I talked to a few of my friends in the nursing program at my college in Kentucky. They all told me how much they loved their major and cannot wait to graduate so they can start working. The funny thing is I kept on hearing this from all of them. Did it really take me five years of college to realize I had been talking to the wrong people? Ha ha.

So I made a decision. I called my parents back home in Michigan and told them that I wanted to go back to school next semester to start a pre-nursing program at the university near where I live. I could tell over the phone that my Dad was shocked, to say the least. However, he said that if that’s what I wanted to do he and my Mom would stand behind me and even let me live at home for free. Granted at 23 I am not too keen on moving back in with Mom and Dad after having been moved out for five years. However, I feel as though if I do not do this now I will never have the chance to do it.

I am really excited to get started though. I contacted the college back home and they said that with my degree the only things that will transfer will be my general studies courses. So I will basically have to start from scratch besides a few classes.

Next semester I will be a 23 year old college freshman all over again as a MALE in the pre-nursing program, and hopefully in the nursing program by December. Wish me luck! I am just excited about the prospect of my work making a difference everyday in someone’s life, instead of pushing paper. Any advice that anyone has would be great. Thanks for reading!

Slager

Now there are a bevy of responses you could come up with.  There’s the traditional response: “I want to help people!”

Then there is the spiritual response: “I felt called to it!”

I was asked this question at least a billion times during my time in college. So I came up with my own response: “I wanted to meet women!”

Guys who go into nursing get asked that question a lot! I’ll be honest.  Before nursing school, I was actually a computer science major. I quickly realized that working on computers was not for me.  I enjoyed using them as an aid, but I didn’t want to create them or build them.

So, there I was, a 19-year-old, single male with women on my mind!  And that was one thing the nursing program offered: a female-to-male ratio of 50 to 1 in some cases.  Surely, a guy like me could find a woman he cared about in that major?

As unbelievable as that sounds, that was one of the origins for why I chose nursing. But it’s not why I stuck with it.

When I went into nursing, I didn’t consider the negative stereotypes associated with male nurses. (Robert De Niro’s character in Meet the Parents did a great job insulting male nurses everywhere–and creating more of a stigma.)  Working against those stereotypes has been tiresome. But I’m glad I’ve stuck with it, because I love the profession.

I honestly want to help people. To change lives. To make a difference. To do all those things that are “cliche”–but so true.

So why did you go into nursing-and what’s keeping you in the profession?

Unfortunately, male nurses entering the field have to deal with the press’ portrayal of them – that all male nurses want is a “free show.” But, really, ask any nurse, and the male/female issue is mostly fabricated by the media – and not rooted in reality.

As male nurses, we can change this misconception by showing a true love for what we do.

I want to see a better push towards equality in health care. We should not be treated as “nurse maids” to doctors. Many nurses see their work as changing a life or giving a hand to those who need help.

For the ten minutes the doctor spends, it takes me 25 minutes to care for the same patient – and that’s only if I am not asked to stop and take orders from a doctor on the phone. And even then, the doctors sometimes hang up on you. I say to myself, “Go ahead, hang up so you can finish your dinner, or your golf game, while I am caring for this patient right now.”

Male nurses, like female nurses, also have to face the instability of the nursing profession. If we do not stop all other parts of health care from dictating our course, we will again never see a true profession with a true voice.

You see, I was an impressionable young man and Dr. Steele had it all: he was 29, handsome, worked out at the gym and had the muscles to prove it. He also had every woman in the hospital in love with him.

I often pictured myself in his shoes. I thought, If this is what being a doctor is like, then I want to be one. In those early days, I was reluctant to tell strangers that I was a nurse, especially since the common assumption is that male nurses are usually gay.

Like all young nurses I was good at one thing–spending money on nights out on the town. Often Dr. Steele would join us. It was always entertaining to watch Dr. Steele in action. One night stands out vividly—and it’s when I first thought, I should have been a doctor, not a nurse.

That particular night a women’s netball team was visiting the city, and we met up with them at the local pub. I watched several attractive ladies glance at Dr. Steele, hoping to catch his eye. One of them succeeded, and Dr. Steele went into action.

Dr. Steele was drinking a cocktail and stirred his drink with his straw. The woman with whom he’d made eye contact copied his motion. Dr. Steele then gently began to poke his straw in and out of his drink, a motion which the woman copied.

She made her way over to us. After Dr. Steele explained that he was a doctor, within minutes they left the bar.

An hour later, a grinning Dr. Steele returned to the bar. The night was young, and there was the rest of the netball team still to conquer.

Years later, I can tell you I definitely do not want to be a doctor–and I am happy as a nurse. You don’t stay in this line of work for 13 years if you’re not in it for the right reason. And now, as an older nurse, it is entertaining to watch the new, young, bright-eyed students succumb to Doctoritis.

You’re not the only one who thinks so. Jerry R. Lucas, RN and owner and publisher of Male Nursing Magazine, believes that it is the responsibility of nurses to make their future better than their past. Lucas is passionately devoted to enticing men and women to the nursing profession. And that’s the key word: “profession.” In this interview, Lucas discusses the mistreatment of nurses, arguing that they are skilled professionals, not nurse maids.

