Working as a guy in neonatal ?

[Jedi of Zen]

2nd semester ADN male student here -

I did neonatal clinicals last week, and much to my surprise, I actually rather enjoyed it. In fact, I found myself actually going out of my way to ask my instructor if I could do XYZ, etc. And I haven't really been doing that in any of the other clinicals - at least not with the same extent of desire.

Granted, I did have a few awkward moments during feeding and diaper changes. I have no kids of my own, so naturally I had to bum help from the female students who've had kids in my group.

But the thing I noticed is that it's so much easier to do your assessments in neonatal - I guess mainly because you don't have to bother with the distraction of making small talk with your patient. I know that's probably a very non-professional, non-nurse-like way to look at it, but it really did make assessment much, much easier for me. Plus, I found that I enjoyed being able to switch from one infant to another so easily, as they were all in cribs close together in one room. (Obviously with adults being in separate rooms throughout the hallway, you don't have that luxury).

So these may be all the wrong reasons for wanting to do it, but I'm thinking I may want to pursue neonatal. However, I have to admit that even I find the notion of a straight male working in neonatal to be kind of weird. I guess it's one thing merely to be a male nurse, but it seems another thing altogether to try to take on such an obviously "maternal" role.

What do you guys think? Any male neonatal nurses out there?

[llg, PhD, RN]

I am not a man, but rather a woman ... who has spent many of my 30 year nursing career in NICU's -- working along side many male nurse colleagues. Lots of men have chosen NICU careers and they have generally been very well accepted. In fact the founder of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses was a man, as was the nurse who succeeded him to the presidency of that organization.

The neonatal ICU field has a strong history of being a subspecialty that has welcomed men.

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

Two of the staff members here (me and SteveRN21) have really enjoyed our time as male staff nurses in the NICU and it's very common for units to have at least 1-2 males on staff. It does strike some people as odd but, frankly, I just don't have any reason to worry about those people.

The non-talking/assessment thing is sort of a double-edged sword. When you have a 65 year old CHF patient headed down the tubes, they can tell you that they're drowning or that they're in big trouble. Infants who are deteriorating are relying strictly on the nurse's ongoing assessment skills.

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

:yeahthat:

[Jedi of Zen]

Awesome - thanks to all for the feedback. Much appreciated. Any further input out there from other neonatal nurses, male or not, is welcome.

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

Head on over to the NICU forum......