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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Put male nurses in panties!






















I reported this morning for my first day as a school nurse. Unfortunately, something terrible happened, which made me depressed the entire day and forced me to rethink my future. All the while I thought everything was alright until the administrator talked to me saying that he is denying my application BECAUSE I’M A MALE NURSE. He realized that hiring a male school nurse would create problems about parents allowing their children- especially girls, receiving care from a male nurse. The school just wants to avoid unwanted feedback from the parents. Nursing gender bias is so ingrained. This is very archaic and discriminatory. I feel so prejudiced. It's like that old riddle about the man who brought his son to the surgeon, and the surgeon says "I can't operate on this boy, he's my son!" and nobody gets it (the surgeon is his mom).

While I really love the profession, I haven’t enjoyed being treated like a woman.

I remember during my clinical rotation as a student, I am used to encountering discrimination. I have given up on taking affront to or trying smart remarks when asked if I am a nurse. I just smile and confidently inform the patient/family that I am indeed the student nurse for the day (have to admit I still conceptualize those remarks). People just assume I am a Doctor when I go into a room and ask me to go and get the nurse for them.

It’s really hard being in a female-stereotyped profession. In my opinion, a male nurse takes more time to develop trust with some patients and families.

Given the possibilities in the near future, I would still proudly say that I'm a Male RN. It hurts like scalpel that a minority of the public is still ignorant in perceiving all nurses as females wearing a white hat & white uniform. The public must overcome this concept that the nursing profession is just a woman's job.

Remember Ben Stiller in the movie "Meet the Parents?" His chosen profession was the butt of all jokes in the storyline.

"After all of the chaos [Stiller's character causes], the one thing the father can't forgive is that he's a male nurse," he complains. "I don't see that as funny."

TRIVIA:

Do you know that nursing originally was male-dominated profession before it was feminized by Florrence Nightingle. She is worshipped by the modern nursing community for her contributions. Unfortunately, this incident indirectly drove men out of nursing.

I strongly believe that Men in nursing are healthcare’s best-kept secrets. Hire me.

4 comments:

sadako said...

yeah it's true. It was dominated by males before, religious brothers and priests to be specific. In the middle ages when the bibonic plague broke out, my former order, the Franciscan Capuchins, were the ones who stayed behind to cure the plague stricken people. many in our order died. but their deeds were not forgotten, even in nursing books.

sadako said...

erratum - it's bubonic not bibonic. my typographical mistake.

Anonymous said...

well, alex... sorry, but the term itself, nursing that is, is a female oriented term... so why the sudden statement and this disgust about the profession you are into? isn't it just the same in the engineering profession? or even at court. how about adultery? why is it that when a woman has another man, our society simply disapprove of it? see? it is the society, not the profession.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry about this, Alex. I'm sure that with the proliferation of male student nurses in the country; discrimination would soon be a thing of the past.
There is also something called the "glass elevator" wherein it is observed that males quickly shoot up to the top positions of formerly female-dominated jobs such as nursing. You'll get there soon.


Btw, people confuse you as a doctor? Hmmm. Sometimes people confuse me as a nurse. I'm a medical student, btw... It just shows that the female nursing bias is starting to go away...