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No it isn't a joke, and I don't recall saying it was an insult. Sure there are a lot of flamboyant gay men in the nursing profession, however, there are just as many non-flamboyant gay/straight men. My point was that we are still trying to correct the stigma attatched to men in the profession being gay. Because we all know that isn't the case. I'm sure it isn't as bad as it was, say, 30 years ago. But the discrimination is still there. For all men. Maybe more in some areas of the country than others.

Working as a cna (in lvn school right now) I had to perform a lot of peri care. In school, and even when I got my first job, doing peri care on women was always a little awkward. It got easier over time, but I would have never have tried to pawn my pts off on another cna unless the pt requested it. At the end of the day it is the job that we signed up for. If anything I think the female nurses you are working with are hindering themselves. How do they expect to be proficient in a procedure that they don't even want to do? I believe a good nurse will want to continually practice their skills to stay knowledgeable, and on top of their game. There may come a day when they have to cath a man, and end up doing a poor job of it.

Have any of you experienced this? My hopes are to get in to Downey Adult School's LVN program. I tested in February, and was accepted in to their 5 week Pre-Lvn course. From the 60 that take this class 30 are chosen to move on to the actual year long program. I tried looking on the site for a course description, but it doesn't go in to detail what we will be covering. Have any of you had this sort of thing happen? And if so what were the materials that were covered? I guess I will find out Wednesday when I start, but I just wanted to get a head start lol. Kind of an over achiever, but mainly just want to make sure I'm one of the 30 that get to move on. Any insight would be great. Thanks

Peds is like my dream job. I say go for whatever makes you happy.

It was in the afternoon. Curtains should have been drawn. I was offended that he exposed her saggy breasts to the world! I really hope you don't treat your pts with this level of disrespect :/

Well congrats. Yoy must live in the most understanding town in America.

The sad truth is that most people automatically assume males who work as nurses are gay because of the social construct of it being a "womans" job.

Well she was admitted after my mother, so i doubt he knew her too well. She gets her care at home, but needed to be admitted. I know this because her regular nurse came by to check on her. Regardless, I really hope when I'm old that I have a nurse that listens to me. Even if I'm somewhat out of it... She wasnt completely demented. As far as the curtains go, she was by the door. But I'm failing to see any sort of justification here. I don't believe they teach you to only care about pt privacy in regards to "what time of day it is," or "whether they are by the window or door." I'm sorry, but if he was so afraid to touch those curtains he should have put gloves on, or have the curtains changed. She wasnt a chimp throwing her feces. She was wearing a diaper. My issue isn't with it being a male providing care (i am male.) My issue is that he provided care after she said numerous times she didn't want him to. And he made no effort to see if she wanted to have another nurse do it. Although, she did not have any issues with female nurses. Which leads me to believe she did not want a male seeing her nude. Which is her right. You're trying to defend someone that A: disregarded patient privacy, and B: was providing sub par care at best. If I treated a pt like this at the LTC I worked at I would have been fired on the spot. Even if I knew the pt well. There is no reason, demented or not, to expose a pt to the whole world. NONE.

Also, tobe clear, i didnt say he opened it every time i closed the curtains. I said i closed it once and he opened them. While he was changing her diaper. I mean come on, this guy needed to have it closed.

I think I just offended him when I closed the curtain. Like I was intruding on the way he was giving care. Even though I was doing the right thing.

No i cannot be sure of that. But regardless of whether she was fully coherent or not, she clearly said she did not want him to change her. He made no attempt to see if she would be ok with someone else. That is what bugged me most about it.

I just got accepted to the pre-vn course at Downey Adult School. This is a 5 week course, and then the 30 top students are brought back for the LVN program. The total cost of the program is 10,099 dollars with 2000 due on the first day for books and supplies. There is financial aid, and if you qualify it will pay for 5,550 dollars of it. The rest you can arrange a payment plan. They have a gread NCLEX pass rate as well.

There was also a very awesome nurse who stood up for my mother yesterday. She was fasting for a stress test since the night before. They took her at about noon to go have a scan and then get ready for the stress test. The cardiologist was supposed to be there by 1245. My mother was on the table and waiting by 1230. At about 130, the cardiologist still hadn't arrived, the nurse called him on his cell phone and gave him an earful! Apparantly she said "Where are you? You were suppised to be here almost an hour ago! My patient has been laying here and she's hungry! Hurry up!" Lol I guess he was there not 2 minutes later. This brought me great joy to hear and I thanked her the next time I saw her.

