What are your thoughts on patients who request no male nurses taking care of them?

Nurses Men

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What are your thoughts on patients who request no male nurses taking care of them?

i'm not sure i understand your comments.

i will say that patients who start rejecting caregivers based on one characteristic or another often wind up with substandard care. there was the patient who rejected our best nurse because "she's too old" and rejected the next caregiver because "he's black." they didn't like another nurse because "her english is atrocious" (the lady had a master's in english literature and understood both written and spoken english better than most americans, but she did have a thick accent) and the next nurse was rejected due to visible tattoos.

now while it is the patient's right to refuse care, if they refuse all care they have no business taking up space in our health care system. and when they refuse all caregivers, who is going to be left to give them care? in that patient's case, it was only the travelers who weren't rejected and who would care for her. now those travelers were competent nurses, but they weren't experts in our specialty.

i do hear what you are saying, and your frustration. but the characteristics you brought up are to my mind a separate issue from the focus of this discussion, a patient requesting no male nurses. i saw this discussion as focused on the gender of the nurse. in the situation you describe i still can't think of anything else to do except to respect the patient's wishes regarding caregivers and try one's best to accommodate them, which it appears your facility did.

can the patient request only female physicians, female lab techs, female housekeeping, female admission clerks, female imaging techs, female ambulance drivers, female emt's, female paramedics, female hospital security, female nursing supervisors, female patient advocates, female insurance customer service, female gift shop persons, female hospital engineers, female cna's, female pca's, female or techs, female pa's, female pharmacists, female transporters, and oh well you get the point!

as a nursing student (yes male) my patients preferred male nursing students for their am care, in their opinion we were more gentle and more professional.

can we ever get past the fact that nursing is a female only profession. why are we called nurses and males nurses. can't you agree a nurse is a nurse is a nurse, is a nurse etc. male nurses have been the minority in the nursing profession from the beginning, that is changing. all patient care professionals (male) are gaining recognition as true professionals. certainly not the doctor's handmaidens as things used to be, back in the day.

it is unfortunate that male nurses are thought of as different by their female counterparts, someone who is thought of as a male nurse not a nurse. it could be said the female majority in nursing wants to keep things where they are. continue female domination of nursing, it began as a female profession and everyone including patients want things left like they were. have you ever seen a male nursing cap or hat when male nurses graduate from school?

i may have some bias. keep in mind my nursing experience is primarily military where nursing is more balanced between male and female nurses.

i hope i have caused you to step outside the box and understand where some of these perceptions come from. i hope you have taken time to think about this issue. sorry if i ruffled your feathers. nurses must be thought of as professionals not male or female. are the doctors thought of as doctors not male and female. is it now true that a male nurse is viewed and treated different because that the nursing profession is stagnated unwilling to grow. why is it that nurses are limited by their sex when doing nursing care?

so, where do we grow from here?

“do or do not... there is no try.”- yoda

yes its a modesty issue for the most part, i for one have no problem with a male nurse taking vitals, drawing blood, ect ect . What i am uncomfortable with is being naked (ie. exposing boobs, butt, "lady bits"...lol) in front of a man thats not my husband. Im not uptight or super religious or anything its just weird, the only other man thats seen my naked is my OB and thats becuase he is the best in miami, and i would rather have the best be my doc in that dept. taht worry about the gender, now if its a non-life threatening issue and i have to be in some state of nakedness, i would rather do it in front of a woman, then wonder if the male RN is getting off checking out my boobs, and other parts.

There are a lot of possible reasons for that. I think that they should just be respected, because nobody except that person knows why they feel like that.

Suppose a female patient was abused by a male. Having a man in such close quarters and possibly seeing any exposed areas could be really stressful.

That's not always the case, but there could always be something like that. So, I feel that it's best to just respect their request.

Personally, I don't see a problem with this type of request from either gender. As others have said, if it makes the patient more comfortable, why not? I'm sure there are extreme exceptions, but usually it usually involves situations with intimate care or exposure. Ultimately it is the patient's choice whom they will allow to care for them and we need to respect that.

