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 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.)
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Nursing was what women traditionally did; as well as those taken off the streets and put in work houses, given work to do. This was in addition to the midwives and herbalists, also women, who provided care. Nightengale took training at a religious (female) order in Germany in 1851, returned to England, shortly took over as a nursing administrator, then collected a group of women and went to Scutari, Turkey in 1854, and served in the military hospital in the Crimean War. She was a strong advocate that women should be educated and trained in nursing, that a nurse should be more than someone plucked off the street. She advocated strong observation and charting of findings, in order to improve practice. She is well established as the founder of modern nursing. It was never a "male" profession.
Many of the early concerns in our profession were to keep nursing "feminist", not "feminine". It also took a lot of work earlier in the 1900's to establish the privelege of being called a nurse, to have a protected title by law. I'm not willing to give it up.
i'm sorry, i'd like to continue reading the thread, but find myself so irritated by your post that i am unable to get past it.
a 'male' endeavor, because it is heavy, requires scientific thinking, decision making, and accountability. what are us lightweights (women) capable of? :angryfire i am absolutely speechless! is this post a joke?
Nursing was what women traditionally did; as well as those taken off the streets and put in work houses, given work to do. This was in addition to the midwives and herbalists, also women, who provided care. Nightengale took training at a religious (female) order in Germany in 1851, returned to England, shortly took over as a nursing administrator, then collected a group of women and went to Scutari, Turkey in 1854, and served in the military hospital in the Crimean War. She was a strong advocate that women should be educated and trained in nursing, that a nurse should be more than someone plucked off the street. She advocated strong observation and charting of findings, in order to improve practice. She is well established as the founder of modern nursing. It was never a "male" profession.
Many of the early concerns in our profession were to keep nursing "feminist", not "feminine". It also took a lot of work earlier in the 1900's to establish the privelege of being called a nurse, to have a protected title by law. I'm not willing to give it up.
Welcome to nursing, male or female! :chuckle
Maybe I didn't go back far enough. Wasn't nursing primarily done by men in Catholic orders? Of course, if one goes back too far then the whole role of nursing disappears, and all you have is doctors coming to people's houses and putting leaches on them and letting the family care for them.
I guess what I would like to know is when were the first hospitals established and were the nurses male or female. And what about psychiatric hospitals? Weren't they traditionally staffed by men?
Just alittle bit off topic......but in our church they have Pulpit Aides, who wear all white, a nurses' uniform. It is mainly women who do the Pulpit Aide and they are considered a "nurse" to the Bishop of our church. Well my husband is amongst one of the few men who are training for Pulpit Aide to "nurse" the men speakers who come to our church and he is so upset about anyone calling him a nurse! It bothers me how he thinks of the term nurse, but he is 47 and stuck in his ways. He corrected some people at the church and they are now coming up with a new name for the men who are going to be acting like "nurse's"...LOL!:chuckle
I will admit, and I might get jumped on for this but I am being honest.... I was raised believing that women were nurses' and secretaries and men were doctors, cops and other things. I am totally for women's lib, hell my little sister is a manager at a machine shop where she is the ONLY female! She loves her job. More power to the women docs and the male nurses, we need more of each....but I still have some background reservations, which I recognize and I am working through and becoming much more accepting of each now. I do recognize a need for male nurses and for women docs.
MrsStraty
:rotfl: ADN in 9 weeks...we counting weeks now not months! :rotfl:
As for the "men invented nursing" and "men were the first nurses" and your other misinformed comments about nursing, women were indeed the first. They were just never paid for it, nor was it considered an official "job."
Even King David of the Bible had a caregiver. He apparently developed chillblains from sleeping in caves for 40 years, so he took a concubine. They didn't have sex, she was just there to keep him warm. I consider Abishag to be one of the first nurse's aides even though she was selected strictly on the basis of her looks and her viginal status. The job didn't require much skill except for the ability to lie around in bed a lot. You might say that the pay was commensurate with the wages.
Here's the excerpt:
1 Kings 1:1-4 (New International Version)
Adonijah Sets Himself Up as King
1 When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him. 2 So his servants said to him, "Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm."
3 Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 4 The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.
It bothers me how he thinks of the term nurse, but he is 47 and stuck in his ways.
He corrected some people at the church and they are now coming up with a new name for the men who are going to be acting like "nurse's"...LOL!:chuckle
I will admit, and I might get jumped on for this but I am being honest.... I was raised believing that women were nurses' and secretaries and men were doctors, cops and other things.
I am totally for women's lib, hell my little sister is a manager at a machine shop where she is the ONLY female! She loves her job. More power to the women docs and the male nurses, we need more of each....but I still have some background reservations, which I recognize and I am working through and becoming much more accepting of each now. I do recognize a need for male nurses and for women docs.
MrsStraty
:rotfl: ADN in 9 weeks...we counting weeks now not months! :rotfl:
This is exactly the backwoods attitude I was referring to earlier, and the same mentality as the old nurse at the nursing home who felt I was only an aid there to get a peek at the naked old women.
So here's my stand: A woman being a nurse is just a woman being a nurse. It's in their nature. A man being a cop or doctor or firefighter is just another man being a cop, doctor or firefighter--it's in their nature.
