard it was around 5%, and increasing. So, even if we do nothing, the number of men will increase in nursing. Where I work, the ICU is almost 50% men, so is the ER.

I don't want to sound sexist, but if I were a manager, and I had to choose, I'd choose a male nurse any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Because men are easier to work with, are typically highly competent and come across as more accountable and rational. Not that I haven't met women exactly as I have described above and not that I haven't met incompetent and lazy men, but we have a reputation for being steady, and competent and accountable, be it deserved or not.

I have never met a nurse manager that didn't want male nurses. I haven't met that many nurse managers, but that's been my experience thus far.

I wouldn't worry about the shortage of men in nursing. We're coming up, and the current small percentage is in our favor. It's our game to win.

glopop11 · Feb 1, 2004

So now you know what it's like for a professional woman in a male dominated business society, or what it's like to be a female athlete and presumed to be gay just because you are athletic. When I went to school for electrical engineering in the 80's, I was the only female, and there were no pictures of women in our text books.

Are you looking for sympathy? You won't get it from me!

GO PATRIOTS!!!!

piper_for_hire · Feb 1, 2004

I am also a nursing student that has a XY chromosome.

Can you explain what you mean by "the necessity of describing one's feelings for a good grade."? Are you saying that you've aced a class, but recieved a lower grade because you didn't express your feelings? I'm not sure what you're saying here. Can you explain?

As someone mentioned before, serveral areas of nursing have a high percentage of men. In what areas is there an "inequtiy of opportunity"?

Thanks and GO EAGLES ..... um .... they what?? ... oh ... um ... WE'LL GET 'EM NEXT YEAR!!

-S

Chaya, ASN, RN · Feb 1, 2004

Krebs- Just gotta get yourself THRU school, then you will be in a position to add your own unique knowlege, skills and viewpoint to the working culture in the real world. Hang tight, please- we really need a more diverse personnel base to best serve the widest range patient population.

Dayray, RN · Feb 1, 2004

I can see what your saying about the image of male nurses on TV. We are pretty much made fun of by the writers. The one exception I would make is the meet the parents guy, yeah they did make fun of him but in the end it came out that he really wanted to be a nurse and wasn't a failed MD want-to-be and he talked about why he wanted to be a nurse.

I know how you feel about the pictures and stuff, heck my school uniform was even pink. You just have to get used to being different. Men in nursing are "different" from the norm. That doesn't make us better or worse. Sometimes it might be lonely but hang in there.

At the same time realize that nursing isn't going to change for you. You can't make nursing more man friendly but you can be a positive example that over time will change the stereotypes and overcome the resistance to men in nursing.

You have to work to fit into nursing as it is now and help to make it better in the future. I'm not saying to except male bashing or bad treatment but don't be surprised when they come up and be sure that you deal with them graciously.

As for expressing your feelings on papers: There is a cultural thing out there that says men aren't supposed to show feelings but it's just as silly as the cultural view of men in nursing. You have been strong enough to go against the grain and become a man in nursing, my advise is to go against the grain again and show that you are man enough to express feelings and still retain your masculinity. I know thats tough but I assure you if you work on it now you'll be much happier and a better nurse when you get there. Nursing is an emotional profession and if you figure out how to deal with that you'll be way ahead of the game.

Some people have posted that men tend to get more respect from male doctors. That is sometimes true and can be valuable but it doesn't cancel out the difficulties that men in nursing encounter. Yeah I have noticed that some doctors are more respectful to me at the same time I have noticed that my colleagues notice this and resent it which makes it harder on me. Also there are male physicians that laugh at me because they think it's funny that a man would want to be a nurse. There are also some female physicians that don't like me because of my gender. So all in all Id say the doctor thing comes out even.

As for the person who posted about her experiences as a female athlete and engineer. It was wrong what happened to you and I am sorry that you were treated badly but that doesn't make it Okay that it happens to another human being in a different profession.

susi_q · Feb 1, 2004

Get yourself thru school ... you will be an asset !

I worked and played in male dominated fields (accounting, construction) before entering nursing. Didn't notice so much during school ... but once I hit the floor was appalled at the whining, laziness, cattiness that some of my fellow female nurses exhibited on the job (no flames, please. I'm not trying to generalize ... but it is what I saw where I worked.) With few exceptions the guys I have worked with have been the best, particularly when teamwork was required.

I'm now a nursing instructor, and am finding that the guys that are in my clinicals seem to "get it" quickly, have an effective approach with doctors, work hard - while still having fun, and connect well with their patients.

Take heart ... the image has changed some already ... and if you guys keep up the good work, we will all benefit from your contributions.

tmiller027 · Feb 1, 2004

Our three year old daughter had eye surgery a few months ago, and the OR nurse was a male. He was a very nice guy who treated my little girl as if she were his own. He held her hand and walked her into the surgery area.

Being a male going into nursing myself, I try to focus on people like him, and another male nurse friend of mine as positive examples, instead of worrying about the negative aspects.

First thing we need to do is drop the "male" from nurse. You don't hear male doc or female doc that often do you?

nurseygrrl, LPN · Feb 1, 2004

Originally posted by glopop11
So now you know what it's like for a professional woman in a male dominated business society, or what it's like to be a female athlete and presumed to be gay just because you are athletic. When I went to school for electrical engineering in the 80's, I was the only female, and there were no pictures of women in our text books.

Are you looking for sympathy? You won't get it from me!

GO PATRIOTS!!!!

You took the words right out of my mouth! Also, what about the negative portrayal of FEMALE nurses in all types of media. From most perspectives, you'd think female nurses were nothing but little sex kittens or the docs secretaries or handmaidens. And your comment on 'describing one's feelings' was totally sexist! Although I don't recall ever having to describe my feelings regarding a grade, why do you think that would be a negative thing to do for a male?

Listen, good luck to you in your life and in nursing. Trust me, no matter what your sex, you will be well recieved by your co-workers if you know what you're doing and are a team player.

Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN · Feb 1, 2004

Nursing student here.

Gotta say everyone's treated me fabulously... so far (fingers-crossed!).

From teachers, students, advisors, co-workers at the hospitals -- executives, nurses managers, docs, nurses, techs, CAs, and other staff. Been a real nice welcome!