Male Nurse?

My friend and I are both very interested in health related degrees. However he wants to become a nurse. As a female dominated profession, what are your opinions on a MALE nurse; bodybuilder at that.

Bruce Kneller.

[quote]chrisrodx wrote:

My friend and I are both very interested in health related degrees. However he wants to become a nurse. As a female dominated profession, what are your opinions on a MALE nurse; bodybuilder at that.
[/quote]

Funny I run into this thread. One of my best friends is a male nurse and wow, the stories he tells me. Ironically, his brother’s a cop and his stories don’t even come CLOSE to his brothers who works in the hospital as a male nurse. The things this kid sees in that ER! Drug overdoses, violence, etc. It’s crazy!

He does get given a hard time (especially by his brother, the cop!), and I’m sure it somewhat bothers him, but he doesn’t let it show. He really takes pride in what he does. I think he’s incredible, and that’s coming from a female perspective.

He also meets and gets in good with a lot of ladies (bonus)!

Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

[quote]chrisrodx wrote:

My friend and I are both very interested in health related degrees. However he wants to become a nurse. As a female dominated profession, what are your opinions on a MALE nurse; bodybuilder at that.
[/quote]

Prisoner22 is an ER Nurse. I have the utmost respect for a nurse regardless of their sex. It is a noble profession.

One of my roommates used to be a male nurse. He worked in a city ER so had to put up with a lot of weirdoes and trauma. If you and your buddy got thick skins and don’t mind being on your feet pretty much all day, go for it.

“Nurse” is just a name we associate (unfortunately) with the female gender. You’d be a medical professional just like the others and there’s NO SHAME in that.

I do background screening for a living, and one of our clients is a prominent Northwestern hospital. I pretty much see all the applicants they have daily, and can definitely agree that the profession is female dominated. Just simply BECAUSE of that is even a better reason for your friend to try. Employers see TONS of female nurses, many of which have average qualifications. Many are not that old, without any experience.

Tell your friend to get his license in order (check in on the Board of Healths website for the state as well to make sure his license is up to day), get a few GOOD personal/professional references (THIS IS HUGE - I talk to personal references ALL DAY long, the references need to know what they should and should NOT say - a specific list of questions is usually asked of them.

Employers REALLY want to know what people say about the nurses they are hiring.), and make sure all the prior employers he has had he is on good standing with, and will be happy to give a GOOD recommendation - have all their phone numbers.

Nurses make some VERY good money, but they have a ton of responsibilities. A GOOD nurse is pretty valuable to an employer - I am getting rush orders all the time on trying to complete their background checks, definitely in demand.

Any profession that requires a person to serve the public with no discrimination and contribute to society is respected by me.

I must say I like male nurses in the nursing station.

Totally biased and purely anecdotal evidence from what I see from the POV of a med student.

-Disproportionate amount of male nurses reaching higher levels in the nursing hiearchy (Charge Nurse, Head Nurse, Mgmt position nurse)

-Never had a ‘‘Here its prescribed this way’’ speech from a male nurse with the implication that you are wrong and that she is right even if she’s never seen the patient nor does she know the case.

-I have yet to be woken up by Male nurse at 3am to reorder some iron tabs. Or more awesome…‘‘You know Misses So and So in 405, she’s complaining of pain at her incision site, what do you want to do?..Does she have pain meds prescribed…Ah, let me check, yes she has Empracet every 4 hours…Ok so give her her pain meds then.’’

-They don’t page me every half hour to check when I’ll bring said iron prescription.

-Also, I tend to have less problems brought up to me without a backstory such as ‘‘OMG, patient’s BP is 87/55!!!’’ with the pertinent backstory being ‘‘What was it before…Oh, I don’t know…Could you check?..Ot it was 90/60 all last week, looks like her baseline…Ok thank, you that’s fine.’’

Nurses can be awesome and can be a lifesaver but they can also bring you hell on earth either to piss you off cause you’ve been a jack ass or through sheer incompetence.

Luckily I’ve never had the first one, but I’m dealing with the second one quite frequently recently.

The best for med students is to work with competent nurses which we tend to find in places like the ER, NICU, ICU, Heme-Onc wards and more specialized (they help you get up to speed and solve most of the little problems before they become big).

So for some guy interested in becoming a Male nurse, I would strongly encourage it. It think you can have great career opportunity especially as Bacchelor’s level nurse.

