Males considering nursing?

[gaits72]

Hi,

I used to be C.N.A. when I was in college because of the pay and flexibility. I used the medical field as a way to get through college to become a teacher. (Everyone kept telling me to be a nurse and not a teacher.) However at the time teaching was my passion. I was a teacher for 8 years but due to layoffs, bratty kids, the low pay, and lay offs I was done. I am now 50 and underemployed.

I had considered nursing again since heath, physical education and fitness are my highest values. Plus, the job market looks great in nursing.

However, I have such a stigma against being a male nurse. I don't feel comfortable wiping a butt, toiletry work, and being super compassionate and super caring anymore. It is exhausting.

I was good at it but hated doing it----I felt like this is all there is?? I am an intellectual and get bored passing out meds and taking care of people.

Healthcare is the only field where I can make good pay and retire comfortably.

I have investigated nursing so many times since my options are all dried up.

Do men go into nursing because of pay? I knew a truck driver who got into nursing and didn't care for it either but liked the pay and flexibility so he stuck with it.

Any thoughts on this?

[snowfyre]

Just quit teaching last year and finished an Accelerated BSN program. I am thrilled with being able to make a difference on a shorter time frame. Teaching takes too long, in my opinion, to see the results.

Nursing is also very flexible in licensure compared to teaching. I tried to get licensed in AZ, for instance, and that was such a nightmare that I gave up. I still have to secure my license in other states as an RN, but I just pay the money and wait instead of retesting and mentoring.

Pay isn't as good as the teaching job that I left of 17 years, but I couldn't stomach having to stay longer (42 years total) to retire with the same pension due to our crappy retirement system's failures in Ohio.

[Schmaltz95]

Hi. I am male and currently in school for nursing as a sophomore and I'm not completely sure what I want to do once I have my degree. I have considered trauma care or ER along with possibly going father in school and go for a nurse practitioner. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Hi. I am male and currently in school for nursing as a sophomore and I'm not completely sure what I want to do once I have my degree. I have considered trauma care or ER along with possibly going father in school and go for a nurse practitioner. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

In my experience many men tend to gravitate towards and enjoy those areas in nursing where nurses are allowed more autonomy. That being ICU, ER and transport nursing.

My suggestion is that you find a hospital that has a comprehensive nurse residency program and try to get into it.

Are you a fairly aggressive person? A type A personality? If so you will probably prefer to critical are areas.

I suggest holding off on the NP decision until you have had an opportunity to get a flavor of the different areas available. A good friend of mine started as a new grad in ICU and hated it. In his hurry to get out of ICU he accepted the first job offered to him in our acute psych ward. He loved it and really found his place in nursing. He has since gone on to became a psych NP and has a great job. In nursing school he thought he would enjoy ICU and in the future go to CRNA school.

I tell you this because you should keep an open mind. There may be something you absolutely love doing and you haven't even heard of it yet.

I have a great job that I very much enjoy. However my specialty didn't even exist back when I was in nursing school.

[barcode120x, RN, NP]

Hi. I am male and currently in school for nursing as a sophomore and I'm not completely sure what I want to do once I have my degree. I have considered trauma care or ER along with possibly going father in school and go for a nurse practitioner. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

I'm assuming you're in pre-nursing still since you can't decide? As far as I know, most, if not all of my classmates including myself found out what specialty they wanted to do during and by the end of nursing school. When you start clinicals, I think you'll eventually find out what you truly like. Take some time to think about yourself and look up nursing specialties and what might suite you. But yeah, as PMFB had mentioned, I think guys tend to float to ER or ICU/CCU (and it's quite obvious at my hospital). Not too many us guys on the telemetry floor, and a lot lesser or close to none on the med-surge area...though some of my male cohorts are in tele for experience, but then want to move onto something else.

[Mera]

Sir,

I'm 52 and have been a nurse for over 25 years! I love it. It's my life! My vocation! Yes it's tiring, can make you want to scream, and very hard emotionally, but I wouldn't swap it.

Honestly, I don't think you have the empathy needed! Maybe that's why you became a teacher - it's easier!! Regarding nursing, I feel that a heart felt need, (and want) to help other people is a must!! It has certainly helped me when I've been "persuaded" into doing back to back shifts, totalling sixteen hours!! My heart is in it!!

Please don't take this the wrong way; but you sound like you're considering doing nursing only because of the money you can make from it! If that is the case, then it's going to be hard for you! I am telling you this to help you; not for any other reason.

Okay. This is in the wrong thread! Disregard what I posted! Thank-you.

