What did you NOT expect when you became a nurse.

[Mr.RN-CDE]

This forum is always about whether men should be nurses, etc etc etc.... Let's have some fun guys.

Let's face it, we are working in a female dominated field. Many of us previously worked in a male dominated field. SO let's hear some stories. What has suprised you? What things do you see hear daily that you didn't expect?

I have always gotten along with my co-workers with a few minor exceptions. I have always had a knack for flying under the radar. Anyway, there were some nurses who were always bad talking the men in their lives and men in general. I'd be in the corner charting, and would quietly clear my throat and they would look over and say, Oh, we weren't talking about you... you're different....

Let's hear some stories.

[romie]

I did not expect that my female patients did not care about my gender or how invasive a procedure would be--they always let me provide care for them and gave me high marks in quality of care and accolade my beside manner. The problems I got were from female nurses, especially older ones from a specific country.

[d!gger]

I did not expect that my female patients did not care about my gender or how invasive a procedure would be.

This surprised me too. Pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. I still have patients that would rather have a female nurse do certain procedures. But not nearly as many as I was led to believe. I do my best to accomodate when the situation arises.

I also didn't realize how deeply entrenched gender and power attitudes were in some places. When I started at my facility, my 57 year old, female charge nurse said to me "I'm glad more guys are getting into nursing, maybe nurses will be more assertive in the future!"

What? Just cuz I'm male, don't assume I'm assertive. It turns out I am, but that has more to do with being raised by two cantankerous, opinionated, well educated, Irish parents than my gender. I completely agree with her about nurses needing to be more assertive and finding the inner strength to do so... but when did I get appointed to be the Medgar Evers leading the masses to overcome? It's not a bad position to be in, but I didn't expect people to look to me first for advocacy advice.

I think I said something sarcastic to her like "I won't assume you cook if you don't assume I fix things." We've gotten along great ever since and she's been an unbelievably priceless mentor to me.

I didn't expect to do so much chart translating for my ESL coworkers. I've learned some Tagalog, Creo, Igbo, Cebuano (spelling?) and even some Vietnamese, etc. That's actually proved to be a LOT of fun. I never in a million years thought I'd have to tell my German coworker that "wedging out with blanky" can be charted as "pt is calm, oriented and no longer DTS now that they have their blanket. Pt states 'I'm veggin out' ".

There's other things, but those stick out.

dig

[zaggar]

I didn't expect everyone to be so thankful and appreciative and kind to me. For reasons that are totally unfair, I think being a male is a large part of that.

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

I didn't expect that so many older female RNs would hold so much resentment and vitriol towards myself and other younger nurses for starting grad school to become advanced practice nurses.

They see us as abandoning the profession, and go out of their way to make sure we know they feel we are a waste of mentoring time.... since we're "leaving anyway"

[Be_Moore]

I didn't expect to have such a hard time finding scrub pants that actually fit correctly. Lets face it, unisex pants are not truly unisex.

[Ariko]

I did not expect that my female patients did not care about my gender or how invasive a procedure would be--they always let me provide care for them and gave me high marks in quality of care and accolade my beside manner. The problems I got were from female nurses, especially older ones from a specific country.

And that specific country might be?

[Intubate89]

I didn't think I would have to justify why I was "just a nurse and not a doctor" on a routine basis.

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

"just a nurse and not a doctor"

Yeah. Especially the "just a nurse" part... makes my temples throb...

cheers,

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

I never expected I'd so enjoy working with babies/newborns. I was a segregation cell block officer and supervisor, as well as death row, in the state prison system in my past life. I went into NS with the typically macho male train of thought that I'd end up in an ER or OR somewhere. Once I did a clinical rotation in those, I found I had a great dislike for them, and couldn't wait to get back into the NICU or Nursery.

[JentheOBRN]

I never expected I'd so enjoy working with babies/newborns. I was a segregation cell block officer and supervisor, as well as death row, in the state prison system in my past life. I went into NS with the typically macho male train of thought that I'd end up in an ER or OR somewhere. Once I did a clinical rotation in those, I found I had a great dislike for them, and couldn't wait to get back into the NICU or Nursery.

I am a new OB RN and my mentor was a guy that had been in postpartum for more than 10 years. He had to leave recently r/t health problems. SOOOOO many of our return mommy's look for him. He had the most gentle hands and a huge heart for "his" babies. I am honored that he chose to mentor me. Yahoo for more guys going into OB we NEED you!!!!

[ZiggyNoEar]

I am surprised about male nurses being allowed in OB/Nursery, as two hospitals I previously worked in (Long Island) told me I was not allowed to apply in those units. One night there was even a call for a float needed for nursery, supervisor said ..'anyone except Bill'.

Also, I had an older nurse manager from the Netherlands, who would never let me do female catheters. Although, she had me do every male catheter on the floor. Was an Ortho post op unit. This was my first job out of college. So needless to say I never got really good at female catheterization. Conversely, there is no enlarged prostate that can stop me.