OB/Maternal be an elective class for male nursing students

[carti, BSN, RN]

Seriously, I just spent $300 on a required book for my OB class not to mention countless hours this semester I'm gonna be at clinical.

Only like 1% of Male nurses even work in the OB field (obvious reasons), so why should this even be a required course for us guys? It's just frustrating knowing we have to dedicated an entire semester to this when we can take another class like Research/med-surge that will actually benefit us.

inb4 what are you gonna do when you have a pregnant patient??

[Elizabeth777, BSN, RN]

Because women are people too.

You will work with women who either are, have been, or will be pregnant. What are you going to do when they are your patient? Tell the charge nurse and your manager that you're not qualified to take care of them because you have different parts and weren't interested in learning about them? All of the female nursing students have learned about male anatomy and specific male issues, even though they might never encounter them.

I mean this in the most respectful way, but you will be working in a field dominated by women, so I would change your attitude about what matters and what doesn't matter. Think of this as a learning experience and make it a positive one.

[carti, BSN, RN]

Because women are people too.

You will work with women who either are, have been, or will be pregnant. What are you going to do when they are your patient? Tell the charge nurse and your manager that you're not qualified to take care of them because you have different parts and weren't interested in learning about them? All of the female nursing students have learned about male anatomy and specific male issues, even though they might never encounter them.

I mean this in the most respectful way, but you will be working in a field dominated by women, so I would change your attitude about what matters and what doesn't matter. Think of this as a learning experience and make it a positive one.

we have learned about females in our medsurge class (dedicated an entire test about male/female centered problems). I just think it's extremely mundane and pointless to spend an entire semester (not to mention $$$ on online E-books and wasted time on clinical) on an extremely specialized field where 1% of Male Nurses get hired into.

Some people might argue that Psychiatry was a pointless nursing class. Well, at least in Psych, both genders get hired equally and there really isn't an extreme gap. I am not saying OB/Female stuff isn't not important, but to seriously dedicate an ENTIRE semester to it is just plain dumb when the job outlook for male nurses is horrible.

your "logic" about female nurses having to learn about male issues doesn't make any sense. I have never seen a Nursing class that is 1 semester long dedicated to Male Issues, nor is there a big job market in Nursing Specialties that is anti-female nurses.

[elkpark]

Pregnant women show up needing healthcare in other settings besides L&D. And, the US trains and licenses all nurses as generalists. That's the way it is. It has nothing to do with "job outlook." It has to do with what you need to know to be licensed as an RN in the US.

[IzzyJ, ASN]

If men formed and grew tiny humans in their body (and all of the issues that go along with that in MANY settings), maybe they would have an entire semester dedicated to them too.

[mtmkjr, BSN]

What on earth are you going to do when a pregnant woman shows up in your ER? How about in the ICU? I could list many more places you might find a pregnant woman...

It would be negligent to license a nurse to practice without having a fundamental knowledge of the nursing care of people in the stages of pregnancy, birth, delivery and newborn/neonatal care.

Some people might argue that Psychiatry was a pointless nursing class.

Whoever is arguing that Psychiatry is a pointless class? Wow. Psychiatric patients show up in nearly every field of nursing.

[vanilla bean]

why should this even be a required course for us guys? It's just frustrating knowing we have to dedicated an entire semester to this when we can take another class like Research/med-surge that will actually benefit us.

Because that's not how nursing programs work in the US. Schools have to meet the program standards set by their state's Board of Nursing in order for their students to be eligible to sit for NCLEX. If your program were to allow you to tailor your classes to your areas of interest, you would not meet the minimum education requirements to become licensed as a nurse.

I knew throughout nursing school that I wanted to work in NICU but very little of nursing school is applicable to that specialty. I spent a lot of money and a lot of time learning nursing care for adults. Do you think I should have been exempt from most of the program because I had no intention of working with that patient population? That's just not how it works.

The good news is that you can get out as much of that rotation as you put in to it. I got to start Foleys, administer meds, watch anesthesia place an epidural, go to the OR for a C-Section, see a forceps delivery, learn about post-op monitoring, etc. I sought out opportunities to practice skills and and see interesting things. I had zero desire to work in that specialty, but I got to see and do some pretty cool stuff.

[Ddestiny, BSN, RN]

a) All nurses in the US are trained as generalists. The NCLEX covers all topics.

b) In what world would different curriculums based on gender be in the vicinity of okay? I am female and have no interest in OB/L&D, am not cuddly with babies, or even interested in peds. But I still understand why it's important. I work in the ICU (an area to which men tend to gravitate) and we've had pregnant and immediately post-partum patients. So yes, there is real-world application for this information outside of the OB floor. Do you know how to appropriately alter your BLS protocol for a third trimester woman who has gone into cardiac arrest so she gets the most benefit from your effort? These things are important, and you might not always have time to look them up.

c) Who on earth thinks the psych class is irrelevant?! If anything nurses don't know enough about it. My instructor for this class was an NP but she relied mostly on 2 students in the class that had more knowledge base than she on the topic. And as said above -- psych doesn't stay on the psych floor. It is literally in every setting, and it's the families as well as the patients.

[carti, BSN, RN]

If men formed and grew tiny humans in their body (and all of the issues that go along with that in MANY settings), maybe they would have an entire semester dedicated to them too.

there is plenty of diabetic people in this country. did we spend an ENTIRE semester learning about diabetic patients?

you can literally say the exact same thing for any other conditon. Next.

[carti, BSN, RN]

What on earth are you going to do when a pregnant woman shows up in your ER? How about in the ICU? I could list many more places you might find a pregnant woman...

It would be negligent to license a nurse to practice without having a fundamental knowledge of the nursing care of people in the stages of pregnancy, birth, delivery and newborn/neonatal care.

Yeah, I'm going to spend an ENTIRE semester dedicated to learning about newborn/neonatal stuff in case of the rare occurrence that they come into the ED. That's literally why they have Pediatric ED's for.

I understand the importance for having classes dedicated to PEDS, but having male nurses take an entire semester OB class where only like 1% of Male Nurses even work in is just plain dumb and BSN programs practically stealing money.

Whoever is arguing that Psychiatry is a pointless class? Wow. Psychiatric patients show up in nearly every field of nursing.

literally everyone in Nursing school said this. 70% of the questions on tests were subjective & were how to therapeutically talk to a patient which anyone can do if you weren't extremely socially awkward IRL before nursing school.

[kkbb, MSN, RN]

The shortest answer is because the NCLEX does not care what speciality you want/will work in, nor what your gender is. There is a possiblity that OB questions will be on your NCLEX so your school has to provide you education on the topic. I knew I would NEVER work Peds, but I still had to take the class and do the work. Why? Because of the NCLEX.

[carti, BSN, RN]

a) All nurses in the US are trained as generalists. The NCLEX covers all topics.

b) In what world would different curriculums based on gender be in the vicinity of okay? I am female and have no interest in OB/L&D, am not cuddly with babies, or even interested in peds. But I still understand why it's important. I work in the ICU (an area to which men tend to gravitate) and we've had pregnant and immediately post-partum patients. So yes, there is real-world application for this information outside of the OB floor. Do you know how to appropriately alter your BLS protocol for a third trimester woman who has gone into cardiac arrest so she gets the most benefit from your effort? These things are important, and you might not always have time to look them up.

c) Who on earth thinks the psych class is irrelevant?! If anything nurses don't know enough about it. My instructor for this class was an NP but she relied mostly on 2 students in the class that had more knowledge base than she on the topic. And as said above -- psych doesn't stay on the psych floor. It is literally in every setting, and it's the families as well as the patients.

1. The difference is females can easily work in OB as they please, meanwhile men have like a 1% job outlook in OB. That is literally why we are different and why this class is useless for men. This has nothing to do with females in the ICU. If 1% of females were only hired in the ICU, I could see your point.

2. Are you telling me it takes 4 months to learn how to do BLS protocol differently on a pregnant patient? seriously, they can just put important info like that into 1 medsurge test dedicated to female issues...not 4 months.