[Mera]

"Arrogance does not lend itself to nursing.

Please do not characterize yourself as a representative of male nurses. The male nurses that I have worked with would never "own" you or your opinions"

Thank-you! I just posted to "I'm intellectual". The only reason I didn't go off on him is because I'm new! 😂

[Mera]

Sir,

I'm 52 and have been a nurse for over 25 years! I love it. It's my life! My vocation! Yes it's tiring, can make you want to scream, and very hard emotionally, but I wouldn't swap it.

Honestly, I don't think you have the empathy needed! Maybe that's why you became a teacher - it's easier!! Regarding nursing, I feel that a heart felt need, (and want) to help other people is a must!! It has certainly helped me when I've been "persuaded" into doing back to back shifts, totalling sixteen hours!! My heart is in it!!

Please don't take this the wrong way; but you sound like you're considering doing nursing only because of the money you can make from it! If that is the case, then it's going to be hard for you! I am telling you this to help you; not for any other reason.

Okay. This is in the wrong thread! Disregard what I posted! Thank-you.

I took the road less travelled....

[PVCCHoo]

Why would you go in to a line of work that you have experience in, but already KNOW that you hate doing?

That's all you need to make a decision.

Nobody wipes wiping butts, but it's part of the job. If you can't handle it, pick another one. Like any other one. Seriously - every other job you can think of does not require wiping of butts.

As for the intellectual thing. I work as a tech in an ICU while I finish up school and am very impressed with the sheer amount of knowledge the nurses have. They know way more about things we hardly even touch on in school - way more than people who have never been nurses would even realize nurses have to know.

[annie.rn]

I am an intellectual and get bored passing out meds and taking care of people.

Intellectualism and nursing are not mutually exclusive. Just peruse this board a little and you will see. There are a lot of incredibly smart, witty, well educated and well written nurse members on this forum. I am regularly blown away by posts I read. Check out Muno RN, Green Tea, Esme 12, The Commuter and Dogen's profiles and read a few of their posts to get an idea of the caliber of intellect you will find among nurses. And that's naming a VERY few.

Search for the post where people wrote about what they did prior to becoming nurses. There are some very fascinating, well rounded and talented nurses out there.

I have no scientific basis for this but I'd argue that nursing might be one of the more intellectual fields out there. With the crash of the economy, a lot of people went into nursing as a second career so that they would have job security. I personally have worked with a lawyer, an engineer and a pilot who were second career nurses. A smart and interesting group of folks!

One of my nursing professors had a masters degree in Pathophysiology. She was a nursing professor, the chief nurse of one of the local community hospitals and pulled shifts on the Heme/Onc unit at the same hospital. She has since become a FNP and works in private practice while still teaching. She is, by far, one of the smartest human beings I've ever met. During clinical on the Heme/Onc unit, doctors would regularly approach her to collaborate on difficult cases. I'd bet a million bucks that those docs would classify her as intellectual.

I would argue that a true intellectual does not need to be engaged in intellectually stimulating activities at all times. Stating you get bored passing out meds and taking care of people makes me wonder if you are actually as smart as you think. I'm afraid you seem to be a bit of a legend in your own mind. If you are looking for nursing to fill all your intellectual needs, it won't. No job will. Your mind is a tool and how you engage it day to day is up to you and you alone.

[Edited] to try to tighten up the spacing (failed) and get rid of that jumble of words at the bottom (failed!). I need to stop typing my replies on the i-phone app. Weirdness always ensues.

e's iintellectuaengagiintellmind.

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

Sorry OP, your condescending tone is unbelievable. I work with many teachers who left after becoming disillusioned with their ability to actually help kids. I work in a school environment and we have mutual respect for each other. Don't go into nursing for the money, our patients deserve better than that. Would you like your family to deal with someone like you? Think there are a lot of jobs? My wife with 28 years experience has been unemployed for 20 months and not working in nursing now. Think you're so smart? Those teachers I work with said that their ADN's were far harder than anything they did to get their Masters in Ed (their words, not mine). Nursing has consistently been deemed the hardest undergrad program.

[Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN]

Folks, this was OP's first post. One that he has yet to revisit after a month...time to let this one fade into the shadows.

[ndRNCA]

Based on your post, nursing is not your passion, and you can't do it just for the paycheck. Not all nursing positions require bathing or even direct patient care. You could become an RN and work for an insurance company. I would research the job market and available nursing programs in your area. You want to make sure you will have career options if you do go forward with your schooling.