When you hear the word "nurse," do you think male or female?

[OldDude]

I think we can all agree "Nursing" is, "historically," a female profession. And, regardless of male participation today, nursing is still a female dominated profession. I don't think there is anything negative about this fact and I have no issue with female/male nursing ratios or anything associated with the subject so I'm not trying to make any point about that.

It's my opinion "nursing," collectively, is considered a female profession in spite of male participation and notwithstanding the conscious efforts to express the contrary or to express the word "nurse" as gender neutral. I believe this arises from our subconscious mental state and has been established, maybe even with subliminal contributions, from everything we've been exposed to in regard to real life and media representation of "nursing." Over the years, as females entered traditionally male professions, "Fireman" became "Firefighter," "Policeman" became "Police Officer," "Mailman" became "Mail Carrier," etc. As a result, the description changes call attention and introduce the possibility the profession could be female or male. The term "Nurse" has nowhere to go in this regard and, to date, I'm not aware of any effort to replace "Nurse" with any other descriptor.

When you hear the word "nurse," is your immediate mental image a male or female? Say, for instance, if "nurse" came up in a word association game, would you instantaneously see a man or a woman? I see a woman. I believe most of the population sees a woman and I'd like to offer up two personal observations as an explanation.

First, and you can find a multitude of examples just on this site if a writer is not consciously trying to be gender neutral when they refer to a nurse they will use, "she" or "her." Yes, I've seen some exceptions but, overall, this had been my observation. Maybe you could attribute this to female nurse writers on this site but when you expand it to the general population you'll find male's referring to nurses as "she" or "her."

Second; and this one has been the most interesting to me over the years...and the most conclusive to my theory. On a regular basis, at least every week for sure, when I make a phone call and introduce myself..."Hi, this is OldDude, school nurse at XYZ Elementary School," the first response I get is, "Yes ma'am -(micro pause)- I mean yes sir." Same thing when I work at Urgent Care..."Hi, this is OldDude, I'm a nurse at XYZ Urgent care," same thing..."Yes, ma'am -(micro pause)- I mean yes sir." The person I'm talking to realizes I am a man. I have a normal to lower pitched man voice. I introduce myself with a man's name - a name that is only a man's name. But I end the introduction with "nurse." I believe "nurse" is what produces the subconscious response of "Yes ma'am." And then the tail end of their mental slinky arrives and they remember I am a man and say "Yes sir." Some of the people get frustrated and apologize and I assure them it's OK and not to worry. It really doesn't worry me and I kinda find it entertaining. I've never been upset with nurses being referred to as "she" or "her."

So, I'm saying, here we are in 2019, in the world of PC and the likes, nurses are still perceived as women...and I'm exactly OK with that...just an observation.

If you have an opinion about this, I'd like to hear it.

I'd like to hear from other man nurses if you have experienced the same telephone responses.

Or, I'd like to hear from female nurses if they've received a response to their phone calls as "Yes sir - I mean yes ma'am."

Otherwise, thank you for reading.

[jc3015]

I graduated nursing school at the age of 53. I get some double takes on the phone, but mostly from family members. Since clinicals, I usually was mistakenly called ‘doctor’. My clinical instructor thought that was a real hoot... until one day, with a group of other students (mostly in late 20’s) a patient asked me if I was their instructor. The others didn’t let my instructor hear the end of it.

[0.9%NormalSarah, BSN, RN]

Ugh I was just remembering this time I was the culprit. I was at Starbucks and I had just decided to go back to school to be a nurse and was super excited. So I was waiting for my drink and saw this pretty blonde lady in scrubs and asked her if she was a nurse, and she replied, “Actually I’m a doctor ?” with that exact face. I should have known better, she was wearing that typical doctor mint green scrub color, but I had nursy stuff on the brain! I felt like a real butthead.

[TheNightShift]

6 hours ago, LikeTheDeadSea said:

As a nurse with a pixie cut, I've gotten Sir'ed a handful of times a year. I call it the "quick glance autopilot."

As another nurse with a pixie cut, I once had a confused patient tell me "I'm not going to let a MAN put in my IV!" I asked him what made him think men aren't capable of starting IVs ?

