Male Psychiatric Nurses

[fiba]

I do not want to stereotype, but why do I hear that

male psychiatric nurses are well received and appreciated by female staff.

Do you think males bring a different perspective to this career?? Do they bring physical presence??

I also notice in the info sessions I have been to and where I started volunteering most staff are female.

I myself come from a criminology education background, initially wanted to be an officer.

but I find myself quite fascinated by the field of mental health and helping others in this format.

personal note:

my parents worked in health care most of their lives too, so there is a sort of familiarity.

[supernurse109]

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said most of us are female.......... That is why you are well received, obviously in this field like most others a balance is always nice. Never let anyone tell you tho, that you need men to deal with conflict. this is not true, but having the backing of the team does give a girl more confidence to deal with situations, I have been in the game for 26 yrs and have dealt with much stuff. But even now I come across pts that simply relate better to males. x If you feel it is in your blood then go for it. x

It is a very rewarding career.

[lasair]

I hate to say it but there are times where male presence can make a situation run smoother. I have seen service users when unwell act sexually inappropriate towards female staff, some male service users relate better to male nurses, male presence can help with the prevention of aggression as some male service users feel they can frighten female staff. It is positive to have a good ratio, where I am for inpatient male staff mostly work with male service users and female with female, that I don't agree with fully but as I student on my intership I don't have much say in the runnings.

[fiba]

Both insightful posts and

holy 26 years is a long time! good on ya :)

[Thanet]

Some patients relate better to males other better to females no matter what sex they are. I have seen a 5' 1" female stand in between two 6' plus male patients and tell them to stop fighting... It worked. I have seen different aged workers do better than younger or older staff. I have seen different ethnic groups work better than others with or their own ethnic group or different ones. Basically it is not what you are but WHO you are that will make a difference in any given situation. BYW I have been doing this job 30 years +

[Umberlee]

I'm sure glad to work with the males we have around here. I think there are proportionally more male co-workers in the psych hospital than anywhere else I have worked in this field. Aside from male nurses we have as many if not more male mental health workers and male security staff too. Every once in a great while we'll end up with a bunch of women working the shift and then we have to call to the other unit to have a male float over for skin checks during admissions or whatnot, but it's really rare. I personally really like having some muscle on the "goon squad!"

[Mandychelle79, ASN, RN]

There are some male staff that I love working with because their sheer size deters some from acting out. Just like what happens when we call security. Though the running joke on our unit is that I am scarier than most of the security staff. Most of the frequently flyers have learned ( and tend to pass it on to other patients when they are there) that I am not easily intimidated. Apparently I can appear to not care about my own personal safety ( though I am on hyper alert and actually analyzing everything and planning for what I can) when I am trying to gain control of a situation and that tends to freak people out.

[fiba]

There are some male staff that I love working with because their sheer size deters some from acting out. Just like what happens when we call security. Though the running joke on our unit is that I am scarier than most of the security staff. Most of the frequently flyers have learned ( and tend to pass it on to other patients when they are there) that I am not easily intimidated. Apparently I can appear to not care about my own personal safety ( though I am on hyper alert and actually analyzing everything and planning for what I can) when I am trying to gain control of a situation and that tends to freak people out.

that last bit about appearing to not care about your own safety, but inside you are hyper alert is similar to me. I do not work in nursing. But I remember when I have volunteered and worked in sketch areas of the city through social services, that is exactly how I was.

[taydian]

I appreciate any male staff around, nurse or nurse assistant, depending on the type of patient is involved. I don't depend on a male staff member to deal with patients directly if I'm the first one to respond. I'm fine to redirecting or deescalate a patient myself. However, when it comes to potentially aggressive patients, that is when I very much appreciate male presence. Things do tend to go a lot more smoothly when the patient sees a figure that could possibly put him down to the ground should hedecide to charge at me. The extremely psychotic patients who are aggressive tend to be a bit non-discriminate and aren't deterred by the male presence....and that is when I love you men by my side. I've been assaulted once and a near miss once. Both by females. Both psychotic as hell. Both were undeterred by male presence...but even so, those men protected my ass. . I work at a new place now and the weekends I work have no males. All the males work on the opposite weekend, nurses and NA. Our census is relatively low and thus far, there hasn't been any issues with patients so we haven't bothered to grieve about it, though we should because we never know when we might get that ONE patient......

And, sorry, my ladies, even though I love my female co-workers, I love the days when it is majority males staffed. The atmosphere is so much more relaxed and we can BS about stuff and laugh at no one else's expense.....and I don't think about "man, what do these chicks say about me when I'm not around?"