Men in Nursing/Men in Society

AMV · Aug 15, 2003

Good for both of you. I think the assertiveness has a lot to do with how you are treated - no *****yness - I hate that, but being assertive in a positive way and knowing what you are talking about to back it up!

I had a conversation at work the other day with another nurse on the floor - also a woman. One of the guys that work with us was kind of giving her a hard time for constantly bending over backward to please everyone - in a nice way. Ill call him Mike - he said, "Julie (not her name) has been getting up to 6 patients here in good old PCU, can you believe that?"

I said, "are they making us take 6 now?"

'Julie' said, "no, ER has been desperte a few times to get a patient up to a bed here and I just couldn't do that to a patient... make them wait for a bed until another nurse came in or wait till the next shift."

I said, "do you realize that there are studies that show that when nurses are given too many patients, the safety of those very patients goes down?"

'Mike' said "yeah, like drug errors and everything."

I said, "not to mention the fact that when we do this, we LET them staff us inadequately and they will think they can keep doing this (on our unit the staffing ratio USED to be 4:1 - now it's 5 and that is VERY busy with the kind of patients we have).

'Julie" said, well, I just wanted to try to work things out with everyone...."

and 'Mike" said, "yeah, I was thinking of initiating 'safe harbor' if they asked me to take 6" - in other words - no way would he have taken 6!

There are men and women in nursing who are assertive and men and women who are not - but I have to say - for the most part - it is the men who are much more assertive and the women I work with who tend to complain to each other, yet won't stand up and do much constructive with their complaints and ideas. I think this is one thing that hurts nursing because such a high percentage of us are women. I think that it is NOT just that we are treated this way because we are women - but often that we LET it happen. We see injustice, we complain to each other, but then it stops there. Instead of doing something to try to change things, we often feel helpless and frustrated and complain even more.

sjoe · Aug 15, 2003

AMV writes: "There are men and women in nursing who are assertive and men and women who are not - but I have to say - for the most part - it is the men who are much more assertive and the women I work with who tend to complain to each other, yet won't stand up and do much constructive with their complaints and ideas. I think this is one thing that hurts nursing because such a high percentage of us are women. I think that it is NOT just that we are treated this way because we are women - but often that we LET it happen. We see injustice, we complain to each other, but then it stops there. Instead of doing something to try to change things, we often feel helpless and frustrated and complain even more."

And that is one of the reasons my sig line is:

YukonSean · Aug 18, 2003

Yes, you are correct. The patriarchal titles of "nurse", and especially "male nurse" have to go! From now on, I will be a "wellness consultant", because I've always wanted to be a consultant of one sort or another.

You too, speak the truth, Twarlik Todd: except in this case, I realised that Mick Jagger was in no danger of losing his job to my own musical ineptitude! I had to put down the guitar, and pick up the stethoscope, for the sake of humanity's ears.

In all seriousness, I do not care about the homosexual vs. heterosexual foolishness (sexual orientation is innate, choice has nothing to do with it), but I do become annoyed with the recurring, stupid, question, "Have you ever thought about going all the way to medical school?" This is the stereotype we need to attack. I find that many people are completely ignorant of the scope of any nurse's practice (whether the clinician is male or female). Witness: A family member recently asked me if I "do first aid" for a living! ("No. I work in the area of inpatient mental health, psychiatry, chemical dependence..."

"What is that? Like counselling or something?")

Help.

bob007cat · Aug 18, 2003

mfdteacher, BSN · Aug 21, 2003

After 20 plus years, I also got out. It was hospital corporations, 12 hour shifts, constant demands for overtime, absolutely no respect, being expected to do more because we have downsized, short staffing, unqualified "bodies" in critical areas, HMOs, hospitalists, inadequate supplies, discharge because their insurance says so....I now work in a municple fire department, teaching medics and EMTs among many other things. My boss regularly tells me how valuable I am, I get praise from the firefighters and medics and yes I am male, but my wife also got out. She works as a hospice RN for a small company that actually cares about the patients. What a novel concept!