I got in! Woohoo

Yeah I agree. Just so you know though, I wasn't trying to say this just happened with men in nursing. I was just talking about this instance.

I know this. But I specified which gender because of the circumstances. And how after my mother witnessed a nurse, who is male, treat their patient that way, she did not want care from a nurse, who was male.

Yeah I think I will say something today after my mother wakes up. Most of the nurses here are really nice. I've been here for 3 days now so I'm starting to get to know the staff. I keep apologizing to them for my mother. She is usually a pleasant person, but I guess when you find out you have liver disease and congestive heart failure you might be a bit bitter for a while as well....

So my mother has been in the hospital since Saturday night. They have done a few ekg's, an echo, an ultrasound, ct scan, stress test, etc. and found she had fluid surrounding her left lung. They did a procedure to remove it yesterday and sent it down to the lab. Let me tell you, my mother is a nurse's nightmare! She is constantly crabby, short, and just overall rude to pretty much all the staff there (i'll get back to her in a second.) The pt. Next to her was an old lady, not fully aware of what was going on, but aware enough to know basic stuff (like if she was hungry, or cold, or needed to go to the bathroom, etc.) Anyway this little old lady had a male RN providing for her, and I really couldn't believe how inconsiderate he was. When she needed a diaper change, which seemed to be like every hour, he would come and do it. The problem is, is that she stated VERY clearly that she wasn't comfortable with him doing it. But he did it anyway. Also, when moving her, he seemed very rough with her (she weighed no more than 100lbs, and he was pulling 250 easilly.) Her privacy was never respected, and walking by I ended up seeing her nude more times than I can count. I even walked in to the room while she was getting a diaper change, and the nurse didnt even bother closing the curtains. I ended up closing them, but he just opened them as soon as I did. Now the problem I have with my mom is that after seeing this she has automatically generalized all male nurses to be like this man. And is not quiet about it. I just about died yesterday, when her nurse came in and said her shift was ending and that "chris" will be taking over. This was her response. "a man? I hate male nurses. He is NOT touching me." I was so embarassed, and I could see the shocked look on the RN's face. I'm really not surprised though. My mother is a very blunt woman, and she's sick so I understand her frustration about being there in general. I guess what I'm wondering is have you experienced a patient like my mother? How did you handle it? How would you handle an extreme personality like hers? I told her that she would be my nightmare patient, and she just laughed it off, but I'm so serious. Also, what would you do if you saw the treatment the other patient was getting? I feel really bad that I didn't speak up (that isnt like me at all.) I know it's probably frustrating, as a man, to be told that someone isn't comfortable with you doing certain things. But shouldn't you just brush it off? These aren't animals, they are people, and we need to respect their wishes, regardless of how it makes you feel. Sorry, just needed to rant. It has been a looooong weekend.

When I worked as a CNA my duties were pretty much the same with a few exceptions. I was assigned a hall with usually around 20-30 residents. Would perform bathings, feedings, etc. The only difference of duties between the female staff and I, is that I was ALWAYS paged to help with moving/ambulating/re-positioning of our obese residents. I understood why, but it would get a little annoying sometimes when I would fall behind because of that. Myself and a few other ladies were called to deal with combative/difficult residents. I don't think this had anything to do with gender. I believed we were just better at handling these types of situations. I've been mistakenly identified as a MD, but I don't recall a time where I was disrespected by a pt. This wasn't just work for me. I cared for all of my residents, and I believe they picked up on that and grew to love me haha. I only bring up the fact that I cared about them because I've seen one too many times a CNA/Nurse abuse the residents privacy. The LTC I worked at was shady as hell, and I ended up leaving because my complaints were not being heard/resolved. But I'm going off topic here... I'd say I was treated pretty much the same as anyone else there. I was the only male in the facility besides the DON lol. Made it interesting to say the least.

I wouldn't be caught dead in a tunic lol. Not only is it probably the most hideous thing I've seen in a while, but i think wearing it would cause more confusion as to what you do there haha.

I figured it wasnt the case. I've seen people post stuff like this before, but im hoping it's more based on skill rather than what sex you are

Definitely gonna stick with it. Who knows? I might get a job, I might not. I won't know unless I try tho:)