New male student in clinicals, all women, feeling isolated

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So sometimes im feeling isolated all around women, I am a new male nursing student and Im feeling a little bit isolated in clinicals, most of the time in the break time that they speak about their things and there is nothing to do.

any advice? how to behave when im feeling unintegrated?

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Specializes in ICU, Military.

I feel you. There was only 2 guys (including myself) in my class and when we were split up for clinical sites I ended up alone amongst the females also. I quickly found most of them were very guy-like once you got to know everybody lol. I swear some of the females in my class were as vulgar (or more) than the guys I hang out with lol

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Specializes in Critical care.

I'm sorry you are feeling isolated. I'm wondering what have you done to try to integrate yourself? I'm asking this as someone who has felt left out at times, but once I started to make the initial effort everything got easier- people didn't necessarily know I was feeling left out and wanted to be included more.

Try starting up a conversation withe the group- you could use an interesting piece of news as an ice breaker. Here's something that is trending and could def. be a conversation starter: Doctors are using FISH SKIN to treat burn victims in a pioneering new treatment to heal wounds | Daily Mail Online

"Gosh, have you heard in Brazil they are using fish skin to help heal burns on people? What do you think about that? Do you think you could let them use it on you?...[insert your opinion here, such as- I'm not sure how I feel about that or if I'd be brave enough to try it]".

Once you get the conversation flowing hopefully it will continue and will get easier. Good luck!

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Man bites dog. Golly.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to belittle your feelings. But you know what, after years of life as a woman and now as an older one, I have had sooooo many opportunities to be invisible and devalued in groups of men that my sympathy for this turn-about is allllll dried up. You wanna be invisible, walk into a tech store ready to spend a lot of money as an older woman, as I did last weekend. If I hadn't been in a hurry I'd have waited longer, as a data collecting opportunity, to see how just how long it would take one of the customer service types to say, "Can I help you?" and how many men who arrived after me got helped first. I can tell you it was 1) too damn long and 2) at least three.

Try starting a conversation about that, why doncha.

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Specializes in ICU, Military.

wow snarky mcsnarkerson over here

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

Don't feel bad. I feel like that sometimes too and I'm a woman. It's usually because I'm older and therefore "invisible" to the younger crew. I don't care to talk about babies or makeup. I usually bond much more with male nurses because they tend to be easier going with a dark sense of humor (don't flame...just my experience) and I like to talk about guy stuff (motorcycles, music, football). It won't always be like this and it won't always be with the same people. Just get through and out the other side and one day you'll find your perfect crew that you can relax and have fun with. They're out there I promise.

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Man bites dog. Golly.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to belittle your feelings. But you know what, after years of life as a woman and now as an older one, I have had sooooo many opportunities to be invisible and devalued in groups of men that my sympathy for this turn-about is allllll dried up. You wanna be invisible, walk into a tech store ready to spend a lot of money as an older woman, as I did last weekend. If I hadn't been in a hurry I'd have waited longer, as a data collecting opportunity, to see how just how long it would take one of the customer service types to say, "Can I help you?" and how many men who arrived after me got helped first. I can tell you it was 1) too damn long and 2) at least three.

Try starting a conversation about that, why doncha.

Yeah because it's this male nursing student's fault that you didn't get good customer service. You tell him!

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Just keep going with the flow. You are all nursing students and have that (most important thing) as the primary goal...to be nurses. Bond over that. Ask them questions, talk about clinical experiences etc. My graduating class had only one male and he said he was sick of estrogen, by the time we were all out of there :D

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
any advice? how to behave when im feeling unintegrated?
1. You can try to become integrated into the female clique by striking up conversation and observing how they respond. Or...

2. You can be friendly without being a focal part of the group. There is no hard and fast rule requiring you to befriend these women. A few years after you graduate, this situation will be nothing more than water under the bridge.

Good luck to you!

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Don't worry, that will change. Just try to talk to them more. In due time, once you are working around female nurses on your permanent unit they will be begging you to help them pull up big Bertha who weighs 400 pounds. I always love the men that work with me on my unit, not just for what they can do but also for how they are very focused on their work and are less prone to engaging in all of the gossip.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

I'm not friends with anyone I went to nursing school with. Don't fret it. You will make friends either at work or other places.

I think nursing school is just such a hard place to make friends since people can view you as competition.

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I spent most of my younger years in construction, so a predominately male field - you've just got to put yourself out there. I know it's intimidating, but it's worth a shot.

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