Latest male nurse myth

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. I said I wouldn’t use that darn term ‘male nurse’, but honestly I can’t think of a better way to describe and refer to this most recent phenomena. I think we’ve driven the male nurse urban legend into the ground with all the common myths out there, but this one blindsided me.

 

For those of you who do not know, I am a full-time student in an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program. It’s still currently a Master’s prepared program. You graduate with your MSN and then can sit for your national certification exam in your chosen specialty (ACNP, FNP, etc.)

 

What most don’t know is that Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Nurse Mid-Wives, and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist all sort of start out with the same basic masters level education. Now, I’m just talking the basic courses here that are common to all the aforementioned advanced degrees. Your Advanced Pharmacology, Advanced Physiology, Research classes, Statistic classes, Health Education/Promotion classes, etc. Obviously each program will have a VERY different curriculum, but in the beginning and at it’s most basic level we all take the same Master’s entry-level courses.

 

I have shared classes and classroom with all the above mentioned students. Each curriculum is of course diverse in its own nature, and everybody is of course on a different timeline. It’s not uncommon to have 1st semester students with 5th or 6th semester students in the same class. It all depends on where you started, what program your in, etc., etc.

 

The whole point of my rambling is this. Apparently I’m not following the majority rule (yet again). I have lost count how many times I get asked how I like the Anesthesia program. Or have fellow classmates ask me about Anesthesia clinicals, or how did my Anesthesia clinicals go. Or they ask me for advice on Anesthesia classes and professors.

 

Some classmates will just blatantly ask me “You’re in Anesthesia right?”. When I reply no and explain I’m in the ACNP program, they look at me like I have 4 eyes or I have horns coming out of my head. (OK.. Maybe not that extreme).

 

But they have to take a step back. I have even had 2 students ask me why I’m not in Anesthesia???

 

Seriously?

 

Does the majority think that I chose Nurse Practitioner as an afterthought, or maybe as a back up plan or something? Or maybe they think I’m an Anesthesia flunky and this was my next best option?

 

I think this new myth rolls over from the other myth that all male nurses choose emergency/critical care nursing. Once again, probably the majority of male nurses CHOOSE to be in critical care or emergency nursing. I sure don’t ask the ones not in these specialty areas why they aren’t there.

 

*sigh*

 

I could be blowing this whole thing out of proportion ( I do that often). Maybe it’s just me and my personality? Who knows.

 

What I do know is that I made a conscious and deliberate choice to pursue a career as an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. A choice I am very proud of and a role I am eager to step into.

 Male nurses and the doctor’s favorite myth

 

I can’t say I like using the term ‘male nurse’, but it has staying power and clout when it comes to the circles of social media. I for one never use the darn term outside the internet. I find it misleading, confusing, and it sure doesn’t help alleviate the stereotypes out there by calling ourselves male nurses. But, the internet is what it is, so I’ll keep coining the term.

 

Male nurse myth #52: “The doctors treat a male nurse better/differently/preferentially than a female nurse” (by the way.. I have no idea how many myths are out there.. I just randomly picked a number).

 

This myth has been cropping up more and more lately. Not sure if it’s popularity is increasing, or I’m just paying attention more? The claim that a physician treats me better than my female co-workers is just hog-wash. Some claim it’s because I’m a ‘guy’. Some sort of male-bonding thing I guess? Other’s foolishly think doctor’s respect the ‘men’ more than the ‘women’. In the end, no matter what your theory is to explain this myth, it’s still just a myth. It AINT true.

 

As a male nurse (did I mention I hate that moniker), I get treated no differently based on my gender. My working relationship with any physician, just like all my other co-workers (regardless of gender), IS however directly correlated to my job performance.

 

The relationship between nurse and doctor is graded on a curve unfortunately. Let’s be honest here. A nurse who has keen critical thinking skills, an attention to detail work regimen and knows the golden rules of finely-balanced communication will have a great, strong, trusting and possibly stress-free relationship with any physician – once again regardless of the doctor or nurses’ gender.

 

A nurse who cannot efficiently prioritize their care, carelessly approaches their responsibilities, and either over or under communicates will struggle. They will have stress-saturated encounters with physicians and continue to improperly place passive blame.

 

The irony of it all, is that most physicians that trust your skills and your judgment end up treating you differently simply because they are comfortable enough to be ‘social’ with you.

 

Sure, men bond over ‘sports’ and other ‘manly’ things. Just like women bond over ‘fashion’ and other ‘girly’ things. I think one of the sources for this myth might have something to do with sheer numbers? I mean the majority of physicians are men (although not for long) and the number of men on a nursing unit is far smaller than women. So to single out a man and his working relationship with the physician’s just might be a statistical fact or anomaly (once again I’m just spit-balling here).

 

I’ve seen it balanced across the gender table. Physicians could care less what your gender is, what they care about is what kind of nurse you are, what kind of care you provide, and can they trust you.

 

Ask a fellow nurse, we all know the difference between a good and bad nurse. Need I remind you of the subconscious comments we all make to ourselves when we find out we are working with ‘that’ nurse or getting report from ‘that’ nurse.

 

During my career I’ve learned the hard way that you don’t want to be on the wrong side of that line. There have been many times where I have had to ‘check’ myself, and take a good hard look at what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. I think it had a lot to do with just growing into my role (once again.. just my opinion).

 

Preferential/better/different treatment (of any kind), in my humble opinion, is a sign of respect from one professional to another. It’s never been about your gender.

malenurse, I have to agree with you.. I have to say that I do think that's exciting that more men are joining this profession.. I think we all have a special place in nursing.. Teresa

malenurse, wow, that's awesome... I usually end up with about maybe 8-10 male students....I'm glad to see the count rising.. Teresa