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.
Krebs, way back when i was in nursing school i had at least one instructor who seemed to have a chip on her shoulder regarding males students. I dont know if she were in some way intimidated by men 'intruding' in the profession??? Or????
However, on the flipside, some of my classmates swore that a few of the professors were 'easier' on the men....for whatever reasons.
Probably depends on the instructor.
I think that assuming an entire nursing program/curriculum is biased and treats men differently than the women is a bit far fetched...
unless of course you're attending the "Feminazi school of Nursing"...which i suppose is possible. Or, if they're a bunch of radical lesbians who have no use for men...look out!
If this is the case, then I suggest getting in touch with your feminine side quickly...lest they flunk you.
We had a handful of guys in our class.... they all seemed to enjoy what they were doing and we really benefited from their unique perspective (as compared to the 36+ girls)....
I think it was a learning experience...
I know one in particular became a good friend of mine...much to my dh's dismay....I don't know whether it was that fact that we had so much in common and liked to just hang out and talk in the lobby or whether it was the fact that he worked part time as a personal trainer at 24hour fitness???? hmmmmm?
anyway...
we worked together on some care plans and talked about the gender issue quite a bit.... and I like to think we learned alot from each other.
oh and being a total b#$%^...... it was GREAT having something nice to look at while in class too!! wink wink.... KIDDING!!!!
KrebsCycle writes: "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"
krebs, you missed, or perhaps were not yet interested enough to consider it when viewed, one of the BEST protrayals of ANY nurse found in Movie Director Paul Thomas Anderson's film "Magnolia" [1999]. It has, in my opinion, the finest protrayal of a nurse I have ever viewed in film or TV, and reveals in a brilliant screenplay the creativity, sensitive caring and intelligent obstinance for follow through found in any excellent nurse, while also revealing the often anonymous character of our most succesful and life changing actions in regard to our patients . This film's nurse's role was subcontextual to the film itself, ABSOLUTELY life changing for the movie protaganist played by Tom Cruise, and entirely necessary for the peace of the patient for whom the nurse was caring [his estranged father]. The particular nurse is male, and it is sorrowful to me that an quivalent excellent protrayal of the female nurse is so much harder to find. My personal feeling is that this nurse HAD to be male for such creativity, importance, and succesful, intelligent obstinance to be considered realistic. THIS because female nurses suffer so MANY stereotypes far in excess of those you state you suffer. See http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/m/magnolia1.html.
The second best film is relegated to "second best film presentation" for reasons described in the following paragrah. It is John Sayles' Oscar prominant "Passion fish" , now a decade old. It shows a tremendous relationship between care giver and care recipient, in a much more interesting and complex context than that which this sentence describes. However [apart from the larger picture provided] in this film, both caregiver and care recipient battle with present interior demons, current or past substance dependance, and its story line is dependant upon the hard won individual inner peace in a complex screenplay brilliantly written. While the issue of substance dependance in nurses has been overplayed in the media in my opinion [since my early years in nursing in the mid 80s when it recieved excessive such commentary] what is important for ALL nurses, male or female when considering this film, is that the caregiver in this film is NOT a nurse at all, but a caregiver, that is, in fact, an attendant, whose educational background is never discussed, and for those of us who are VERY familiar with both attendants and nurses, easily identified as NOT a nurse while easily identified by a misinformed media and lay audience AS a nurse so "Passion Fish" must be relegated to second tier status in this positive images of nurses in film review, as it is NOT a nurse playing protaganist, but an attendant; This "detail" is too often lost on the lay audience]. Describing the co-lead role tonight, in quick google search, is the term "nurse" presented in the film's synopsis found at http://www.citypages.com/filmreviews/detail.asp?MID=4233 . This use of nurse is inaccurate; its misuse lamentable, and my point on this film and its reinforcement for us as nurses and the lay audience two fold:
1) It presents an important insight into caregiving and its rigors, and so addresses an inherant aspect of nursing. In this way it promotes a positive image of caregivers, in which classification nurses must be included. Negative connotations related to past behaviours inherent in the story line may, to some constricted minds, hold more importance than the v intelligently described postive and exceedingly createve caregiving of a clear and liberated mind which is NOT nursing trained, but nursing classified.
