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nursemike, ASN, RN · Dec 12, 2007

Welcome to allnurses.com, and good luck in nursing school. Where I work, nurses begin at about 20/hr, base, with differentials for night and evening shifts, and a program that pays more if you work every weekend. There were a dozen guys on my unit when I started, but we're down to just three of us, now.

I don't think there are more opportunities for guys to move on, we're just more inclined to do so. A lot of guys seem to look for positions in ER or ICU, and as noted elsewhere, many men have a "breadwinner" mentality that spurs them into higher-paying, managerial positions. Women who are nurses may or may not be the highest paid worker in their households, so may or may not have as much incentive to move up the ladder. Also, nursing jobs are plentiful, so I one's spouse has to relocate to advance in his/her career, it's not so hard for the nurse to follow. Just guessing, but I suspect that happens more when the wife is the nurse. For sure, I've seen plenty of single nurses relocate when they get married.

I entered nursing with the opinion that gays were probably over-represented among male nurses. Not, by any means, that all were gay, but I'd have guessed that a higher percentage were. I've lately come to doubt that. Last I heard, about 10% of the population was gay, and that's about the ratio among the male nurses I know. I was a carpenter, before, and it appeared that gays were way under-represented, but it's entirely possible they were just less open about it.

Dealing with patients does require us to draw upon our "feminine" side, if you consider compassion and empathy feminine traits. But plenty of fathers--even burly, macho ones--can be caring and tender with their own children (or cats), and gay or straight, male or female, there's a lot about this work that requires qualities traditonally considered "manly." I've always enjoyed the company of strong, intelligent, independent women, and in nursing I'm surrounded by them.

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Dec 12, 2007

What Mike said....

I know many guys who have made it into flight nursing positions. Usually you have to put in a few years of combined ICU/ER nursing experience before landing a chopper or fixed wing gig. I loved doing ambulance/chopper neonatal critical care transport, and can't wait until I graduate, and can do more of it. (My current job doesn't allow me to do transport) Good luck!

Steve

pawashrn · Dec 13, 2007

i see you mentioned you were a welder, prior to becoming a nurse and you always thought that nursing was for gay men. So, what, Iam hearing is that there are no gay men in construction. Come with me honey to the local bar.

nursemike, ASN, RN · Dec 13, 2007

There was a time, in my carpentry career, when a local bar where many of our peers and competitors stopped for a couple after work had a gay bar in its basement. Over time, the owner decided the gay clientele were more profitable, so on weekends the upstairs was gay, too. Gradually, the gays took over--well, the owner decided to make the bar a full-time gay bar. However, most of the old, redneck carpenter (and occassional biker) clientele wasn't going to be run off by a bunch of gays (besides, half of them were women, and without in any way intending to be sexist, gay women really are kinda fascinating to straight men) so it became a carpenter/biker/gay bar, and despite all the slashes, there were very few altercations--usually only when a drunken carpenter hit on one of the lesbians.

It was a pretty odd mix, but on the whole it worked. People are, after all, people.

Uh, I may have wandered a little off-topic...