It's time to change the term "nurse." It doesn't fit with the male image of nursing, and more and more men are coming into the field of nursing. I just can't think of another term. Our vocabulary just doesn't seem to have another term that would fit both sexes.
"Medic" doesn't work, because it has a military connotation and medics are more like EMTs or paramedics, and nursing is far more than a medic. We provide the care people need when they are sick.
"Caregiver", though, sounds like a volunteer or a family member.
"Registered Healthcare Provider" sounds like an MD, or an insurance company.
"Registerd Medical Technician" is not a professional status. Technicians do tasks; nurses assess and make care plans based on their findings. Not to mention, patient education, care coordination, and supervision of, in fact, med techs.
Anyone have any good ideas? I'm sure the elderly female nurses at the ANA would welcome our suggestions with open arms! :rotfl:
i do a real job as a nurse and i am proud to be called nurse. yes i am male, married and children and now grandchildren - and loving it. i am a rn and rmn and now have specialised in terminal care/aged care and hospice work. i have been given many names here are some of the better ones -
mister sister
male nurse
hey you
screw
shrink
sister
brother
and finally from some chldren in the paediatric hospital in uk -
mister chris
chris, must admit i think 'mister sister' is my favorite. :roll
nothing's sexier, except maybe exiting the Ladies Room with TP stuck to the shoe....
:rotfl: :rotfl:
OR, my personal favorite, exiting the ladies room with the front of your scrubs dribbled with spots of wetness from accidently leaning against a wet sink while washing your hands that comes just lower hip level. Gosh, I hate that!
Agreed. Everyone assumes I'm a nurse, but one LPN (guy) I precepted was mistaken for a doc at least a dozen times.
Even the male transporters get mistaken for docs. And ALL the women are nurses. I've been making sure that the patients are told to ask their nurse or their doc any questions about their treatment, because they usually lump all the women into nurse roles, even if they're diet aides or housekeepers.
Gee, are you one of those new Nurse-Bots? Not even one lil ol' bad thought got shoved outta the way when working with some of these guys????? :chuckle
I applaud your self-control.
I've never acted it on it beyond an appreciative smile, but to be honest, some are quite sexy. (OK, now I've gone and embarrassed myself completely in the name of honesty, and I so hope I haven't offended anyone.)
Now I cant answer that because I enjoy looking at men in firemens uniforms when they come in to the hospital to answer the fire alarms, so maybe if ............no i am not going there :rotfl:
Did you mean gender? Two different things, I think.
If anything, men get more respect in the workplace. Sorry to say, but overall I think it's because they command more respect and historically that's the way it's been. Not that there aren't women who command respect (moi, for example), but there are those of the female gender for whatever reason (upbringing, culture), just don't speak up for themselves or don't like to "rock the boat."
Yikes :sofahider !
~Nurse.
thank you for that i was struggling at the end of the post to think of a suitable word lol
Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.
I want only to attract people who want to be nurses to our profession. As the babyboomers age and become nursing home patients we might consider 'all male' units and 'all female' units. There are nursing homes now with staff and residents all of the same background and who speak a different language than english in New York City. My dream is to open a nudist nursing home in the future, not realistic but hey, dreams do become reality.
Well, since you ask, all of nursing is really a "male" endeavor. It's heavy, it requires scientific thinking, decision making, accountability, and these kind of traits are traditionally found in male dominated occupations.
I believe, in fact, that nursing started out as a male profession, but it reversed around the time of the Civil War (Please correct me if I am wrong.)
So, the male image of nursing would be the original image of nursing.
Correct you if you are wrong? Boy are you going to be sorry you asked for that !!!
*ahem*
It the days of our tribal ancestors, the role of nursing was often given to the wife or elder women of the tribe freeing up the men for the roles they usually held, that of hunter/gatherer, with the exception of the medicine man who oversaw the activities of these women (though there were undoubtedly medicine-women as well).
With the advent of organised religions and the creation of dedicated worshipers, care of the sick was given over to these organisations. The usual image that lingers in the western world is of monks and nuns caring for the sick & poor.
