Male nursing students/nurses

orrnlori, RN · Feb 19, 2004

I was 39 when I started nursing school and my best buddy throughout was a 25 year old man. We now work in the same hospital and I always feel like I'm seeing my little brother when we pass in the halls. I'll always love him even though he didn't seem to have to work as hard as I did to get through it. :chuckle

Forget about what you are encountering in school, I know that's hard. Just get through it. Nursing schools and some instructors are little empires unto themselves. They almost forget the purpose of why they are there. Nusing school sucks, and will until the instructors get off their high-horses and teach nursing.

Don't worry about what's on TV, when did that EVER reflect real life. Some of the best nurses I work with are men. There's no whining in the OR when you are partnered with a male nurse. No, I'm not saying all female nurses whine, but they do their fair share vs. the men who just get on with it. The sooner the case is over the sooner I can get on to the next case I WANT to do. Complaining about it doesn't cause the surgery to be cancelled, it just makes everyone in the roon miserable.

As far as doctors treating male nurses better, that's the doctor's fault. It's hard sometimes to stand up to them being female. We all need to do a better job at it, every one of us. And the flip side of this is that many times I've seen the doctors treat the male nurse better to his face, but then make little snide remarks to the female nurses in his absence. So male nurses have some problems with doctors too, they just may not see it. As a whole, doctors feel themselves above nurses no matter what sex the nurse is. It's a fact. Once you know the docs personally that usually subsides.

I think nurses do sometimes treat each other badly. I do think it hurts us as a group, as a profession. Teamwork is essential but sometimes lacking because someone is always trying to stick it to someone else to make themselves look better. It just happens.

Be as professional as you can be in school, graduate and move on. Work is better than school. You will be accepted. When you're not, don't worry about it. You'll get it from co-workers, doctors, and patients. It's part of society.

And just as a side note, I used to train bank officers. I'll never forget the time I picked up a call about a large commercial loan. The man on the other end said, Oh honey, I'd rather talk to a man, they know more about these things. Giggling I handed the phone over to my trainee, a male, who proceeded to fumble through the conversation.

So see, it's everywhere. It's what you make of it.

zicovico · Feb 19, 2004

"Be as professional as you can be in school, graduate and move on. Work is better than school. You will be accepted. When you're not, don't worry about it. You'll get it from co-workers, doctors, and patients. It's part of society."

Thanks so much for sharing that. I think life itself isn't 100% fair. There is no absolute fairness. The most important thing is to focus on the goal.

I was 39 when I started nursing school and my best buddy throughout was a 25 year old man. We now work in the same hospital and I always feel like I'm seeing my little brother when we pass in the halls. I'll always love him even though he didn't seem to have to work as hard as I did to get through it. :chuckle
Forget about what you are encountering in school, I know that's hard. Just get through it. Nursing schools and some instructors are little empires unto themselves. They almost forget the purpose of why they are there. Nusing school sucks, and will until the instructors get off their high-horses and teach nursing.
Don't worry about what's on TV, when did that EVER reflect real life. Some of the best nurses I work with are men. There's no whining in the OR when you are partnered with a male nurse. No, I'm not saying all female nurses whine, but they do their fair share vs. the men who just get on with it. The sooner the case is over the sooner I can get on to the next case I WANT to do. Complaining about it doesn't cause the surgery to be cancelled, it just makes everyone in the roon miserable.
As far as doctors treating male nurses better, that's the doctor's fault. It's hard sometimes to stand up to them being female. We all need to do a better job at it, every one of us. And the flip side of this is that many times I've seen the doctors treat the male nurse better to his face, but then make little snide remarks to the female nurses in his absence. So male nurses have some problems with doctors too, they just may not see it. As a whole, doctors feel themselves above nurses no matter what sex the nurse is. It's a fact. Once you know the docs personally that usually subsides.
I think nurses do sometimes treat each other badly. I do think it hurts us as a group, as a profession. Teamwork is essential but sometimes lacking because someone is always trying to stick it to someone else to make themselves look better. It just happens.
Be as professional as you can be in school, graduate and move on. Work is better than school. You will be accepted. When you're not, don't worry about it. You'll get it from co-workers, doctors, and patients. It's part of society.
And just as a side note, I used to train bank officers. I'll never forget the time I picked up a call about a large commercial loan. The man on the other end said, Oh honey, I'd rather talk to a man, they know more about these things. Giggling I handed the phone over to my trainee, a male, who proceeded to fumble through the conversation.
So see, it's everywhere. It's what you make of it.

Mike RGN · Feb 19, 2004

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.

Hope I not quoted this out off context but I am a nurse without a degree of any sorts, I can't remember the patients ever asking me if I had one or ever asking for a nurse with a degree to care for them.

Who are your trying to get respect from, I have it from the people who matter the patient and my peers.

tmoorelpn · Feb 19, 2004

Where I work the male nurses and CNAs have a heck of time and I feel so sorry for them because they are really good at what they do. We have female residents who just don't want a man getting them dressed for bed or give them a suppository or touch them in general. Then we have male residents who have the old mind-set that men aren't nurses and they give the male nurses and CNAs a hard time because they think they're gay. It may be easier on them with a younger population of patients but the elderly don't seem too receptive to them from what I've seen and it's a shame. I think that there should be a real positive push to encourage men to join the nursing profession. But I think it's going to take time, as with anything else, to change people's views. As more and more men become nurses, it'll become more accepted.

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.

JustaMaleRN · Feb 19, 2004

Where I work the male nurses and CNAs have a heck of time and I feel so sorry for them because they are really good at what they do. We have female residents who just don't want a man getting them dressed for bed or give them a suppository or touch them in general. Then we have male residents who have the old mind-set that men aren't nurses and they give the male nurses and CNAs a hard time because they think they're gay. It may be easier on them with a younger population of patients but the elderly don't seem too receptive to them from what I've seen and it's a shame. I think that there should be a real positive push to encourage men to join the nursing profession. But I think it's going to take time, as with anything else, to change people's views. As more and more men become nurses, it'll become more accepted.

I have had very few problems with patients asking for a different nurse. Initially I had one patient who's husband was against me taking care of his wife. (It was interesting when I ran into him while he was walking out of a Gay club that was not far from one of my clinical sites...) He apologized for his stance, but said that he felt it was the right thing to do.

Currently, I have one or two older patients who prefer a female while they are taking care of personal needs. I respect that. I am very up-front with my co-workers...I have put in all of 5 foleys in female patients. I can do it in a pinch, but it would take me a whole lot longer than it would for one of them.

I feel this issue will change as this aggregate moves on. I have found that the 50 to 60 y.o. groups are accepting. They are congizant of the skill and abilities. They are very accepting, as are the younger groups.