The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter why. The patient has the absolute right to refuse any specific caregiver for any reason. Note that refusing a specific caregiver is not the same as refusing care. If a female patient says "no males" or a male patient says "no females", then the facility has limited options: accommodate the patient's request if possible; discharge the patient if their condition permits, or transfer them to another facility if it doesn't. You can not legally force a caregiver on a patient over their objections.

can the patient request only female physicians, female lab techs, female housekeeping, female admission clerks, female imaging techs, female ambulance drivers, female emt's, female paramedics, female hospital security, female nursing supervisors, female patient advocates, female insurance customer service, female gift shop persons, female hospital engineers, female cna's, female pca's, female or techs, female pa's, female pharmacists, female transporters, and oh well you get the point!

as a nursing student (yes male) my patients preferred male nursing students for their am care, in their opinion we were more gentle and more professional.

can we ever get past the fact that nursing is a female only profession. why are we called nurses and males nurses. can't you agree a nurse is a nurse is a nurse, is a nurse etc. male nurses have been the minority in the nursing profession from the beginning, that is changing. all patient care professionals (male) are gaining recognition as true professionals. certainly not the doctor's handmaidens as things used to be, back in the day.

it is unfortunate that male nurses are thought of as different by their female counterparts, someone who is thought of as a male nurse not a nurse. it could be said the female majority in nursing wants to keep things where they are. continue female domination of nursing, it began as a female profession and everyone including patients want things left like they were. have you ever seen a male nursing cap or hat when male nurses graduate from school?

i may have some bias. keep in mind my nursing experience is primarily military where nursing is more balanced between male and female nurses.

i hope i have caused you to step outside the box and understand where some of these perceptions come from. i hope you have taken time to think about this issue. sorry if i ruffled your feathers. nurses must be thought of as professionals not male or female. are the doctors thought of as doctors not male and female. is it now true that a male nurse is viewed and treated different because that the nursing profession is stagnated unwilling to grow. why is it that nurses are limited by their sex when doing nursing care?

so, where do we grow from here?

“do or do not... there is no try.”- yoda

first of all, female nurses earn $0.86 for every $1.00 a male nurse earns, so in that respect who cares if they don't make caps for you, you'll earn more money despite equal work. (source: monster.com)

second of all, 1 in 5 women have been raped (source: ny times, dec 14 2011), this is a fact you are going to have to get used to and respect if you are going to provide care to women. women request female doctors, nurses and other care providers all the time because through the course of medical treatment we are placed in situations that cause us to feel vulnerable. it is ridiculous to equate requesting a female nurse with requesting a female housekeeping staff member.

70% is approximately 2/3 (66.7%). So, you are saying that 2/3 of all the male patients in the Urology practice see 2/3 of the physicians. There is no desparity there. The joys of math!Trust me, both of you benefit from this. That physician has probably worked with those very capable women for years. You just got on his least favorite people list for implying that their presence near your dangly parts was unprofessional. If it is important to you that the physicians staff are male, then you should have asked that when you made the appointment. Attacking the physician was not the correct resolution here. Use your dollars to make the point and go to a doc that meets the standards you set for yourself. Not everyone thinks the way you do. I do not know how you expect for every office to practice descriminatory hiring (picking men over women) just incase someone like you walks through the door. Out pt settings often do not have the same resources the hospital does. If needed, a hospital could comb the floors looking for a male nurse. At an out pt facility, it is just them. a staff of 10-20 people. most of which will probably be female. Please do not act like you were victorious against this physician. You were just rude.
Wow, you make a lot of assumptions for being a patient service rep. All patients are entitled to respectful care. Would you be outraged to make a mammography appointment and to be greeted by a male mammographer and a male student. Do you always check first to see if male office staff are there. With 95 percent of all nurses, cna's and medical assistants being female this probably dosen't even cross your mind. It's rude and unethical to even assume that all men are comfortable with opposite gender care.
Specializes in psych, general, emerg, mash.

agreed! the customer/patient/client calls the shots, to a degree! if its a matter of calling colours, to make the patient more agreeable to treatment, do it.

