Male vs. Female Nurses

[Dislifer]

I was in the hospital last summer for almost a week. I can only tell from the experience I had so, I had several nurses...two were male. The male nurses were extremely kind. Silly to generalize so I won't but in my experience, the 2 male nurses were my favorites!
So much so that I'm starting to talk to my son about becoming a male nurse. The only thing is that from what I saw, the nurses work SOOOOO HARD!!! Non stop and for very long periods...I don't know...maybe there is a shortage of nurses in the hospital I was in???

 

[Rozzie]

So much so that I'm starting to talk to my son about becoming a male nurse. The only thing is that from what I saw, the nurses work SOOOOO HARD!!! Non stop and for very long periods...I don't know...maybe there is a shortage of nurses in the hospital I was in???

There are shortages everywhere. I rarely take 15 minutes for lunch, and don't remember the last potty break I had. I think people are thinking about going into nursing needs to take a good long hard look at what Nursing requires. Nurses get burned out by the workload, and they leave the field. The shortage grows.

One of the best nurses I work with is a male. I know of patients that schedule their surgery on the days he works. I think it is great that men are breaking the barrier in nursing. Lord knows we need more nurses, male or female.

 

[Caropooh]

I had a male nurse when I had a hysterectomy a year ago last April. He was great! I was a little surprised at first, but he turned out to be the best nurse I had.

 

[poohandwendy]

That was probably more out of deference to your feelings rather than his.

Most of the male nurses I have met have been very "tuned in" to female patients feelings about their presence in the room during certain procedures.

I guess I just don't understand why it seems to be accepted that a female nurse can do whatever is necessary, whether the patient is male or female, yet a male nurse must be "on guard" to make sure that female patients want them there.

I think it's a shame, to be honest. Because the bottom line should be quality of care and I think that is affected when people are more worried about discretion and male/female issues that in a professional situation should be irrelevant.

 

[Disney Doll]

I think it's a shame, to be honest. Because the bottom line should be quality of care and I think that is affected when people are more worried about discretion and male/female issues that in a professional situation should be irrelevant.

I agree with you. I am just relaying what is the reality, at least in my hospital. We have had several male nurses over the years, and they have been asked not to care for certain female patients because they are men, and the female patients felt uncomfortable with that.

I guess I feel badly for male patients, because they usually don't get a choice for who their nurse is. Since nursing is a primarily female profession, most men will have their urinary catheter inserted by a female, whether they like it or not!

 

[Disney Doll]

I was in the hospital last summer for almost a week. I can only tell from the experience I had so, I had several nurses...two were male. The male nurses were extremely kind. Silly to generalize so I won't but in my experience, the 2 male nurses were my favorites!
So much so that I'm starting to talk to my son about becoming a male nurse. The only thing is that from what I saw, the nurses work SOOOOO HARD!!! Non stop and for very long periods...I don't know...maybe there is a shortage of nurses in the hospital I was in???

There is a shortage of nurses all over the country. The last thing I read was that the average age of a nurse in the USA is 48 years old. There are also not enough nursing instructors/professors to teach all the people who want to become nurses.

Maybe I am more attuned to all of this because I am a nurse. But the nursing shortage will, very soon, have far-reaching affects on an awful lot of people. There are an awful lot of people who are going to be heading into their older years in the next 20 or so years (think Baby Boomers), at about the same time as the average age 48 year old nurse will be. So all of use nurses who are now in our mid/late 40's (I am 44) will be retiring at about the same time as a HUGE portion of the population will be heading into the years when they will be needing more health care.

This should scare you, people. What it will mean is that when you or a loved one is in the hospital in the next 20 years, chances are there will not be enough nurses to provide the care. Heck...there's barely enough now, and all of us 40-somethings haven't left yet!!!!!

The loss of a nurse means several things to a hospitalized patient:
~You have no advocate, unless you have a family member who is pretty well-versed in how to maneuver through the medical world
~You will be more prone to developing complications. Many studies have shown that the higher the nurse/patient ratio, the higher the likelihood for for negative outcomes such as infections, falls and death.
~More of your care will be provided by less-trained individuals, such as techs, aides and so forth. Not ot say that those positions don't have their value, because they absolutely do, but they should work under the supervision of a professional nurse. I don't care how good a support person is...there are things they don't teach you in a certification program that you do learn in nursing school. More care by less trained professionals leads back to more complications.

Be afraid...be very afraid. I am a nurse, and I am very afraid for the future of my profession. I'm also afraid to get older and sick, because I wonder who will be around to take care of me?