[Davey Do]

1 hour ago, TheNightShift said:

"I'm not going to let a MAN put in my IV!"

He could have been hemohomophobic.

I guess I'm that way, also. I'd rather a woman stick me.

[hawaiicarl, BSN, RN]

Haha Oldude I love it. I wonder if they thought you "identified" as a man and didn't want to offend you?!?!?!

I have to admit to getting a little irritated when people find out what I do and they go "Ohhhhhhh you're a Murse!" No, a murse is a European Handbag....

Davey when I get called a Dr. I use the old drill seargent line …. "I ain't no Dr. I WORK for a living!"

Cheers

[ThatChickOmi, ADN, RN]

I've gotten the opposite at my job. I'm still in nursing school but my current occupation of 8+ years is driving a delivery truck. I can't tell you how many times I'm doing my thing in the back of the truck getting their order ready to bring inside, and I hear them walking up "Goodmorning sir, I..." and they see me, long hair, evidence of boobage, and they're like "Oh. Gosh, I'm so sorry...." and they're embarrassed and start to explain themselves. I tell them I'm use to it, considering I'm the only female driver in my facility's delivery zone. Fact is, most people anticipate a dude being at the door when they answer it. It's actually pretty funny. Even young kids are thrown off. "Aren't you a girl???" "Last I checked, yes."

[barcode120x, RN, NP]

Lately, I don't think I've come across any patients that bring up the whole male/female nurse topic. If anything, I hear the "oh it's my doctor" way more rather than "oh your a nurse? back in the day all nurses were female..."

Neither topic bothers me, but if it is brought up, it's always a great way to spark a conversation with the older generation patients.

[jeastridge, BSN, RN]

Cool bio. Just sayin.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

On 2/25/2019 at 4:11 AM, Davey Do said:

My typical comeback is "I didn't go to school for two years to be called 'doctor' thank you very much!"

When I worked Med Surge in a small rural community hospital, an old farmer said to me, "You became a nurse because you're not smart enough to be a doctor!"

"Or ambitious enough", I added, "or driven or devoted. Shall I go on?"

I was once asked if I went to a male nursing school. I said that I did, but only after I found that I couldn't make it as a female in nursing school.

Not smart enough - and you're stuck with me! Love it when they gasp and go pale. LOL

[Silver_Rik, ASN, RN]

On 2/26/2019 at 11:58 AM, jc3015 said:

I graduated nursing school at the age of 53. I get some double takes on the phone, but mostly from family members. Since clinicals, I usually was mistakenly called ‘doctor’. My clinical instructor thought that was a real hoot... until one day, with a group of other students (mostly in late 20’s) a patient asked me if I was their instructor. The others didn’t let my instructor hear the end of it.

I will be 52 when I graduate. At work I get asked almost every shift if I’m a doctor; usually by patients, but sometimes by new or visiting staff. I tell them no, and point out that I’m westing the same scrubs as all the other aides.

On med surg clinical rotation earlier this semester I had one of the facility nurses introduce me to a patient as an instructor. I corrected him, and it turned out he was a new nurse at 48 so we had something in common to talk about.

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

I correct my director every time she refers to a nurse in the female. I say, "you mean his or her", and she rolls her eyes every time. This have been going on for years.

[0.9%NormalSarah, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, nurse2033 said:

I correct my director every time she refers to a nurse in the female. I say, "you mean his or her", and she rolls her eyes every time. This have been going on for years.

To be fair, in making it easy for lecturers or anyone during conversations, choosing a gendered pronoun is not egregious. People get annoyed about this, but it’s not that she thinks every nurse is female, she just wants to be able to flow through her ideas easily as she teaches, and that means not stuttering through saying “his or her” every time.

I used to read this wonderful workplace advice blog religiously and the writer would always refer to managers or anyone else as “she” when giving advice. Readers called her on it all the time, so she would gently explain that when someone who has written in for advice hasn’t specified the gender of the players in question, she refers to them as “she” because it’s easier for her to do so in writing and looks less clunky. I would agree, especially in conversation.