Nursing tougher for guys than girls

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Is it me or does nursing school seem harder for guys than girls? Im a 21 year old guy and it seems like women are more motivated than guys. I say this because as a guy, it feels embarrassing to get a bad grade when the women around you do better. What do you guys think?

Buddy, you need to get married so you know when to keep that hole in your face shut.

(mostly joking! but not really!) :roflmao:

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@ jason, I'm not laughing "buddy".

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In general I think women in nursing school are better at focusing on nursing skills and classes. Many are already tied down with boyfriends or marriages, thus outside of family nursing is their life. There are exceptions but in my experience with multiple universities this is the norm. Traditional age college guys are usual in it to get a career but also have a good time. Just different priorities. People can hem and haw at my statement by I never saw more school obsessed as well as taken females in any other major at my university. Even other girls I knew outside of nursing thought it was interesting.

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I find it interesting that your follow up posts are all about how people have reacted to your question, and not any of your changing thoughts on the issue. Have any of these comments made you consider this in a different light? Do you think people are not understanding something you meant to convey? Have you reflected on WHY you consider it "embarrassing" for women to do better than you? (Related to that, have you reflected on why you think you have always done better than women in the past?)

Are you surprised that you didn't have a bunch of boys rush to support you, but instead got a variety of response from both men and women?

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I disagree. Most of the students and faculty are women. I found the learning style geared towards that gender in terms of having a more "collaborative", "expressive" and "creative" assignments -and the study preferences of many of the students was also more towards group work. This is compared to my prior degree in biochemistry.

Given that, most of us guys adapted, and everyone who was motivated to work hard and do well was able to do so.

My feeling, and it's just a wildass theory, is that most male nursing students are not extremely competitive in terms of academics. Not that they don't compete on the ball court or on ice, or that they are not hard working in clinicals, but they are not necessarily gunning for the top grade in class. Guys who are academically motivated often go into other fields of study.

I

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I say this because as a guy, it feels embarrassing to get a bad grade when the women around you do better.

Maybe it's harder for us because they are always whispering about their boyfriends and drama in class!

...are you two serious?

Oh boy... here we go...

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Specializes in LTC, Education, Management, QAPI.

Well, I took the "drama" of the students in my nursing class as ways to become friends, create working and learning relationships, and ways to vent about all of the troubles of the day so that we could focus on the class. Maybe school was different for me? I thoroughly enjoyed LPN and RN school without a doubt!

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I like your answer. I actually regret posting this. I've seen for myself that some people are just more motivated than others. For some reason, it just wasn't in me.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Leave your competitive 'man-brain' out of this. Focus on you and you alone. It's not harder for guys - it's only harder if you're always trying to compare. Utilize your strengths, and let those do the talking when you're an RN

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Specializes in RN.

...are you two serious?

hahahahahaha!!!!

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
What? Im just saying, not trying to offend anyone

​What are you trying to say? The implied message in your OP is that you think men are smarter than women.

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I'm one of 9 guys in a cohort of 75. I've noticed that some instructors are easier on the guys and aren't as picky when we perform skills check offs and what not and other instructors are much harder on us guys and just sort of toss us to the wolves when it comes to clinicals and figuring things out. It really depends on the clinical instructor. All of my lectures are online and the tests are taken in a computer lab with a proctor, so I can't speak to any bias from lecturers. For the most part, with the lecture exams, the guys I know are doing just as well on exams as the women.

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