[daveyaud]

Is anyone a male going to nursing school?
I'm starting school in September working towards being an RN.
I was wondering if anyone has experienced problems being a male going into a predominately female profession.
Any help would be great!
Thanks.

[demonderek]

I am a male graduating from nursing school (RN) in December. The only problm i encountered, was during my maternal rotation. i found that a lot of women who just gave birth were uncomfortable with a male nurse doing assessments on them. Also, i had to have a female chaperone during all patient assessments during that rotation. Other than that , it has not been a problem at all.

[H2OHead]

I'm a nurse and male. The two have nothing to do with each other as far as i am concerned. I went to college with people that were male, female, black, white, indian, Turkish, Polish, etc. Get the picture? I know it's tough in nursing school, but you have to get a graps of your own confidence. DO NOT focus on skills. FOCUS ON KNOWLEDGE of disease processes and how to think through labs, a disease, and underlying disease and what it all means to that pt right now, the next hour, and where you want to be by the end of a shift.

Skills can be learned anytime. Work as a CNA or Tech while in shool. Let the nurses know you are a student, they will let you mange stuff you never thought they would and you will gain confidence and comfort with complex technolgy stuff.

Get a job as a CNA or a pt care tech in a hospital. I can't say it enough. I was a pool CNA in a cardiac focused hospital while i was in college andI I cant tell you enough. The education I got was invaluable.

Study hard, but never too hard. Eat well. Complex carbs the night before and the day of a test.

For Maternity Rotations:

Be professional. Don't give that old worn our burned out nurse that wouldn't know code blue from blue eye shadow the chance to get you down. Get in pregnancy mode and get warm soda, cool soda, and cold soda for your pre deliver moms. Treat them like queens. After the time in OB you'll see that men aren't welcome (but whos cares because it's the absolute lamest form of nursing i've ever seen, you'll soon thank the old nags in OB for showing you that you don't belong in the burnout/semi-retirement floor).

Think acute,


Gooooooood luck and kick ass.

Mac

[All41]

BRAVO!!!! I like your attitude. Always keep professional and you will always win!
from-a girl nurse Hey, those ol'biddies attack anything inexperienced, male/female etc.................Ignore, get your training and move on.

[nursinghumor]

If you are a male and thinking of going into nursing, more power to you! We need more guys on the floors.

However, be aware there is a strong gender bias against men you'll need to deal with.

We have an ongoing thread about it in this forum:

GRRR - The Gender Bias Continues:"Okay, you'd think with the great press and ad campaigns that have been seen this past year, nursing associations and their executive directors would become more sensitive to gender biased statements being made to the press, but nooooooooo!"
http://www.ultimatenurse.com/ubbthre.../0/Number/3863

You can find more articles online at:
http://www.4nursing.com/gender

Hope that helps.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursinga2z.com

[Timothy]

I also am starting school in Sept. I went to college a year ago with no intentions of being a nurse, in doing so have gained a few required courses behind me. I made up my mind that nursing is what I want to do and have been accepted into the nursing program. Sometimes I worry about all the things that I’m going to have to deal with. I have a strong desire to help people, which override my worries. I don’t really understand why its such an issue to be a male nurse? To me its like saying its odd for a man to care..?? I care..

[Old_School]

Wanna know how I got into nursing? I was a freshman in college back in spring of '71. The Viet Nam war was on and my draft # was 43. I had to keep my 2-S deferment. I didn't like the engineering couses I was taking so I was walking by the nursing department and went in. I was working at a local hospital at the time as an orderly. Whenever I would go up on the floor, the nurses never looked like they were working too hard. So I says WTF. If worse came to worse and I lost the deferment, I could still go into the AF as an officer. Thank God for President Richard M. Nixon. He shut that war down in '73. So I'm still a nurse and life has been very, very good to me. Gee does that make me a draft dodger? Oh, and I really care about people.

O_S