Question for nurses that are male...

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So I'm an avid reader of corny advice columns, just can't seem to get enough lol. Stumbled across a column this week. A nurse wrote in regarding some problems his wife had with his career choice as an RN. The part of this that stood out was he identified himself as a Nurse who is male and not a "male nurse" because he found that term to be offensive. I had never thought much about the term male nurse and didn't realize it could be construed as offensive to some men. Now I am curious as to how you nurses that are men like to be identified and/or how you identify yourself. I realize we don't say she is woman nurse so I got to thinking why it is many of say he is a male nurse, instead of just being a nurse. What do you think?

In 7 years, I can only think of a handful times that I've been asked to switch with a gal... and most of 'em due to douchebags making inappropriate comments and, yeah, a couple of times with an infectious case and the nurse being pregnant. In a couple of other cases, I demanded the change... old-school chivalry, I guess, from a guy old enough to have watched Apollo 11 on live TV.

I've also insisted on stepping in with the combative patients because my better musculature makes it somewhat harder to injure me and, like most guys, I grew up wrassling with my friends, playing football, having BB gun and slingshot fights... it's just a little tougher to land a clean blow on me than on a lot of gals who didn't grow up with brothers :-)

I don't know about the male privilege thing -- I've had to claw for everything I've got -- but I absolutely endorse making appropriate changes (and yeah, I ask the gals to do most of the female caths).

Sometimes nurses (male and female) who are not pregnant are given assignments (e.g., radiation, open shingles) rather than pregnant nurses per possible risks to the fetus.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Mlee81 - on my unit there are several males who call off a lot. (BTW - I (female) have gone years without a call-off..., along with a number of other females...) Some of the males also have had physical issues... Not a lot of backstabbing on my unit, so I can't comment to that. Your generalizations don't work.

My unit is more than 33% male -- of the three backstabbers on our unit, two are male. Of the five or six employees who are known to call off because it's a nice day and they'd rather be outside, because it's Saturday night and there's a party, etc. four or five are male. As far as health issues -- there's the guy who called off on a weekend to do a bicycle race and broke his leg (and got in the news) during the race. He was off for nine months. There's the guy whose wife had twins and found out she had cancer just before delivery -- he's been off for a year. There's the guy who had a brain aneurysm and won't ever be able to come back to work and the guy who wrecked his knee playing touch football with his kids and has been out for four months so far. Oh, and the guy whose back was injured six months ago and seems to get re-injured during the first five minutes of any subsequent shift he works. Stack that against the several pregnancies and my cancer and it seems about 60% female (67% of the staff) and 40% male (33% of the staff).

The poster's generalization doesn't work -- but he won't let that stop him from declaring that males are worth more money.

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Specializes in RN critical care,traveler,critical care float,CNA5.

Phew, after reading a few posts... I thought it was going to get ugly in here....:whistling:So proud of everyone for maintaining their civility.;)

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My unit is more than 33% male -- of the three backstabbers on our unit, two are male. Of the five or six employees who are known to call off because it's a nice day and they'd rather be outside, because it's Saturday night and there's a party, etc. four or five are male. As far as health issues -- there's the guy who called off on a weekend to do a bicycle race and broke his leg (and got in the news) during the race. He was off for nine months. There's the guy whose wife had twins and found out she had cancer just before delivery -- he's been off for a year. There's the guy who had a brain aneurysm and won't ever be able to come back to work and the guy who wrecked his knee playing touch football with his kids and has been out for four months so far. Oh, and the guy whose back was injured six months ago and seems to get re-injured during the first five minutes of any subsequent shift he works. Stack that against the several pregnancies and my cancer and it seems about 60% female (67% of the staff) and 40% male (33% of the staff).

The poster's generalization doesn't work -- but he won't let that stop him from declaring that males are worth more money.

For the record, I am not attempting to make or support the argument that males are worth more money than females in the nursing profession. I just want that to be clear.

However, the examples above are are anecdotal at best. And not that I never present anecdotal information, but when I do I sincerely try and make the effort to accept and acknowledge it as such.

If we are going to argue about who in general, takes more sick days etc., I would like to see us present evidence based/statistically valid information based on scientific studies rather than simply present personal experiences as arguments, which we should understand generally do not mean very much. And that is not to say that anecdotes don't have any meaning, but we should be able to accept them for what they are.

Women Take Most Sick Days - ABC News

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080204212846.htm

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"Thanks for the response. Interesting to see the difference in opinions. I myself usually say just nurse unless there is a specific reason the male part comes up."

LOL!!!!

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

I eschew the term, "male nurse." I prefer, "XYRN"

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We had a patient yesterday that was having some problems. I was asked to go start her IV. In the meantime her primary nurse, CNA, and respiratory therapist were all male and all present in her room. She takes a look at all of us and comments how nice it is to have so many men taking care of her. She also stated earlier in her life there were nearly no men in our profession and she really appreciates us taking great care of her.

I thought that was a nice comment.

To comment on the original question, no. I don't take offense at all. I think eventually the tendency to describe the male will fade as most things do when it comes to these issues. I have never been referred to as a "murse." I have a busy day and don't much care about how people describe me. I can think of much worse descriptors. And if I'm asked what I do for a living, I'm a registered nurse.

I think this shall pass too. I'm in corrections and work with a lot of female officers...I am noticing that ' lady cop' is falling by the wayside.

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I don't take offense to it. It's like nursing school telling me the patients are no longer patients, they're clients.

I loathe the term 'client' with the White Hot Passion of a Thousand Suns.

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Specializes in Emergency.

As I've posted before...usually I like to be adressed by my name...of course....smitty werbenmanjensen also works as well as a "walt whitman" ...

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My police officer older brother likes to introduce me with "this is my little brother, he's a male nurse."

I'm about 6 inches taller than him, and outweigh him by about 80lbs. It was a running joke, but I never took offense. At the end of the day, I'm a guy and about 90% of the ppl I work with are women. It's great. I probably wouldn't have met my wife if I wasn't a nurse.

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I am a male who is a nurse. I am not a male nurse, I take care if males and females equally. You don't call a female who is a nurse a female nurse, nor do you refer to anyone by their race.

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