Male pediatric nurses?

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jul 3, 2014

Good day:
One of the areas I think I would like would be pediatrics, but was very put off when a fellow male in my sociology class (taken last fall) shared that any man wanting to work with children must be a pervert with none of the class (mainly women) objecting.

That has to be one of the most asinine statements I've heard in a long time. If we were to extend that just a little we could say that Little League coaches, Scout leaders, social workers and even fathers must all be closet perverts. Of course some of each of those ARE pedophiles but no one would tar them all with the same brush.

Nepenthe Sea · Jul 11, 2014

I work in a PICU in Texas. We have a few male pedi nurses in our unit, and they are great! Go for it!

PedsED-RN · Jul 14, 2014

In my ED we have numerous male RNs, as well as many throughout our less hospital and on our Transport team. No one thinks it is at all odd, they do an awesome job with kids and are great at helping ease kids' anxiety often. I say go for it! It's rewarding an kids are fun to care for usually-more resilient and bounce back quickly. They also tend to complain less than adults. =). Good luck to you!

CLC172 · Jul 25, 2014

I've worked with quite a few male pediatric nurses and I think they're great! I have a male friend who is an LPN, pursuing his RN and I keep trying to convince him that peds is the way to go. :) Do NOT let your gender dictate which area of nursing you should enter. You'll be respected as a collegue by your peers either way.

St. Judes is probably quite competitive, but if that's your goal, go for it! I started my career at a world-class children's teaching hospital and I had NO prior healthcare experience. I only had a few months of volunteer time under my belt. I was very aggressive about pursuing that position, and it paid off for me. I learned a ton and I've never looked back. Good luck to you!

julzgarcia · Aug 19, 2014

my son at 5 weeks old ended up being admitted at our local children's hospital. Our first RN in the ER dept was male and I LOVED HIM!! He was sooooo great with my 5 week old. I could not have asked for a better nurse. He explained everything, he would stop and talk to my son (in baby talk lol) while he was doing his IV. I liked him more than the female nurses. He was the only male on the floor. If your heart is in peds..... don't let anyone take that from you. You go where your heart leads you.

Cutandstitch · Aug 19, 2014

I find it appalling that someone got that nasty thought into your head. At best, it shows a narrow view of an environment in which your classmate has no solid information. At worst, it could mean he himself had a bad experience. Either way, don't let it influence you negatively! You bring more to the profession if you have a genuine interest in the area in which you work.

While I was in nursing school during my mom baby rotation, I got to go to a c section. I got to catch the baby. We NRP'd that baby for four hours. Because of that experience and my interest in critical care, I did my capstone in the PICU.

Now, through an odd twist of fate, courtesy of Uncle Sam, I'm working on a Medsurg floor that gets overflow MomBaby couplets. Not my idea of a perfect environment. Some parents are uncomfortable with me helping with breastfeeding or assessing lochia or lady partsl lacerations. But that's not everyone. It's not even a sizeable percentage of everyone. My silver lining is that I get to help transition and care for neonates.

There are always going to be people who disagree with something you want regardless of your reasons. This is why it's important to identify and pursue goals that help you achieve fulfillment and happiness. Good luck with your studies. Let us know how things pan out for you.