Have any of you ever worked with a male nurse in neonatal? If so, how did you feel working with him?
May sound like a frivolous question, but I'm asking as a male nursing student: I'm in my 2nd semester, and just did neonatal clinicals about 3 weeks ago. I was definitely NOT expecting this, esp since I don't have any kids of my own, but I found that I really enjoyed the neonatal. Not simply because it seemed so laid back (although I certainly didn't mind that aspect of it), but largely because I found that it was 10 times easier and far more interesting to do all my assessment stuff. I found that by the 2nd day I was even going out of my way to ask my instructor to do XYZ, when I had never really done that much in clinical before. At least not with the same level of interest. Too - and I don't want this to sound petty or unprofessional - but since infants obviously don't talk to you, you don't have any kind of verbal distraction interfering with your assessment. (Granted, I don't doubt that they make their bodily complaints known in other ways :) )
Now I would be lying if I said that I didn't have at least a couple of awkward moments. I felt completely clueless doing my first diaper change, and my first feeding, and had to bum help off of the mothers in my clinical group. Other than that, though, it was all good.
But I'm wondering if people don't find it strange to see a heterosexual male working in neonatal. Again, I don't mean to come off as frivolous or unprofessional, but the notion does seem a bit weird, even to me - despite the fact that I found that I enjoyed it so much. I can already imagine some old, grumpy, Mother-Superior type of old-school nurse who would just have a cow if she saw an actual male nurse handling babies. Ever worked with any of those types? What are your honest thoughts on this? I don't mind hearing your real opinion, whatever it may be. You can PM me if you want.
Sorry this was kind of long-winded, but this is something that's been on my mind a lot lately. I've discussed this already a bit on the male student's forum, and am kind of curious as to what experienced female neonatal nurses think. Thanks in advance!
