Rather work with men or women?

[Runman1914]

Prior to becoming a nurse i was a fireman paramedic. I went from working with all men to working with all women. Wow what a difference!!!

Just curious if you could chose would you rather work with all men or all women?

[leslie :-D]

My clients....jail inmates. Even there I dreaded working with the women

inmates. The women 99% of the time had a reason/excuse for

their crime. My Mom didn't love me My Dad molested me...My

husband cheated on me..Blah.Blah.Blah.

Janie

my.goodness.

what is wrong with this picture???

leslie

[JanieRN555]

I agree with you 100% about victims of violence, molestation, and rape. However that is no excuse for your OWN behavior or to break the law.

I was molested as a child, violently raped when I was 8 months pregnant with my first child. I not only sympathize..I empathize with each and every person out there that has been a a victim of a violent act.

I am referring to extreme cases. Example, arrested breaking into someones home to steal so you can buy drugs, leaving your 3yr. 5yr. old toddlers alone at home. You beg the officer not to arrest you because you children need you. CPS goes out sure enough to find your children 3yr, and 5yr. old as you left them home alone.

Its your 2nd or 3rd time in jail and you justify what you did because you were molested as a child. I don't think so.

To use that as an excuse to break the law. You make that choice freely, as an adult, a mother, to do such a thing. It has nothing to do with what happen to you as a child. That happened, yes. It was horrible, Yes, and it was something you survivied. Yes you will always be a victim, but that doesn't give you the green light to abuse,neglect, your own children, do drugs, or break the law.

Yes she does deserve nursing care as a victim.

And she deserves to be punished to full extent of the law as a criminal.

Jaqnie

[AmericanRN]

Men without a doubt.

In my 16yrs as a Nurse I worked with mostly women, L&D for the most part. 3 yrs I took a break and worked as a Mental Health Nurse for the County.

My clients....jail inmates. Even there I dreaded working with the women

inmates. The women 99% of the time had a reason/excuse for

their crime. My Mom didn't love me My Dad molested me...My

husband cheated on me..Blah.Blah.Blah.

I'm a woman, and I know I do it.

My all true saying "It is what It is".

Janie

Are you saying you never heard any of this from male inmates?

Just because you are a woman and and do it as well doesn't make it true of all women.

[leslie :-D]

I agree with you 100% about victims of violence, molestation, and rape. However that is no excuse for your OWN behavior or to break the law.

I was molested as a child, violently raped when I was 8 months pregnant with my first child. I not only sympathize..I empathize with each and every person out there that has been a a victim of a violent act.

I am referring to extreme cases. Example, arrested breaking into someones home to steal so you can buy drugs, leaving your 3yr. 5yr. old toddlers alone at home. You beg the officer not to arrest you because you children need you. CPS goes out sure enough to find your children 3yr, and 5yr. old as you left them home alone.

Its your 2nd or 3rd time in jail and you justify what you did because you were molested as a child. I don't think so.

To use that as an excuse to break the law. You make that choice freely, as an adult, a mother, to do such a thing. It has nothing to do with what happen to you as a child. That happened, yes. It was horrible, Yes, and it was something you survivied. Yes you will always be a victim, but that doesn't give you the green light to abuse,neglect, your own children, do drugs, or break the law.

Yes she does deserve nursing care as a victim.

And she deserves to be punished to full extent of the law as a criminal.

Jaqnie

thank you for clarifying.

and i agree w/you...

that regardless of one's hx, you need to be accountable for your actions.

leslie

[ssi9699]

Interesting discussion. I'm fascinated that so many deny that it is inherent human nature that people are judged and stereotyped. Oh come on...you mean to tell me you don't remember how differently you were treated when you were 23 and weighed 120 pounds as opposed to 52 and 200 lbs? How about part-timers and full-timers. Being the rare minority (whatever race or religion that applied to in the situation). Gray haired and wrinkled? Male or female? Definitely not all bad differences, some have been great improvements. Happens when you are in a hospital, at a PTA meeting, or at a retail store.

Talk to men who are RNs who have worked for awhile and I'll bet they will tell you when they happen to be working a shift where the staff is dominated by straight men who are RNs, the day is heaven-sent. The work just gets done. Oh sure, it definitely CAN happen with females, too, but it would be with a specific crew with the qualities you have spoken of in previous posts. Even slacker RNs, when they are in a field of other men step up their production, I guess from effective peer pressure. But most men have worked in other fields with a lot of other men, so the contrast to them, as the OP stated, is more apparent. Many nurses, including, so obviously many of the ones commenting on this board, have only worked in female-dominated fields. And men working in, say the manufacturing world are not necessarily the same caliber of compassion as men who are nurses, so to stretch the comparison to them is not 'apples to apples'.