A motivated/driven nurse that goes outside the little world of the nursing station and asks med students/residents/staff why such and such is prescribed this way versus that way for example is able to gain not only experience but experience with understanding which eventually makes a world of difference in clinical judgement and eventual carreer opportunity.

Anyway good luck to you in your career choice.
AlexH…The pager’s bitch

And yes, there a gay nurses…or lets just say the level of suspicion is higher for the iffy ones.

I have known several male nurses. It is no longer a “female job” even though there are more females who have that profession. Considering the average pay, you would have to be pretty out of touch to degrade anyone in it. It doesn’t really matter what everyone else thinks. Ignorant people will always be around.

They judge you based on age, race and sex in any profession that earns much over 50 grand a year. You will find most derogatory comments towards anyone in a respected position (whether that be a health career, engineering or anything else) come from people making nowhere near as much or with anywhere near the drive to do the same.

Nurse, english teacher, typist, secretary (NOT OF STATE, DEFENCE etc)…

HOMO

Currently half way through Nursing school. Ironically enough my Clicical Group is 8 of us guys and 2 girls… go figure. The class by and large is female (my girlfriends class is 38 girls and 2 guys), but I havent been given any guff about being a Murse yet. Most common response is “Wow thats cool, they’re in high demand right now”

[quote]4est wrote:
chrisrodx wrote:

My friend and I are both very interested in health related degrees. However he wants to become a nurse. As a female dominated profession, what are your opinions on a MALE nurse; bodybuilder at that.

Prisoner22 is an ER Nurse. I have the utmost respect for a nurse regardless of their sex. It is a noble profession.[/quote]

that is exactly what I was going to say…

I start my 2 year associates mursing degree in the fall. Great schedule,great money, responsibilty, respect…What’s not to like? If anyone gives you shit tell 'em in a few years you’ll double their income.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

It’s a chick’s field.

You already know what popular opinion is about male nurses. It’s viewed as a square peg in a round hole - a bit humourous, a bit senseless.

That said - it’s a CHICK’s field.

No no no - read it again. It’s a chick’s field. Read: Pussy galore. Hot pussy.
It pays VERY well - and I’ve never heard of an unemployed nurse. The country is DESPERATE for nurses.

Now, do you care what others think - or do you care about good money, impecable job security - and, oh, being gravely outnumbered by hot bunnies?

If that’s what you want to do, then go for it, forget the stereotypes. Do what makes you happy.

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
I start my 2 year associates mursing degree in the fall. Great schedule,great money, responsibilty, respect…What’s not to like? If anyone gives you shit tell 'em in a few years you’ll double their income.[/quote]

I’m in Civil Engineering, and I’m already becoming traumatized by the sausage fest going on. Chicks are outnumbered 1 to 30; an acceptably hot chick is outnumbered 1 to 5. My odds of being around a hot female coworker is 1 in 150.

I tell YOU what. Somebody makes a quip about your job, you tell them how many bunnies you spend 8 hours of your day with every day.

I am strongly considering going to nursing school after I retire from the Nav. Not for the female factor(happily married), but because it is a pretty good living and I wouldn’t have to go back to school for 8 years at the age of 40 to do it.

I plan on having a bachelor’s by then, and several schools I have looked at have BS to BSN programs, for non-medical degree holders to transfer in and not have to start over(2 year program, IIRC). Always better to start out toward the top, right? Especially when my GI Bill will cover most or all of it.

As for the negative or ‘gay’ connotation, who cares? Does it really bother you that someone might think you are homo due to your job? You’re saving lives, not designing window treatments! It’s kind of like the male college cheerleader thing, all the football players give them shit, but look at how much hot ass they pull.

[quote]boatguy wrote:
I am strongly considering going to nursing school after I retire from the Nav. Not for the female factor(happily married), but because it is a pretty good living and I wouldn’t have to go back to school for 8 years at the age of 40 to do it.

I plan on having a bachelor’s by then, and several schools I have looked at have BS to BSN programs, for non-medical degree holders to transfer in and not have to start over(2 year program, IIRC). Always better to start out toward the top, right? Especially when my GI Bill will cover most or all of it.

As for the negative or ‘gay’ connotation, who cares? Does it really bother you that someone might think you are homo due to your job? You’re saving lives, not designing window treatments! It’s kind of like the male college cheerleader thing, all the football players give them shit, but look at how much hot ass they pull.[/quote]

lol on the male cheerleaders, that is a good point.