AudreyHurston

Your self identification experience totally parallels mine and defines the reason, in my unstudied opinion, we do not suddenly behave like men socially just because we are attracted to women. I am so astounded that someone would teach adults that they WILL get hit on by gays, but like I said, these types of views are the sorts of things about which I wanted to learn before moving forward. God Bless you as you move forward in your career. I hope you feel comfortable enough to be the out and "surprisingly normal" to the homophobic around you. I have found that without trying, I am always so "surprisingly conservative" to my peers. Educating people through being yourself is the strongest path to changing these things. My entire childhood was like the re-education of white people about black people as I was the only black kid in the class so often. I think when I move out of New York, its going to be the same thing regarding my sexuality orientation. Thanks for your voice and support.

LovebugLPN, as I've explained in a couple of places on this thread, I asked this question because, the reality is that when you are in a work community, people share their lives so my co-workers may know that I'm gay and I wanted to know if that were the case how would/could that affect my continued employability. Unless I only work as a locum tenens(?) nurse, my co-workers would eventually notice no men in my life; a female guest at parties, etc. I think the thread has had a strong enough variation of responses that I know patients come for a short time while focused on life and ending pain, if they knew my orientation, they could feel uncomfortable with it yet, they would probably only know if I had a vindictive co-worker who told the family, as I wouldn't run around telling patients. On the other hand, as some have mentioned, I need to check the state I choose to work in because there are some states where even my co-workers knowing I'm gay could endanger my job. -- These are the reasons I asked. I will say to everyone that I am thankful for all of the responses and have been re-enlightented about social presumptions (being in school in New York for the past four years has probably distanced me from a lot of social thinking that is typical throughout the country) -- I actually am categorically "black" and lesbian and a survivor of sexual assault and whether her perspective is progressive for society or not, I understand MCS1505's reservations about gynecologically dealing with anyone who signals a "type" that could be sexually interested in her type. Although I wasn't thinking about survivors when I asked this question, I'd like to encourage people to understand, and just be a little more sensitive to what MCS1505 is saying: that she wouldn't walk into a hospital and ask for a straight female nurse but if she knew that someone was male at all (gay or straight) or fell into a category that would be sexually attracted to women, she'd prefer someone female who isn't normally attracted to women. Between legal issues and the shortage of medical personnel, of course it would more than likely be impossible to grant such a wish but I don't think she was speaking of feasibilty, but preference and discomfort. As always, I think people have made really valid points but we as a society really need to understand that survivors, even when they aren't your patient, do not need to be attacked for their post-traumatic protection strategies. Thanks everybody

I know this is totally off topic but if I could get turned on by my own contractions when I give birth that would be such a phenomenal alternative to the pain I've seen and heard about. LOL.

Mom of 3 thank you for your encouragement.

Mom of three I appreciate your response. It is exactly the type of response that I was thinking of when I started the question as it is the misperception that a woman who is attracted to women is equivalent to a man that I worried could jeopardize my job as L and D nurse. But I've concluded from this thread that my patients would not know my orientation and hopefully it wouldn't be a problem...I'll see. Just for the record, in dealing with human beings in general, although I haven't done any sociological/psychological studies, I would say that 98% or more, of lesbians do not look at women constantly as sexual objects in the way that men are socialized to do so. Neither our sex drive nor our socialization make us the same as a man. This comment is just for educational purposes not a problem with your opinion as I fear your perspective is the norm and not the exception.

Sofaraway, I really appreciate you sharing. Are you in the UK? I think things are very different in Europe.

Paulie are these new BSN pay rates or ADN rates and why are NC nurses quoting hourly rates instead of salaries? Also, is this enough to afford a life in a neighborhood with high achieving public schools or to pay for private school? I know the cost of living is much less expensive in NC than in NY so I don't want to judge this pay rate as really low without taking that into account.

Everyone always says to look on salary.com. what about indeed.com? Are the salaries quoted on indeed.com unrealistic?

Forgive me if this is redundant or asking you to repeat yourself but are there no volunteer nursing opportunities in the United States? I ask because I may get a non-medical fellowship that will prohibit me from working and I would like to maintain my skills and stay in the loop in practice and I was hoping to do so by volunteering 1-3 days a week as a nurse, preferably in L and D

FemmeRN that's really important for me to hear and, which makes sense since you're living it, realistic. I'm going to ask this question although it is off topic, is it possible to take a volunteer "job" that will enable you to maintain your skills during a time period when you can't work? -- Here's my possible scenario: I might get a non-medical fellowship that disallows working but during the time that I have the fellowship I do not want to lose my nursing knowledge or skills. Are there volunteer nursing jobs especially L and D that I could consistently do 1-3 days/week?