As time went by and medicine became a profession seperate, though still closely linked with religion. Physicians had origionally appeared in the classical world (Greece and Rome) and had continued to grow in numbers and standing till they began to form what we would recognise today as Professional bodies of Doctors and Surgeons. It was during this time that nursing fell behind in organisation and standing because it was deemed the role of women to do the day to day care of the men, often having wives, sisters or daughters care of the men of the family when they were ill, following the instruction of the physicians... Indeed, any woman could claim the title 'nurse' if they cared for anyone.
It wasn't until individuals like Florence Nightingale, Ethel Fenwick and Sarah Swift arrived that nursing began to evolve into a professional organisation.
To illustrate this point, I here give a brief history of the hospital I work in...
St Thomas's Hospital had its beginnings in the Priory of St Mary Overie, [1200], situated in Southwark. In 1212 the building was destroyed by fire, and was rebuilt as St Thomas's Hospital in 1215, dedicated to St Thomas à Becket. Until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr was an independent Augustinian House devoted to the care and cure of the sick poor. In 1540 the Hospital was closed and revenues forfeited. King Edward VI restored the Hospital in 1551, which was then known as the Hospital of King Edward VI and of St Thomas the Apostle, as Thomas à Becket, who had been canonized by Pope Alexander III, had by then been decanonized. The Hospital was rebuilt again in 1693. A piece of ground was rented from St Thomas's by Thomas Guy, and in 1722 he built a new Hospital, now known as Guy's. In this manner the `United Hospitals' of St Thomas's and Guy's came about, and the partnership existed from 1768 to 1825. A split between St Thomas's and Guy's occurred in 1825, with the two hospitals reuniting in the late 1990's to become one of the largest hospitals in Europe and a leading centre for the teaching of all aspects of health care.
The Nightingale School of Nursing, founded by Florence Nightingale, opened at St Thomas's Hospital in 1860 and was the first official school where nursing was taught. It still exists today (I know because this is where I trained) and still retains its close links to Guy's and St Thomas' hospital.
Dame Sarah Swift, Matron of Guy's Hospital (1901-9) and Matron in Chief of the British Red Cross, proposed that the teaching of nursing should not be left up to the individual schools, but should be based on a national standard. Swift's ideas were opposed by Dr Bedford Fenwick, and his wife, Ethel Gordon Fenwick and Florence Nightingale, but with help from the Honourable Arthur Stanley (Chairman of the War Committee) she set up a College of Nursing (Fenwick would later become a 'convert' of Swift's and she went on to found the The Royal British Nurses Association (RBNA) in December 1887, by Dr Bedford Fenwick, and his wife, Ethel Gordon Fenwick, former Matron of St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, with HRH Princess Christian, daughter of Queen Victoria, as its first President). Because of Swift, a letter was sent out to hospitals across the UK outlining the idea pointing out that although there was disagreement on issues relating to the professional registration of nurses, there was a need for co-ordinated nursing and all trained nurses should unite in one democratic organisation with the power in the hands of the membership.
This is how the 'College of Nursing' was founded, the first nursing organisation in the world, with its aim to:
Provide a uniform standard of training ... to improve the quality of nursing services, the conditions in which they work and to further the advancement of nursing through legislation, post-graduate study, scholarships and specialisation.
By 1918 there were 13,000 Members. They elected the first council and set up Centres (later to be called Branches). The College of Nursing later became the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) modelled on the Royal College of Physicians and surgeons.
In summary... and now that ive bored a lot of you no doubt :chuckle ... I can thorougly refute the notion that nursing has historically been a 'male' profession that reversed around the time of the civil war... so consider yourself corrected :rotfl:
In summary... and now that ive bored a lot of you no doubt ... I can thorougly refute the notion that nursing has historically been a 'male' profession that reversed around the time of the civil war... so consider yourself corrected
:chuckle 
when they come in to the hospital to answer the fire alarms, so maybe if ............no i am not going there :rotfl:
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Well done!
UM Review RN, ASN, RN
1 Article; 5,163 Posts
Yes.......we know.....
nothing's sexier, except maybe exiting the Ladies Room with TP stuck to the shoe....
:rotfl: :rotfl: