OB Unit for Male Student

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi. I'm a male nursing student about to start OB Clinicals. Since I'm a male, most hospitals would not let me do clinicals. My instructor could only find one hospital to accept me, but the problem is that the hospital is an hour and a half from my house. I'd have to leave super early in the morning and go back home late at night. The clinical rotation is over a month and I would be using almost half a tank of gas a day. My instructor said this is the only place she could find. Does anyone have ideas of how I could get a site closer, like maybe call a nearby hospital and ask if I can do clinicals there, like as long as a woman is in the room with me, or if they just approve in general? Thanks. ?

43 minutes ago, T-Bird78 said:

I’m in Georgia and there were men in my program doing their OB rotations with us in the same facilities. What part of GA are you in? (And rainy season?). Anyway, double check with your instructor on this because they can’t legally deny you because you’re a male. After all, what would male med students or male OBs do? Some of my classmates were in the hospital on the L&D floor, some were in the hospital on the postpartum floor, some were in OB prenatal clinics. There’s options out there.

I checked the weather and it said rain for like a straight week lol. I'm in central Georgia. I'm still looking into the matter, but I think I'll have a solid plan by Monday.

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Specializes in NICU.

Sorry but take that opportunity not so bad,it is only one month,I had to drive 6 hours,pay hotel and take clinical exams in one awful program that was supposed to be entirely online based with local clinicals,so take the one month,buy a can of beans eat cheap,and good luck./

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If your school has clinical contracts with facilities that discriminate based on sex of students, they need to stop using those facilities and choose new clinical sites - for ALL students, not just males. Will they also refuse you Med Surg and Critical Care clinicals because of the high likelihood of female nudity, peri care, catheter placement, etc.? Unacceptable! Those facilities should be reported for discrimination if the reason for refusing your attendance is truly your sex. It would be interesting to know their hiring practices for men.

Are you supposed to be at a facility alone without an OB instructor while your peers at local sites have a clinical instructor present? If so, your school is also discriminating. You are not receiving the same education with the same valuable resource of instruction as your peers.

I have multiple male nursing students in each of my classes, and I wouldn't dream of restricting their experiences because they are men.

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Specializes in kids.

Is your program accredited?

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But....what have they done for the other male students that have already gone through their program? Surely you're not the first male student to come through that needs an OB rotation....this is so odd! Best of luck to you! I hope it all works out in the best possible way.

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On 1/9/2020 at 10:42 AM, Leader25 said:

Sorry but take that opportunity not so bad,it is only one month,I had to drive 6 hours,pay hotel and take clinical exams in one awful program that was supposed to be entirely online based with local clinicals,so take the one month,buy a can of beans eat cheap,and good luck./

Thanks. I'll do my best.

On 1/9/2020 at 10:44 AM, FacultyRN said:

If your school has clinical contracts with facilities that discriminate based on sex of students, they need to stop using those facilities and choose new clinical sites - for ALL students, not just males. Will they also refuse you Med Surg and Critical Care clinicals because of the high likelihood of female nudity, peri care, catheter placement, etc.? Unacceptable! Those facilities should be reported for discrimination if the reason for refusing your attendance is truly your sex. It would be interesting to know their hiring practices for men.

Are you supposed to be at a facility alone without an OB instructor while your peers at local sites have a clinical instructor present? If so, your school is also discrimimating. You are not receiving the same education with the same valuable resource of instruction as your peers.

I have multiple male nursing students in each of my classes, and I wouldn't dream of restricting their experiences because they are men.

Yeah, it all seems weird to me. We were told not to call the hospitals to try to talk to them about the matter either. I guess for now I'll just do the rotation of I can since it's already been set up. I can try to inquire about this practice for future male students though.

On 1/9/2020 at 11:28 AM, NutmeggeRN said:

Is your program accredited?

Yep. It is.

On 1/9/2020 at 11:50 AM, KeeperOfTheIceRN said:

But....what have they done for the other male students that have already gone through their program? Surely you're not the first male student to come through that needs an OB rotation....this is so odd! Best of luck to you! I hope it all works out in the best possible way.

Thanks for the motivation! I'm not sure if I'm the first, but maybe the other students were lucky enough to live close to the location or just drove there because they thought they had no choice.

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Specializes in New Grad 2020.

I’m a male and recently finished my program. I didn’t have to do anything extra for my OB rotations. In fact, that wasn’t never mentioned.

the only issue I did have wasn’t school related but was that most of the women that were pts did pass on me being a male student. I was fine by this due to me being in the same age group as the pt women (30s). For me it would have been strange and awkward as hell.

i did have one woman who was totally cool with me being in the room she was young and had like 7 or 8 kids all ready so I am sure I was just a different face different day.

Also bonus: I got to witness more C sections than my classmates which I love due to it being a surgery type of thing.

Your situation sounds questionable honestly

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Specializes in Community health.

Are you taking classes in Saudi Arabia??

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WOW. This is discrimination and completely unacceptable. I HIGHLY doubt this rule apply's to male MD's and/or med students. Unsure how your school remains accredited...?

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On 1/9/2020 at 3:16 PM, 0.5GPA said:

The only issue I did have wasn’t school related but was that most of the women that were pts did pass on me being a male student. I was fine by this due to me being in the same age group as the pt women (30s). For me it would have been strange and awkward as hell.

Would a 30 something male doctor describe this as being "awkward as hell"? I sincerely doubt it. In fact, I'm betting that there are many 30 something male doctors doing all kinds of OB stuff since they are...you know...OBs. How is this any different for you? Why should it be awkward?

I really don't get it. Nor do I get women rejecting male nursing students in the labor and delivery unit while crossing their fingers that their male OB is not off on vacation when they deliver. It just seems like a very weird double standard.

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Specializes in L&D, OBED, NICU, Lactation.
46 minutes ago, Horseshoe said:

Would a 30 something male doctor describe this as being "awkward as hell"? I sincerely doubt it. In fact, I'm betting that there are many 30 something male doctors doing all kinds of OB stuff since they are...you know...OBs. How is this any different for you? Why should it be awkward?

I really don't get it. Nor do I get women rejecting male nursing students in the labor and delivery unit while crossing their fingers that their male OB is not off on vacation when they deliver. It just seems like a very weird double standard.

It's only awkward when someone makes it awkward. I generally see male students rejected more when they are presented poorly by the nurse they are with. "Hey, I'm Jackie and this is John, he's a nursing student working with me today and we're going to take great care of you" is DRAMATICALLY more successful than "Hey, I'm Susan, I'll be your nurse today. We also have a male nursing student, would it be okay if he helped care for you today?" If we keep presenting it in a way that makes it seem weird or suspect, we do no one any favors. I can't even imagine how my career would have gone if my experience had been like that. I had an amazing clinical instructor who saw that me (at the time, a 21-yr old clueless nursing student) really, really liked OB and she made it so that the experience was as successful as it could have been. That is what students (especially men) need to have in OB/Peds. Men can thrive in those areas and both the clinical instructors and the nursing staff need to ensure the same high quality education gets to every single one of their students.

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What did they do for previous classes? Surely you can’t be the first male student...

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