I'm still taking pre-reqs for the BSN -- not a nurse yet. I've just had a lot of experiences in my life that make me know (99.98%) that L & D will be right for me. I've never heard of a clin spec but I was planning to become a CNM but the schedule is really unappealing to me. I'm not 21 and I'd like to consistently know what my schedule is. If its overnight, fine but the idea of always being on call and having to create my own business are really unappealing to me. When I was told about CRNA, it seemed like a good fit especially because you still get to work with women in labor but you have consistency and a life outside of work.

Thank you all. I can't imagine not doing L and D first and of course getting to SRNA will take longer than if I just started out in an ICU but if I went straight into ICU, there would always be a part of me that would wonder what I had missed out on by not doing L/D. I guess what I'm taking from these posts is that I should do L/D and see how I feel about moving into a more autonomous advanced nursing career after working in L/D.

SICUTOCRNA thank you for speaking to me. You just gave me a possible path if I choose to become a CRNA.

Everybody, Thank you so much for responding seriously and at length to my inquiry. This has been a fear of mine that had me trying to find another specialty. Mr. Andolini's response as I read it, keyed into my original anxiety -- I don't care one way or another if patients know that I'm gay but I would feel very uncomfortable and scared working in an area where I would need to hide which is what I am hearing (perhaps mistakenly so) Mr. Andolini say here. Truthfully in my life, I am feminine in a way that the only way people think I'm gay is because I don't ever go out with guys or I tell them who I date. I think most of the responses to the post are helping me to understand that overall it should be a non-issue. I don't know why I didn't think about the general acceptance of straight male OBGYNs but I guess I thought couples still may think of straight men as the normative and be a little freaked by a lesbian. Anyway, I am an excellent student and since I know I'll be passionate about helping to bring babies into the world and educate their mothers on how to care for them, I'll know my stuff and do my job well. Thank you all so much for your feedback. Since reading your responses, I have gone from resenting my plans to get a BSN to feeling overjoyed about the pre-req classes I'll be in this summer. You've really helped my out look on the future.

Thank you both for your responses. I feel like the way to stay close to L & D roots as a CRNA is to do OB epidural procedures and pediatric Anesthesia but is there a way to marry the compatibility with/love of L & D with CRNA or is the ICU/CRNA nurse a completely different personality type than the L & D nurse?

Hi all, , I am interested in becoming an L and D nurse. Have patients or hospitals had a problem with lesbians working in this specialty? Thanks in advance

Dear All, I believe I will love Labor and Delivery however can anyone tell me what the market demand is and comparative pay for Labor and Delivery nurses as compared to other specialties? In hard economic times would I have to switch to a different specialty in order to stay employed? Also, I really want to travel to Latin America and Africa, does anyone know what type of demand there is for Labor and Delivery nurses overseas especially in those areas?

Dear All, I have been there to help several of the women in my family through their pregnancies and been present at the birth of my sister. I believe I will love Labor and Delivery, however I am interested in becoming a CRNA. Have any of you transferred from Labor and Delivery into the Critical Care/become a CRNA and is it a smooth transition? Would it be better to work in ICU to develop those tough skills and then go to L and D? Is an L and D personality incompatible with Critical Care/CRNA?

Dear All, I have been there to help several of the women in my family through their pregnancies and been present at the birth of my sister. I believe I will love Labor and Delivery, however I am interested in becoming a CRNA. Have any of you transferred from Labor and Delivery into the Critical Care and is it a smooth transition? Would it be better to work in ICU to develop those tough skills and then go to L and D? Is an L and D personality incompatible with Critical Care?

I don't know if this is where I should put this but I'm inclined to believe that I will really like labor and delivery. Is that an indication that I will like being a CRNA since CRNAs get to provide anesthesia to the delivering mothers?

Hi Everyone, I'm new. I want to ask a question that piggy backs the original, in a way. I am interested in becoming a nurse and since I started considering it two years ago(I was in the middle of a BA program which I just graduated in May '08 with English B.A.) I've overcome a lot of the OCD stuff that makes many people around me think I wouldn't be a good nurse. However in doing some reading I just learned that a common issue for nurses is lifting heavy patients. I've had heavy people in my family lean on me since I was a child and mess up my back and knees for days and this aspect of the job REALLY scares me. What can be done to avoid injury or physical pain from the lifting of patients and must you always do this by yourself?