I am not a patient service rep (whatever that means). I am in the trench nurse ! Dont catorize with corporate catch phrases.

Specializes in Wilderness Medicine, ICU, Adult Ed..
from aachavez

it's totally different than asking for racial preference, and hope than whenever i ask for a femal i don't offend any one, it certainly isn't my intention, as i'm sure is the case for many that make this type of request.

quote from zippygbr

why is it different what is the rationale for saying it's different ...

while we should respect the wishes of patients within the limitations of the service, we need to consider why people find it acceptable, rather than something that is done to suit the irrational wants of patients ...

zippygbr;6641161]

that is a good question, zippygbr, and here is the answer:

people of different races are fundamentally the same (their differences being almost entirely mere differences of appearance). men and women, on the other hand, are fundamentally different, and those differences carry strong emotional elements in all of us. as for being irrational, you are absolutely correct; but who among us does not have irrational ideas and emotions? humans are funny critters, and, in my experience, it is best to just let people have the little irrational quirks that make them comfortable and get on with my own life.

ps: some of us think that those fundamental differences between men and women are some of the best ideas that god ever had, but that is another conversation for another day.

Specializes in Wilderness Medicine, ICU, Adult Ed..
Exactly, just like when a patient requests, nicely, that no black or Asian nurses take care of them.

It's all about patient comfort, right?

That is a completely different issue, Albert4. Please see my post immediately above.

Specializes in Trauma ICU, Peds ICU.
That is a completely different issue, Albert4. Please see my post immediately above.

I disagree. I don't think patients making requests for nurses of a certain race are different from those requests based on sex.

These are often emotional, not logical, requests.

If we accept the argument that, as many have posted here, we should respect patients' wishes whenever possible by accommodating requests for an assignment change (i.e. to a female provider) then the same should apply to requests based on race.

Who are we to say that the request from a female patient who is uncomfortable with a male nurse is somehow MORE deserving of respect than the Asian patient who requests no black nurses? Both requests are personal, emotional, and in most cases not based in logic.

I posted this question in response to a thread I read where many nurses were bashing patients who request not to have minority nurses. I personally grew up in a melting pot, and could care less what color my care providers are. That said, just because some of us find one request distasteful, doesn't excuse the double standard.

Specializes in Pediatrics and Med Surf Float.

i haven't read all the posts but i do have something to say

I'm a religious orthodox jew, born and raised. until i was about 5, my pcp was male. after that it was female because her office (same practice as the male) was closer. after she left the practice, i was already preteen and wanted a female. after switching practices (midteens) i also got a female PCP. for the emergency strep culture etc. i've had men do it. when leaving the peds practice my one req was i want a female. my pcp is leaving the practice and her replacement is a female NP (thank g-d. i'd hate to switch again). if i needed an ob-gyn i would choose female.

this modesty is not only for intimate issues. i went for a manicure last week and politely declined the request to have the male manicurist do my nails. in my circle there is no casual touching between male and females other than immediate family or husband/wife. when i meet men for professional reasons i politely say i cannot shake hands for reason of religion. i have yet to have a man be insulted when i refused.

if a jewish women asks for a female nurse it is usually for religious reasons of modesty. I'm single and would probably near faint if i had to disrobe before a male. i had to go to the ER recently and was cared for by a female RN but the NP was male. as he knew i was a nursing student he asked all the questions he needed to without having to do a complete physical. he understood why i left my bra on and why i only lifted my gown up to the ribs. BUT, being transported to the ER i had a male ambulance crew take me to the hospital. when it is necessary, it is allowed. but if/when i have a choice that can be accommodated, i would most likely choose a female nurse/dr.

(please note, some of this is simplified for easier understanding. also, other circles may be more strict or more lenient than I wrote)

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