Why are male nurses looked down on?

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I am a female nursing student but I dont understand why male nurses are looked down on. They are human beings too.

The only area that I was "looked down on" was when I did a stint in antepartum when I was mobilized... and this was more from the pt's and family i.e. either the mother didn't want a male there or the father didn't. I never took it personally, and just moved on. I have NEVER encountered staff that had looked down on me (or at least they hid it well), and I think that if you carry yourself confidently and are competent on the floor you have nothing to worry about.

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I just started in an RN nursing program because of my experiences with a male nurse in the ER.

It is 3 am in the morning in the ER and the nurse asks me to describe the pain. "Like someone running an ice pick through my kidneys" He ran to the ER Dr and said he's having a kidney stone attack and was back in a flash heading me toward x-ray. He did the diagnosis b4 the Doc even saw me and got me pain meds, morphine, ASAP. He asked if I'd been taking Calcium pills and said I probably shouldn't because I was too young to worry about bone loss. My GP concurred--no Calcium pills until 80.

Bo

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"I have not had any problems with Nurses or instructors. Only one problem with a pt that wanted a female nurse. And I was happy to switch with another student."

Very professional attitude. I think you know that a female patient requesting a female nurse is not not a put down to you as a nurse or a person. It is men that some women fear and for many good reasons.

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ha ha :yeah: though I feel bad when some guys bring attention to certain body parts (ahem... biceps) by wearing tight shirts and it's noticed that we (females) notice... or wearing tight pants and then act all "aw shucks" when it's noticed... though women are better at being more discrete....

Better at being discrete with what? Certainly not the breast area. How much bling does cleavage need, really? Most men will look without it being present at all!

Sorry, had to pick on that one!

I've had nothing but an awesome experience. Had one salty old preceptor messing with me on clinicals one morning. Made it about 3 hours thinking I was really screwing up with all the yelling she was doing. Finally just looked her at the eye and said something to the effect of..."I am here to learn, not because I already know it all. If you don't like the way I'm doing it, show me how to do it your way because this is the way I was taught. If you genuinely just have a problem with me - let's just fight it out now and be done with it because we ain't BOTH going to survive the rest of this 12 hour shift!"

She just started laughing. Let me in on a secret that she had been there doing exactly that job for over 20 years and was tired of timid little wall flowers screwing up her day. That she had made more than half of the people she taught rethink their career choice and those of us who were strong enough to stand up to her actually turned out to be really good.

I think that if you're getting "special attention" from your co-workers or your female peers, or your docs/superiors... you are standing out. It likely has very little to do with your gender. Sometimes people are harder on those that they expect more out of. Sometimes you may actually deserve it. Sometimes, you may rub someone the wrong way. Sometimes, you never know, but you may be EXACTLY like someone else and that causes a problem.

There have been billions spent on figuring out people's psychological compositions. Your dominant and recessive personality traits. They can classify every one of us into a particular dominant and recessive trait. Amiable, Dominant, Analytical...etc.

What I have found is that it doesn't mean anything if you have or do not have a member. But, that in every work environment I have been in - the other dominant/dominant personalities or the dominant/fill-in-the-blank types are the ones I CANNOT work with. There's nothing wrong with either of us as employees or as people. However, because of the way we both attack a particular job, or task - you absolutely cannot put two dominant/dominant's on the same team and expect them to work together on a task. The flip side is, if you want a job done quickly, efficiently and correctly in a team environment - you'll love the results if you put a dominant/dominant type on that team.

The moral of the story is that the way that people interact is dependent on many variables that are far more important that gender. Maybe you remind a patient of someone who beat them up in elementary school. Maybe you look like someone they had a bad date with in college. Maybe they are sexually attracted to you and simply embarrassed to have you playing with their broken parts...

Humans are funny creatures. Our job is to make our patients feel better. Either to aid them in healing, or treat them respectfully and provide the most comfort possible as their life ends. I haven't seen either gender be looked down upon. I've seen a lot of people who shouldn't have chosen healthcare as a profession being looked down upon. I've seen those lacking the intellectual ability to think like a good student let alone a good nurse - looked down on. I've seen those with no compassion - looked down on.

But a lot of them didn't have a member.

I think if you strive to do your very best in all that you do, and you approach EVERY patient with respect and caring, you will be held in very high regard. By your peers in school as well as your patients. I'm just a pre-nursing student though - what do I know.

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Specializes in Coronary Rehab Unit.

Hmmmm, I haven't been looked down on either, other than literally (I'm kind of short ;) ). Everyone seems to be treated very equally, at least so far, both in school and clinicals.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Progressive Care.
I work in a LTC facility...Alot of the females don't want a male aide or nurse...This is d/t the fact that they are elderly and in their time it wasn't appropriate for a male to see them that exposed...

My late grandmother (Memory eternal!) felt this way until she was cared for my a male nurse at a SNF. She said she felt "safer" when he helped her ambulate etc. Frankly, I think she liked him because he was a good nurse, he was from her native country (Poland) and he was mighty handsome. Nonetheless this man changed grandmama's mind about men in nursing.

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Male Nurses are NOT looked down upon! They are equally respected in all areas of nursing!

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Still a student, but i've never encountered any kind of discrimination based on gender, if anything it's helpful because i'm needed as a human hoyer :)

Male, female, whatever, your brain is what I care about.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Well I tend to think they are looked down upon at least in the area I am going to school.

I have already had one girl say "so why are you wanting to be a nurse, being a guy and all??"

and it might just be me but I get a strange vibe from a few older female nurses/instructors when they are dealing with me vs the female students....on that note

i cannot wait to get out of this small town and move to the city when im done with school

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The male nurses I know are respected and beloved. I went to NS with a few and the instructors adored them. Don't let the ignorance of some get you down.

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third year nursing student here and im not looked down upon. im the only male in the class and get look up to. this past week i tended to get through to clients better then my class mates and actually got one client to open up more and got him to be excited about getting better.

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I ask myself the same question on this thread...

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