I know some people who think that it doesn't matter what sex you are, because we are all nurses doing the same job. What do you think? I'm curious, as in my last post, if male and female nurses do the same things; someone wrote that we are nurses first, before gender.
Bryn
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November 24th, 2007 at 12:13 am
If only that was true. The media makes fun out of males in the profession and TV show only show us as aids so for us that work we could care less for the public well they only know what the magic box says. Angle of death, men are after every women and to top it off I had a female nurse tell me and others a lunch hat the reason men to not come into nursing is because they are stupid and lazy.
So is there something there well yes because of poor press and older nurses that think men just want to take over
November 24th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I’m glad I can’t agree with your media experiences Jerry as the TV male nurses I have seen tend to portray the better male nurse role model quite accurately.
In the UK, Charlie Fairweather was a male CN of the A&E and made male nursing something of a sexy thing – kinda like that Clooney fella did for medics in whatever that USA show was called.
In Australia, All Saints has a pretty competent male nurse, Dan Goldman, who gets some pretty good story lines and seems to know how to handle a set of paddles.
Both shows were/are long running and much adored TV series.
If your experiences are based in watching USA shows then that’s probably because there’s a much bigger homophobic issue in the states than anywhere else I’ve been.
As for your female lunch time ‘colleague’ comments about being stupid and lazy; I can only surmise she must be married. Hopefully she was just having an off day.
But it has to be said, in response to Bryn, that I agree we are nurses first; gender second. That’s what equal rights and anti-discrimination was all about. Emily Pankhurst suffered at those railings so that I too might stand proud and call myself a nurse – and being male doesn’t matter – it’s my skills that make me a nurse, not my gender.
To say we are gender first and job second implies the gender is more prominent in our roles. It isn’t.
Put it the other way –
Is she a female mechanic or a mechanic that happens to be female?
It is notable observation for a patient to see a male nurse (unless you work psych) and gender should be considered in terms of patient care when interventions are required but it should never prevent any nurse from doing what is necessary, if that is the only choice. I don’t think, from all the different threads we’ve had on this issue, that anyone has suggested it should ever impede the patient’s care but I do, however, share your same concerns that some nurses think we have a right to impose on others without consideration of the patients desires. That attitude, I’m afraid, is not restricted to just gender issues.
As an interesting twist, we have a search policy for our (psych) unit when patients enter the unit that requires them to be ‘pat down’ searched. Policy states it is preferable to have a male conduct the pat down search and only in the absence of a male should a female perform this duty.
Now I know this seems to be gender sensitive to the male patients we have, and it primarily is, but it is also a consideration of the position we place our female colleagues in when no male staff are present. Is it right to force the female staff to perform pat down searches on guys who are probably going to get off on it or embarrass the female nurse over it? We think not – we protect the integrity of our female staff by ensuring males are available to do this duty. Just as it might be nice to have a female do a female catheterisation or vice-versa for males.
We also have the same practice for giving of IMI depot medication – males are preferred tho many female staff have no objection to doing them adn frequently do to remain skilled (as we are all male unit – they are the only butts they get to practise on).
When it comes to gender discrimination, the only thing a male could never be is a mother. Just as a female could not be a father (and, technically, a rapist either but that’s a whole different thread).