A man who can be a nurse is a glorious thing, because he has transcended his nature.
A woman who can be a firefighter is a glorious thing, because she has transcended her nature.
To those who can't transcend their nature, I have no pity. I hope they all get forced by Catholic bishops to dress up like nurses, and I hope all the ADN wannabes who can't transcend their natures end up making coffee for the male MDs who throw charts at them and ridicule their competence!
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
This is exactly the backwoods attitude I was referring to earlier, and the same mentality as the old nurse at the nursing home who felt I was only an aid there to get a peek at the naked old women.
So here's my stand: A woman being a nurse is just a woman being a nurse. It's in their nature. A man being a cop or doctor or firefighter is just another man being a cop, doctor or firefighter--it's in their nature.
A man who can be a nurse is a glorious thing, because he has transcended his nature.
A woman who can be a firefighter is a glorious thing, because she has transcended her nature.
I was trying to maintain an open mind through out this thread, however, this little statement pretty much confirms your gender bias. What an incredibly typical sexist male remark!
As for the "men invented nursing" and "men were the first nurses" and your other misinformed comments about nursing, women were indeed the first. They were just never paid for it, nor was it considered an official "job."
Even King David of the Bible had a caregiver. He apparently developed chillblains from sleeping in caves for 40 years, so he took a concubine. They didn't have sex, she was just there to keep him warm. I consider Abishag to be one of the first nurse's aides even though she was selected strictly on the basis of her looks and her viginal status. The job didn't require much skill except for the ability to lie around in bed a lot. You might say that the pay was commensurate with the wages.
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Hmmmm... how about midwives that are mentioned in Genesis and Exodus which predate Abishag? Like the midwive to helped Rachel deliver her last child before she died. Or the midwives who went against Pharoh's order to kill all the male babies? What else, Rebekah's nurse is actually mentioned by name (Debora) when she died (which is highly unusualy in a patriarch society). Well, nurse in that context might be a bit different of course.
As for what we would call bedside nursing tasks, historically it is done mostly by women at home. The exceptions are in wars like you have the
The Knights of Saint Lazarus, Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (or Knights Hospitalers), the Teutonic Knights and so on. Some of these orders later did started to care for people which society do care about like people with syphilis or leprosy. These are in the crusades time. So basically men doing caring tasks is not unique in our time.
Going back even further, you have people like Fabiola around 400 CE who uses her riches to provide care for people who don't really care about. A number of these people in Europe has a religious base.
Probably one wants to separate what we are talking about. Are we talking about "bedside nursing" tasks or the nursing profession? Bedside nursing tasks been around since the human race begin as people get sick. In most likely cases, it is going to done by female given most ancient society is patriarch base. The exception is probably in war where you are going to have other men caring for other unjured men.
If we talk about the contemporary nursing profession as we know it today, then one probably traced it back to Nightingale. From Nightingale on, it is female dominated (I think in the psych area, you had cases where male nurses are specifically trained).
Hmmmm... how about midwives that are mentioned in Genesis and Exodus which predate Abishag? Like the midwive to helped Rachel deliver her last child before she died. Or the midwives who went against Pharoh's order to kill all the male babies? What else, Rebekah's nurse is actually mentioned by name (Debora) when she died (which is highly unusualy in a patriarch society). Well, nurse in that context might be a bit different of course.
I considered those more as "nurse" tasks--involving experience and skill-- while Abishag's duties were more like "aide" tasks. It just says she took care of the King, where the Hebrew midwives are highly regarded for their skills.
Of course, there are certainly more examples of women "nurses" that predate the actual career of nursing and I thank you for helping to make my point--to refute the OP's claim that nursing was "originally" a male-oriented, male-dominated profession. It was not.
It bothers me how he thinks of the term nurse, but he is 47 and stuck in his ways. He corrected some people at the church and they are now coming up with a new name for the men who are going to be acting like "nurse's"...LOL!:chuckle 
I was raised believing that women were nurses' and secretaries and men were doctors, cops and other things. I am totally for women's lib, hell my little sister is a manager at a machine shop where she is the ONLY female! She loves her job. More power to the women docs and the male nurses, we need more of each....but I still have some background reservations, which I recognize and I am working through and becoming much more accepting of each now. I do recognize a need for male nurses and for women docs..thumb.jpg.6eeb2c01c27cfd151d706238b7f6d6b7.jpg){kind=small}
JBudd, MSN
3,836 Posts
Nursing was what women traditionally did; as well as those taken off the streets and put in work houses, given work to do. This was in addition to the midwives and herbalists, also women, who provided care. Nightengale took training at a religious (female) order in Germany in 1851, returned to England, shortly took over as a nursing administrator, then collected a group of women and went to Scutari, Turkey in 1854, and served in the military hospital in the Crimean War. She was a strong advocate that women should be educated and trained in nursing, that a nurse should be more than someone plucked off the street. She advocated strong observation and charting of findings, in order to improve practice. She is well established as the founder of modern nursing. It was never a "male" profession.
Many of the early concerns in our profession were to keep nursing "feminist", not "feminine". It also took a lot of work earlier in the 1900's to establish the privelege of being called a nurse, to have a protected title by law. I'm not willing to give it up.
Welcome to nursing, male or female! :chuckle