2) caregivers are often misnomered nurses, ignoring and obfuscating the truth that "Nurse" denotes [TO THOSE OF US IN THE PROFESSION, though NOT to those of us outside it], educational and degree background/status.
One thing that I found fascinating as someone who opposes affirmative action in most cases was that the University of Michigan (recently involved in the landmark Supreme Court Case on affirmative action) actually gave BONUS POINTS to mail applicants! It really redefines the concept of affirmative action.
I recently experienced being underneath a magnifying glass. I had a fifteen minute conversation with a doctor who just had to know what race I was, couldn't bother to get my name, but just had to know my race.
Wow. I am often astounded at how common courtesy is absent in the hospital culture and nurses on the short end of the stick from Doctors appearing as consulting MDs. No "hellos" , no "excuse me's" , no introductions, no confirmations from them assuring you are the patient's nurse that day, and often not obvious badges. Just interruption and give me what I want now. Forget "I see your very busy but I have a few quick questions so that I don't have to review the chart and I'd like you to give them to me now". But your story, man. That's pretty bad.
A friend of mine who recently had to stay in the main Calgary hospital had a nurse tell her that she felt that, in todays Nursing Programs, at times they (the Nursing Program instructors) were so busy teaching the students philosophy and how to communicate their own feelings that some of the medical and nurse-patient communication instructions got pushed to the way-side. I'm not sure how much of this I agree with, since there is governing bodies for nursing competencies and standards, BUT....I do think that there is a lot of emphasis on students having to express their own feelings, which I don't believe is necessary. I felt vulnerable sharing my feelings in papers or group discussions and would often make up stuff just to jump through the proverbial hoops and make the instructors happy. I can well imagine that this is difficult for you Krebs.
There was two male students in my class. I was lucky to be able to call them both "friend". I was capable of receiving insight into case-studies that were unique and allowed me to expand my own way of thinking. The best part was that I never had to guess what they were thinking as they were always upfront with me. Never did I hear from others stuff that was being said about me by them (although this type of behaviour ran rampant through the female portion of the class).
The male student I was closest with told me that he was asked by instructors on a couple of occasions how it felt to be a male in a female run program. I know they never asked the one female we had in the class who was of South American descent what it was like being Hispanic in an otherwise Caucasian class. Prejudice is prejudice.
I don't know if there is any way of making the Nursing programs more gender neutral. I have heard from male nurses I work with that a big personal barrier for them was the name "Nurse" and that they would feel more comfortable with a job title that was less intertwined with with a feminine mentation. Could that work? Possibly? Would that ever happen? NO! You would have way too many people up in arms about the "pride entailed in having the title "nurse"!"
My son once said to me (at age 5) that there were two types of nurses, nurses and MALE nurses. He had thought that since I had always made this gender distinction that it must be due to an actual difference in jobs. I learned that day to never differentiate by gender again, and still don't to this day. I do, in this post, only to clarify.
I also believe that prejudices in programs are not always only gender specific but also sometimes appearance and age related too. I have faith that it will all eventually change
I am a male nurse and have been out of school several years. While I was in school, I had witnessed some females expressing emotion for grade consideration on three accounts and it worked how I have no idea. I also did find a few instructors "man haters" or I guess you could call them that. They were not receptive to the "male" as a nurse would use "she" "her" pronouns in abundance. Most guys didnt care but when this was obvious in their distribution of assignments comments and otherwise some approached the instructor and asked to be objectively reviewed. I even had an instructor in my maternity class fail 3 out of 4 males, coincidence? On the otherside, I had alot of support from other instructors and found respect and the like guess different people in all worlds either business or healthcare. It is a chosen profession deal with the differences they will change in time. In the fields of the hospital different diciplines react differently so it hard to say why and what. But from my experience I find OR, ER, ICU, Acute & Chronic Dialysis, Psychiatry, Addiction medicine, to be areas of specialty where intelligence supercedes your gender. Why this is the case Depends on the conversations and professionalism. Having a previous military experience, I dont believe in patterned scrubs(pediatric OK) and find this dumbs down the nurse(hey thats a good thread) and I am digressing, Stay in school finish don't be bitter, things will change it just takes time. hell before people assumed you were gay as a male nurse. Today it isn't assumed as much. Still questioned though lol. See Change.
I have been nursing for 3 years now, and am currently looking at leaving the profession over the next two years. I am not leaving nursing due to the nature of the work or being a male nurse in a female dominates profession.
Reason number one is that I think nurses do not treat each other with respect in lue of their profession. There have been shifts where I would see nurses arguing over the minutest things. I am sitting at a desk charting watching doctors shaking their heads over this. At the same time I would like just to put a bag over my head with a frownie face painted on the front. Like a lot of nurses I worked at a different profession before entering nursing. I finished my Business degree and worked with my dad as an engineer. I did engineering for more than four years and never seen the squabbling with peers as demonstrated with nurses. How can nurses want to be treated like professionals if they do not act the part?
The second reason is nursing is doing nothing to better the profession. I look at other professions within the medical field and they are always raising the requirements for their profession. Such as physical therapist needs a master's degree, pharmacist need a pharm D, and physician assistants are moving to all masters degrees.
Nursing needs to raise their education level to at least a BSN. Believe me there are still doctors out there think that all nurses are diploma nurses. I not say this because I have a BSN but because this will bring more respect to the profession with better pay. Believe me I hold my BSN in high regard, and worked my a$$ off more than my business degree.
I have a two year commitment with the current profession (military) and things not improve for the better, I will leaver profession altogether. There is a female nurse who is leaving the profession after 14 years because she was put in a nursing manager's position and could not tolerate the entire belly aching going on with her peers. Another male nurse just got accepted to Medical School. He was like me no respect from his peers or patients drove him out of the profession.
If you want to attract more males to the profession, change the working environment, then there are more males in the profession
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.
I am a male nurse LPN who works in Tulsa Okla. I seen an article on tv news about a year ago that was being used to show how short nursing was and that they were wanting to get more men into the profession. It made a commit about how male nurses are better in critical care areas. Like E.R. I.C.U. O.R. or cardiac unit. it did not say why this was. I know that I have heard alot less commplaints against men then women. In my area there is all most 40% men. and my director is a male who is respected threw out my hospital. as a regular floor nurse men are not as used to be seen there. most male nurses I know work in a specalty area. If you feel like you are not up to being a male as a floor nurse try to get into a spelalty area and go from there. A nurse is only as good as they think they are and dont let others put you down for being a male nurse. you can always go on to higher level of nursing care or even higher in the medical area, Good luck to you
That was quite encouraging. I am also considering entering the nursing program starting Fall of 2005. I am a male and has been wondering how I am going to fit into the female dominated program. I am really encouraged by your experienced.
Thanks
The male students in my program got away with a LOT the female counterparts did not. things such as sleeping during lecture, being late (or even absent ) from clinical. It was even rumored there was grade-fixing, but I have no proof. SO it's not true thatn men are at a disadvantage in nursing school, everywhere. They bent over backward to accomodate and pass male students where I graduated. It was infuriating but I did understand the reasons behind it. I just went on doing the best I could, knowing damn well I could not change the politics where I was in school at all. Now don't get me wrong.....
I still think discrimination anywhere is wrong. I dealt with serious harassment and such in the military, believe me. Women were much more a minority in the military even as recently as the 1980s. I worked in a shop that was 99% male. The stuff I endured! I could sit and whine or write a book about it. But I did endure and prevail ...I did not whine and I did not anyone stop me from respecting myself and achieving my goals. I ignored those who heckled me and just went about the business of being a strong woman in the military.
Guess you got to make up your mind to ignore what bothers you, do something about the things you can change and quit the griping. That is the only way you get on with it.
Good luck. I say GO MEN!! if you want to enter nursing, I for one, welcome you!
Sorry old boy, still a bit of a problem today - I am in 2nd semester and had instructors state that no male student will EVER work with a female pt. - the dark ages still rule in the halls of acadamia . Oh, well. It's just school.
Don't let the short-sighted nursing instructors get you down. Just get the job done. Finish the program and move on. I had a nursing instructor who openly discriminated against men in nursing. (So did our Dean!) They didn't realize that I wouldn't back down. It ended up with me losing a year of school, and both the instructor and dean losing their positions at the university.
The culture of nursing, like engineering changes in increments. It won't happen overnight. The important thing with nursing is work ethic, reliability and performance. All gender neutral. I could care less if you have tatoos, body piercings, or purple hair. Are you doing your job? Yes! I'll take you!
I have been nursing for 3 years now, and am currently looking at leaving the profession over the next two years. I am not leaving nursing due to the nature of the work or being a male nurse in a female dominates profession.
Reason number one is that I think nurses do not treat each other with respect in lue of their profession. There have been shifts where I would see nurses arguing over the minutest things. I am sitting at a desk charting watching doctors shaking their heads over this. At the same time I would like just to put a bag over my head with a frownie face painted on the front. Like a lot of nurses I worked at a different profession before entering nursing. I finished my Business degree and worked with my dad as an engineer. I did engineering for more than four years and never seen the squabbling with peers as demonstrated with nurses. How can nurses want to be treated like professionals if they do not act the part?
The second reason is nursing is doing nothing to better the profession. I look at other professions within the medical field and they are always raising the requirements for their profession. Such as physical therapist needs a master's degree, pharmacist need a pharm D, and physician assistants are moving to all masters degrees.
Nursing needs to raise their education level to at least a BSN. Believe me there are still doctors out there think that all nurses are diploma nurses. I not say this because I have a BSN but because this will bring more respect to the profession with better pay. Believe me I hold my BSN in high regard, and worked my a$$ off more than my business degree.
I have a two year commitment with the current profession (military) and things not improve for the better, I will leaver profession altogether. There is a female nurse who is leaving the profession after 14 years because she was put in a nursing manager's position and could not tolerate the entire belly aching going on with her peers. Another male nurse just got accepted to Medical School. He was like me no respect from his peers or patients drove him out of the profession.
If you want to attract more males to the profession, change the working environment, then there are more males in the profession
Dude...Hang in there. The most important thing that any nurse can do is get involved. You have to remember that many of our peers will be retiring in the next couple of years. (YEA!!!!!) We will lose over 25% of our current nursing instructors to retirement over the next 4 years, nursing needs everyone it can get.
This is a time where choice comes in. Do you want to be pushed out of a job you worked hard to obtain, that you love, enjoy and cherish because of some dingbats who would rather b*&%^ than do something about it? Get active in your state or national Nursing organization. Get certified in your specialty area, and become active in that organization. Be active in the community.
I have participated in career day at my son's schools for the past 7 years. The first couple of years the students were surprised to see a nurse who was male. Now they accept it, and listen. This is how we change attitudes. Go after an advanced degree if you want to teach. Become a Nurse Practitioner if that is your area of interest. Nursing is such a broad (large) area, there is room for everyone.
Dinith88
720 Posts
Krebs, way back when i was in nursing school i had at least one instructor who seemed to have a chip on her shoulder regarding males students. I dont know if she were in some way intimidated by men 'intruding' in the profession??? Or????
However, on the flipside, some of my classmates swore that a few of the professors were 'easier' on the men....for whatever reasons.
Probably depends on the instructor.
I think that assuming an entire nursing program/curriculum is biased and treats men differently than the women is a bit far fetched...
unless of course you're attending the "Feminazi school of Nursing"...which i suppose is possible. Or, if they're a bunch of radical lesbians who have no use for men...look out!
If this is the case, then I suggest getting in touch with your feminine side quickly...lest they flunk you.
(("...Jah..lets flunk ze men, seig heil!..."))