MD's treat male nurses with more respect?

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So I had a female co-worker tell me the other day that she was sick and tired of these physicians treating myself and the other male nurses with camaraderie and respect while they don't share that same behavior with her or the other female nurses.

I began to think about it, to see if I noticed any difference in interaction between myself and the MD's. Firstly, I've never been "yelled" at by an MD, or even demeaned like I've seen done to some other nurses. Usually my opinion is respected and considered in the conversation. Typically I have great rapport with the providers and often we engage in social conversation about personal lives, politics, travel etc.

With the female nurses I observed to see if I noticed the same interaction. I feel like I did see a lot of the same relationship, maybe slightly different. I actually noticed that a few nurses seemed to create a barrier between themselves and the doctor with a subservient attitude, "yes doctor" "anything you want doctor" "do you want my seat doctor" "can I get you the chart doctor". I also heard quite a few nurses say things like "but I'm just the nurse, what do I know" and other demeaning things about themselves.

I never demean myself or make myself seem insignificant to the healthcare team. If you don't present yourself as knowledgable and relevant to the team you really can't blame the doctor for not treating you as an equal.

Then you have the relationship between the female doctors. They're another level of complexity. Add on the foreign doctors from countries where females are considered inferior to the healthcare mix just to make things more confusing.

So my question to all of you is this, is the relationship different in your opinion if you're a male nurse or female nurse and is it because of the actual genitals you possess or is it the behavior we exhibit?

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Specializes in Med Surg.

I've found that if you treat MDs respectfully and honestly attempt to engage thm collaboratively, they return the favor.

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I've found that if you treat MDs respectfully and honestly attempt to engage thm collaboratively, they return the favor.

I would agree with that.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I have never noticed the MDs treating the male nurses any differently. Where I work the doctors generally treat the nurses with respect.

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It's OK to address someone by their title, even if they're a doctor. It's also OK to be courteous and help doctors find charts, etc. I typically do not discuss my personal life with the people I work with. I am female.

Despite all the things I'm doing "wrong", I still don't get yelled at or treated rudely. I work with a lot of male nurses and don't see that they are treated "better". You're perception may not be 100% accurate.

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It's OK to address someone by their title, even if they're a doctor. It's also OK to be courteous and help doctors find charts, etc. I typically do not discuss my personal life with the people I work with. I am female.

Despite all the things I'm doing "wrong", I still don't get yelled at or treated rudely. I work with a lot of male nurses and don't see that they are treated "better". You're perception may not be 100% accurate.

Are you saying that the doctors refer to you as Nurse Pangea, because you consider it typical to address people by their title frequently in conversation. I'm also assuming that while you're being so courteous to help them find charts they are also showing you the reciprocal courtesy of assisting in your job?

As mentioned the original perception you mention as not 100% accurate was from a female nurse coworker, not myself.

Out of curiosity I googled the topic and actually found quite a few articles/forums that also discuss the topic. It all must be imagination of course.

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I've have noticed that a few female intensivists, who have the "b1tch" rep with the female nurses, have always been extra nice and social/cordial with me for some reason.

Other than that, it really varies. I have seen nurses cry after calling an on all doc but personally I have never had any difficulties.

Overall, if you are confident and you know your stuff I really don't think it matters.

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I'm male. I'm relatively new, but I can't say I've noticed any difference in how physicians interact with male or female nurses. As concerns being yelled at, etc. the nurses I work with talk about it as if it's a regular thing. I can assure you it won't happen to me. I won't allow myself to be treated that way. If a doctor decides to try that with me, I will definitely tell him he has no right to speak like that to me. Second, I will go to human resources and file the necessary complaint. Out hospital is Cerrified by Joint Commission. JC requires their hospitals have a program in place for doctors mistreating staff. I believe it's called behavior detrimental to patient safety.

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That's a good point russianbear.

Innately I think males are less likely to allow someone to talk down to us or be rude to us without an equal response. It's probably something related to testosterone. The few times I have had an MD border the line of rudeness or attempting to order me around I quickly reoriented him to our relationship and what is acceptable. They almost always shape up or walk away if they're in a bad mood and can't keep a cool head.

Once I had an older surgeon keep insisting I do as he said (which violated policy) and I continued to smile amused at him refusing and he reported me to my manager. I simply explained what happened and my manager said I did the right thing and she would back me up if needed.

If you plan to work in the CV-ICU or ICU in general you will most certainly have some adrenaline filled moments where an MD may cross the line, you just have to know how to stand your ground and always maintain patient safety.

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I am female and a nurse for 20 years. I never had the impression that I was treated badly or not with respect. Also, I do not act subservient or treat other people without respect, I do not think of myself as "only" a nurse.

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Specializes in ICU.

As a female nurse with 5 years experience (in my mid 30's) I've seen both. Overall for the most part there isn't really a difference. However we do have a small handful, and honestly mostly foreign born, that do not do well with advice from female nurses. In fact, it seems often they will order something completely different just to spite us. Then, shockingly, the following morning in roundings the exact order we wanted pops up as if it was his idea. Makes me crazy!!

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I don't have a problem with the MDs. Never been yelled at or treated condescendingly. But I wonder if that is because I am older than many of them :-)...I hear that the other female nurses in my unit have a not so good relationship with the MDs. I did have problem with 3 new grad male RNs on my unit. Of course, I did not let it pass at the first instance they did it. Both hospitals have a policy for not tolerating physicians mistreating o employees. One is a magnet university hospital where an RN can overrule the MD order through a process

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