Question for nurses that are male...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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?

Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I think any distinction between 'a nurse who is male' and 'a male nurse' ranks right up there with 'You say tomatOH, I say toMAHto'. Or another way to put it is, I have MUCH more pressing things to think about.

Just call them "nurse". It is interesting to note the sexism still among the nursing profession. Male nurses have been increasing proportionally.

Specializes in Oncology.

I've never really thought about this before, but as a female who spent the last 5 years working in a male-dominated environment, I definitely would not have enjoyed someone adding the qualifier "female" before my job title so I wouldn't want to do the same to someone else.

I've never really thought about this before, but as a female who spent the last 5 years working in a male-dominated environment, I definitely would not have enjoyed someone adding the qualifier "female" before my job title so I wouldn't want to do the same to someone else.

If a male did that in our day and age they'd be lynched and broadcast on every media network.

It's interesting how the double standards tend to work.

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

If a male did that in our day and age they'd be lynched and broadcast on every media network.

It's interesting how the double standards tend to work.

Oh. Here we go.

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

Oh no, I DO take offense to the 'clients' thing, and if I ever have to call them that in front of some high muckety-muck, I will, but I never will privately.

Oh no, I DO take offense to the 'clients' thing, and if I ever have to call them that in front of some high muckety-muck, I will, but I never will privately.

Agree 100%.

I'd like to be referred to by my proper title: murse. LOL.

You can't be a man and a nurse and not expect, at some point, to hear some emasculating comments. However, in general, as a man the advantages far outweigh any snide remarks. I think our female counterparts also enjoy having a little diversity in the pool.

Specializes in PACU, ED.
I think that calling yourself a "male nurse" does a disservice to the acceptance of men in nursing. Let's say you were male, Jewish, gay, and African-American and you were at a party. Someone comes up to you and asks "What do you do for a living?"

Is your response:

A. I am a nurse

B. I am a male nurse

C. I am a Jewish nurse

D. I am a gay nurse

E. I am an African-American nurse

F I am a male, Jewish, gay, African-American nurse

Although I do see the need in today's society that calling yourself a "male nurse" helps people know which sex you are self-identifying with.

I am a nurse. My politics, partner, food preferences, religion, shoe size, and privates are not relevant to my job.

BTW, when I see the word murse I think male purse. I don't have a mursing license and don't answer to the State Board of Mursing.

Folks need to quit finding stuff to get offended by. Feel free to call me whatever you want.

Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Telemetry/ICU Stepdown.

Being male is not relevant to how your career will progress. What's relevant is this is a nasty industry to work in. You will be working with people who spent 30 years eating garbage, drinking alcohol, doing drugs. They smoke a pack of cigarettes before going to ER with shortness of breath.

They will blame the nurse and the physician if they don't have good outcome after 3 days of frantic therapy at the hospital--after they had spent 30 years destroying their health.

This is akin to drivers blaming Ford Corporation because their driving sucks. Very ungrateful industry to work in and the worst customers in the world.

Like anything new it gets you excited because it's new, but veteran nurses have the lowest career satisfaction scores in the world.

I thrive in nursing because I have very low expectations of my employers. Because I have low expectations, I'm never disappointed.

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