Published Apr 24, 2004
nurseunderwater
451 Posts
Just a simple question....
Is this a male dominated field???
After a few responses I have added this:
Since this is one of the highest paying specialties in nursing, I find it interesting that there is a higher concentration of men in this area of nursing vs. any other.
Does anyone have an opinion about why this is? Or if you are a male, can you tell me why you chose CRNA?
This is just an attempt to gain some insight into this topic so that I can get over any bias that I may have related to this issue.
Just fact finding.....not debating , not making anyone wrong.. :chair: .OK :)
Thanks for any comments. K
CougRN
422 Posts
Not dominated. Just better represented. Close to 50/50 these days.
jbro
96 Posts
not sure of the overall numbers, my class has 60 students, 12 of which are women, a big change from undergrad. and work as an rn
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
Most of the hospitals that I have worked at have been about 50/50.
FROGGYLEGS, LPN
236 Posts
WOW!...that is all I can say. I can literally count the number of male nurses I've worked with on my fingers. On the other hand, I've worked with countless female nurses.
athomas91
1,093 Posts
22 in my class - 6 males.
I have edited my original post to further explore this subject....:)
well there are a lot of posts on this site about "why i became a crna" or "why crna" so if you dig you will find a lot of answers on this. but for me it was the biggest challenge in nursing that i could find. it offers the most autonomy imo. i will get to make my own decisions about patient care without having to ask someone else for an order. it is extremely intense and requires a high level of intelligence and work. crna's are very supportive of each other and there is a high level of respect within the crna community. we have an excellent association that works very hard for us and greater than 90% of crna's belong to the association. on top of all that crna's are compensated well for the job that they perform. hope that "helps dispell some of your bias"
alansmith52
443 Posts
I have wanted to be an anesthsia provider since the 5th grade when I had my tonsils out. when I was young and (more dumb) I thought that meant MDA. but when it came down to doing it, the research led me here.
by formality I became a nurse and by doing so became endeared to their cause. it was frustrating as a nurse (and still consider my self a nurse, when i use term that way I mean it in the traditional sense) to have been taught how to take care of people but not be able to do it. this is the only nursing field where you can apply what you've been taught.
If a CRNA has treated you poorly in the past, I and many others apologize for them. Some may have forgotten their name. I for one was treated disresectfully by a CRNA when I was in the ICU. It happend to be an "older" female CRNA. she seemed to be so busy that she didn't see who she was stepping on. the kind of response I expect from phycisians. I was disapointed but it didn't deter me from my plan. Rather, it solidified my plan to always treat the "nurses doing the work" as gods/godesses.
Nurses go through the valley of the shadow of death when they go to work every day and no one knows it.... I do. and I intend on remembering it.