RealityRN: Do doctors treat male nurses differently than female nurses?
Jerry R. Lucas: Doctors are less likely to disrespect male nurses. I’ve heard doctors on the phone with the female nurses and a few are downright rude. It seems they feel like they can get away with that with the females, but they won’t do that with us, the male nurses, because we won’t take it. We’ll tell them to call back when they settle down, and then we hang up.

Why does this dynamic exist?
The nursing industry is seen as a predominately female environment. Male nurses are still running at about a 6 to 7 percent total. That is, of the 2,564,000 registered nurses in the United States, about 780,000 are men. The medical industry still views nurses as nothing more than nurse maids, bent on obeying the doctor’s will.

Do some nurses consider themselves nurse maids?
Yes, and I have an example. I received a letter from a female RN telling me about a hospital she used to work in. The nurse manager put a sign up dictating that whenever the doctor is present, the nurses are to get up and offer them a seat, get them whatever they need, including the file from the file cabinet right beside the doctor’s arm, and make sure they have a cup of coffee. It wasn’t long after the RN tore down the sign that she was gone from that area.

Do you think this view of nursing can be changed, realistically?
Absolutely. The nurse-maid view of nursing is part of what’s turning people away from the profession, especially men. Who wants to go through all the training to be considered a maid?

We are professionals educated to care for patients. And it’s not easy. After a doctor writes his or her five minutes worth of orders, after he or she spends that whole ten minutes at the bedside, nurses are busy for the next hour making sure that the care is accomplished.

Any solutions to the problem?
As there is more of a balance between males and females within nursing, the stigmatism of the nurse maid may increasingly disappear. Women and men alike will be able to gain more respect, and the effect could be a balanced and raised pay scale.

I also believe that nurses need to stop their mistreatment by standing up to the few doctors who bully them. This goes for both male and female nurses, but I’ve definitely seen that doctors are more polite to the male nurses because they won’t just sit there if they are being treated poorly. Women shouldn’t either. They are trained the same way I am. They do the same things that I do. They should be respected the same way, too.

Your gut tells you that the moment you walk through those doors in uniform, people will judge you. Why? Because you’re a man.

In training, you may have been exposed to the modern stereotypes of the male nurse. According to Jerry R. Lucas, RN, and owner and publisher of Male Nurse Magazine (http://www.malenursemagazine.com/), “Either you are a homosexual or a med-school dropout. That’s the only reason you’d go into nursing, right? This is the male nurse stigmatism that’s been around for years and is still present in the nursing environment. You can’t just be a male with a desire to treat people in a stable occupational industry.”

Following are the unique situations male nurses face—and practical advice for handling the stereotypes.

Reverse Sexism
When women were denied the opportunity to go to med school, nursing was an avenue for gaining power in a white male world that ran everything. Times have changed, but there are still seasoned nurses in the industry who feel male nurses are trying to enter the female nursing safe-place and take over. Some feel afraid to give up their place of power, and they view male nurses as a threat. This may seem unrealistic, but instances today would prove otherwise.

“Recently I received an e-mail from a gentleman attending a college for nursing,” says Lucas, “telling me that because he was paying for school, he wanted the same education as everyone else. However, one of his instructors set up a clinical site at a battered woman’s shelter. The policy of the shelter was that no males could enter. Even though this young man was supposed to go to the site and was paying for the project, they weren’t going to let him in.

“He approached the clinical instructor about the bias, and she said, ‘It’s because of people like you that my breast cancer came back.’ Nursing is a tough world for men. There are female nurses that just don’t want them there.”

The Homophobic Patient
Male nurses also have to deal with homophobic male patients. If a man is about to have surgery and his male nurse enters to prepare by shaving certain areas of his body, many homophobic patients throw a fit. Male nurses have to be prepared for this response.

The best solution is to reassure the patient that you are a professional providing health care. If he can’t acknowledge that and refuses your treatment, there isn’t much you can do.

Let the patient know that he/she will have to wait until a female nurse is available.

Female Patient Care vs. Dateline NBC
Also working against male nurses is the media’s portrayal of men as sexual predators. From Dateline NBC to deodorant commercials claiming men think about women every 30 seconds, the media targets men. That tends to distort even further popular perceptions of male nurses.

When parents bring their 16–year-old daughter to the hospital and find that a male nurse will administer a procedure, such as a catheterization, media-driven images flood their mind. Some panic.

Jerry Lucas offers this advice: “I sit down and explain how long I’ve been at this job. I try to relate to the parents. I may say, ‘I have four daughters of my own. I wish I could find you a female nurse, but everyone’s backed up. In order to make sure we’re doing the appropriate thing–getting your daughter cared for as quickly as possible–I need to do this procedure.’ I also welcome them to stay in the room.”

Though popular perceptions seem biased, as a male nurse, you will need to go through that extra step of explaining why you, a male nurse, are assisting the patient instead of a female nurse. You will need to ensure female patients that you are a professional. It takes more time, but it generally will ease their minds.

In the future, the ratio of male-to-female nursing professionals may improve, but for now, as male nurse, you are in the minority. And you are different than what is expected.

Rise to the occasion. Maintain your professionalism with patience and maturity.