lizbit120

qedy, THANK YOU for this response.

There is a lot here that I could post from various different perspectives that I have experienced. But I will illuminate on three specific instances/experiences. A little background on myself to help. I attended a four-year liberal arts, all women's institute for my (non-nursing) undergraduate degree. While there I changed my mind from wanting to become a physician to wanting to become a nurse-midwife because I feel that the philosophical underpinnings of nursing and midwifery better fit my ideals than the medical framework. Since this time I have worked as a nursing assistant on a medical-surgical floor. And this month I will be beginning an accelerated BSN-MSN for nurse-midwifery program. Unfortunately, many of my peers and professors at my undergraduate institution were NOT supportive of my choice to enter the nursing profession. I was told I am "too smart" and that it would be a waste of my talents. Nursing to many of my peers and professors was seen to be "easy" and that you only need to be "nice and caring" to be good at it. They also felt that by entering a "woman's profession" I was hurting all the work of women before me who had pushed against the glass ceiling and became physicians. It was very hurtful to hear these things from my peers, many who were applying to/are currently in medical school. They view nursing as a field full of unintelligent women. Many believed that to be a "strong woman" you had to abandon your ability to care for others. OBVIOUSLY there are wrong. And I hope when they become physicians they have some revelation and begin to respect ALL of their nurses (male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, black, white, Asian, etc, etc) and understand the value of nursing and its philosophy in our health care system. So I have felt first hand how society/the public (and unfortunately, many physicians-to-be) feel about nurses/nursing and have been said that I am a "weak" woman for going into nursing instead of medicine. At the hospital I worked as a nursing assistant, we had one male nurse on my floor. Often when he and I would go into a room to do a procedure, PM care, etc, the patient would ask if "he" was the "doctor". When corrected, the patient (or family members) would say, "Oh I assumed because you were a man". I also had patients who said that even though a male doctor had seen them in some state of undress during their stay (for an assessment, etc) they thought it was "weird" to let a "male nurse" see them like that. When asked why, most patients said it "just felt weird, because they are a guy NURSE". Another facet of myself that intersects with this topic is that I identify as lesbian. For the most part my coworkers have no problem with this (and I avoid any mention of it with patients, lying that I'm not "dating anyone" right now, because yes, I am always asked if I have a boyfriend, or if I have a husband, or why I'm not married yet and it's not a conversation I feel safe to have with patients, even though my heterosexual co workers could so so without issue. Though also I think it's good to not share a lot about yourself in the first place with patients since its about them and not about you). However, interestingly enough, a lot of my coworkers will ask if I have a hard time taking care of (especially PM care) male patients. When I ask them (my straight, female coworkers) if they have a hard time with female patients, they reply "well of course not". I then ask them to think again about their question to me. I've never had an argument with anyone at my work over it - it just has illuminated to them preconceived ideas they had that they hadn't realized were judgmental (and many of them feel awful for how they felt and find themselves thinking differently afterwards). In general yes, there are still issues surrounding gender and orientation in nursing. It does stem from a historical understanding of nursing as maternal, feminine, etc and the dichotomy against the medical framework. And in general it stems from the dichotomy in our society of maleness vs. femaleness. Personally, I'd LOVE if we lived in a world where we didn't need to worry about these things - but unfortunately we do. And even if you try to be "colorblind" (for a lack of a better phrase) you are actually hindering forward movement because it is not systematically eliminating the issue in our society. I WISH that I could just relax at work (and in life) about who I am (as a lesbian) and I wish that I didn't hear such demeaning words from patients, peers, and academics describing the nursing profession. Sorry for spelling errors, grammatical errors, etc. I'm not much of a writer to be honest. But I felt the need to reply here because there were some things said in this thread that I personally found hurtful and as one reader pointed out, the original poster was looking for people's experiences in nursing regarding this specific topic as a means of educating others about difficulties that may or may not be present to them in their lives or their workplaces. I hope my examples were helpful in some way. And thank you to everyone who has written supportive words on this thread :) You are the kind of co-worker I'd love to have!

I got a call this well this morning being accepted into the program!

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to let you know that I have declined admission to the school (will be attending either Oregon Health and Science University or Case Western Reserve University). I wanted to post since I hope this means a spot opens up on the wait list for someone. Good luck!

Axos, when you called admissions did they say how they would be notifying us (email, phone, snail mail, etc)? Thanks for calling admissions and for sharing what they told you!

Hi Everyone, I spoke with Fin Aid today and was told the following: 1) yes we are considered 5th year undergraduate/other undergraduate (for the grade level) and we are pursuing a second bachelor's degree AND 2) we do not need to provide any parental information (if we are independent). I had asked them this because for some schools they are considered a participating institution for certain health professions loans that require parental information even if you are independent. Thought I'd pass it along!

Does anyone know for FAFSA purposes if the first year of this program is considered "5th year undergraduate" and "second bachelor's degree"? I called the Fin Aid office but they are closed because of the snow storm so I wasn't able to ask anyone. Thanks!

Hey so I'm not sure then when they'll be notifying people. They said they would be wrapping things up at the end of this week and then within a couple of weeks they'd have decisions. Though I'm not sure if anyone here has gone through last year's thread but it seemed like there were people who had interviews even after the time they said decisions would be out. So I'd say it's not totally set in stone.

I assume by now (it's 5:30pm West Coast time) that all the interviews are done. Good luck to everyone! It was a bit sad to have to do a phone interview instead of an in-person one because of the snow here in Portland (I flew all the way from Boston!) - but it was great to speak with some of the midwives and get to know more about the program. Apparently we'll here back within the next few weeks!!!!!! So excited. I have totally fallen in love with OHSU!

Thank you Lcrown. That's what I was thinking but didn't want to find myself overdressed. So excited!

Thank you everyone for the suggestions about traveling/places to stay. Looking forward to visiting Portland! Anyone have an idea what the dress code will be for the potluck?

Congrats Crudy! Are you planning on going to the school tour and/or the potluck?

Hi Lcrown. I'm not sure yet exactly where I'll be staying. I've been mostly looking at hotels downtown that are closer to the school. But after looking online at traffic patterns I'm thinking it would be better to stay at a hotel on the other side of the river to avoid any bridge traffic in the morning commute. I have a 9:25am flight out of the airport Friday morning. Google maps has me taking I-5 for a short time and then getting onto I-85. Another route says to take I-5 for a short time then get onto NE Sand Blvd. Anyone else interviewing over Feb 6th and 7th?

Hello Everyone! Very excited this thread was started. I received a call last Wednesday about an interview. Mine is Thurs Feb 6th. I'm really excited about the potluck that night. I'm curious what it will be like to interact with the faculty in a more informal setting. Also I spoke with ------------------(the person arranging all the interviews) and she said they are only 30 min long! Seems like such a short time to distinguish yourself as an applicant. Also totally random, but is anyone here familiar with Portland? I'm trying to determine what the rush hour traffic is like in the morning as I have an early flight that Friday back to Boston.

What is your job title: Clinical Associate (nursing assistant) Where are you located: Winchester, MA What is your hourly wage: Weekday hourly wage = 13.97. Weekend hourly wage = 15.97 Are you paid shift differentials: 2$. What shift(s) do you usually work: 2nd, both weekday and weekend (rotating schedule) What is your current specialty: med/surg (mostly GI, ortho, and other cancer-related) How many years of experience do you have: one year What is your status: part time (32 hours) Are you a pursuing a career as a nurse (RN or LPN): currently applying to BSN/MSN programs for midwifery