To return to the original poster's statement, if I were floating to a new hospital, and I had a team of 4 men to work with or 4 women, knowing absolutely nothing about them or the work ahead of me, yeah, I'd definitely pick the men. Just my opinion.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

Interesting discussion. I'm fascinated that so many deny that it is inherent human nature that people are judged and stereotyped. Oh come on...you mean to tell me you don't remember how differently you were treated when you were 23 and weighed 120 pounds as opposed to 52 and 200 lbs? How about part-timers and full-timers. Being the rare minority (whatever race or religion that applied to in the situation). Gray haired and wrinkled? Male or female? Definitely not all bad differences, some have been great improvements. Happens when you are in a hospital, at a PTA meeting, or at a retail store.

Oh, I don't deny that it happens. My stance is that *I* try not to do this. My parents taught me that it is what's on the *inside* of a person that counts. You can judge what is on the inside by their actions. I make effort to be aware of my preconceived notions that I might have about a person based upon their physical appearance and to treat them, above all, as a *human being*, aka The Golden Rule.

That being said, I don't care whether a co-worker is male or female. It is their *attitude* that matters to me.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Talk to men who are RNs who have worked for awhile and I'll bet they will tell you when they happen to be working a shift where the staff is dominated by straight men who are RNs, the day is heaven-sent.

When I look back and think about my best days, it's usually when there's been a rewarding day regarding patient care. The gender and sexual preference of my cowkers had nothing do with the "heaven sent day".

I used to work with a bunch of straight male engineers in my previous job........hated it. I'll take the primarily female-dominated, gender and sexual preference mix of nursing anyday.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

Talk to men who are RNs who have worked for awhile and I'll bet they will tell you when they happen to be working a shift where the staff is dominated by straight men who are RNs, the day is heaven-sent.

Oh wow! So now it's not good enough to be men only, but they must be straight men too...?

What a sad, sad world some of you live in. Thank God there are some of us out there who don't base the happiness of our days on the gender, and now, sexual orientation of others.

[ssi9699]

sorry, IMO, less drama with straight men generally. Note: IMO.

And as for me,personally, over the years when I have seen certain names on the schedule with me, I really look forward to that day. Many other days turned out to be terrific, but when you know you're working with people with good work ethics and attitudes, well, then, I don't care if they have purple stripes, old, young, male, female, single, widowed, straight, gay, tall, asian, or whatever, even with an impossible work load, you're going to have a good day.

As I said, I can only base MY opinions on MY exposure to having the privilege of knowing half a dozen men nurses very, very well. I guess it all comes down to less drama and the "lets just all do our jobs" attitude. Very common with this bunch. They have some wonderment at why this isn't the norm. After you work with almost all women for years, you don't expend more time wondering. Women are just different. Men are simpler creatures. I work with all women now and each and every one of them have those same wonderful qualities, but it's the first place in over 20 yrs that's happened. (So I really, really appreciate them.): Nurses who do their jobs, work as a team and have a good attitude. Course, the average experience in nsg in my dept. is 40 yrs, but that's another forum....

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Many nurses, including, so obviously many of the ones commenting on this board, have only worked in female-dominated fields.

Actually, you are quite mistaken in your assumptions.

Excluding holiday jobs when I was 12-16 years old, virtually every career field that I have ever been in has been male dominated. Not to mention, I was often one of the only women in classes for my first college degree - 2-8 females compared to 50-100 males in quite a few lecture classes.

I worked in predominantly (80% or greater) male workplaces until nursing. And believe me, males, regardless of orientation, can be and are as catty, whiny, slack and backbiting as females. Or they can be as supportive, kind and caring as females. Take your pick. More than a few times, I saw men that tried to sabotage each other's work and get ahead by remarkably underhanded methods.

As such I have learned to accept people as individuals. They are good or bad, hardworking or slack as they prove themselves to be, not as someone's misguided assumptions dictate.

[ssi9699]

well thank you,posters for illustrating the differences between men and women. Once again, we are talking about men who are nurses, not working with men in any possible context including college. Men who choose nursing are, with few exceptions, different. And those of you who speak altruistically, think what you want to. But if you happen to know a group of men who have all been nurses for awhile and just talk with them at social functions, your perspective MAY change.

The lesson for me here is that unless you have the same opinion, don't bother posting,because you get attacked. And I won't. I resign.

[banditrn]

When I look back and think about my best days, it's usually when there's been a rewarding day regarding patient care. The gender and sexual preference of my cowkers had nothing do with the "heaven sent day".

I used to work with a bunch of straight male engineers in my previous job........hated it. I'll take the primarily female-dominated, gender and sexual preference mix of nursing anyday.

Tweety - I've spent much of my life with men - had brothers, no sisters, I have all sons. Much of my early career was also spent in an engineering company, where I worked with mostly men.

I LIKE it that way - I do my thing, they do theirs, and we all get along. I could care less what their sexual orientation is - they are still men, with male attitudes about most things. Little gossip, and when they DO form a pack to talk about something, it's usually sports or hunting, and I'm not expected to join in, and no one's feelings get hurt when I ignore what they're talking about.

Altho I've had many female friends over the years, they tend to be women like myself who aren't interested in the typical 'girl' things.