I had 2 instructors in school that I felt a bias from. They both were instructors for a long time, and I felt they were out of touch with the reality of the profession. Every place I have worked has been good to me. I have never had a problem here in the real world.
Don't her get you down.
Hey,
You just have to suck it up. Nursing school won't last forever. Find help with the kids. Call in a relative or ship them off. I'm not trying to be cold as I'm a devoted father too, but you'll be doing it for them. Don't expect any breaks or even to be treated equally because it's just not going to happen. Their job is to weed you out and they can and will get away with it. It does get a little easier after you graduate, but not a whole lot. A technique I used on instructors that were picking on me was to study real hard and come up with questions that were either very difficult or impossible for them to answer. They might decide that picking on you just isn't worth the price. But under no circumstances give them any reason to go after you.
Best of Luck
Sending my kids away is not an option. But I have found a new friend in Caffine. Mainly white chocolate Mocha. MM MM Good.
I am a male nursing student and plan to graduate this December. I was also in the military and I have never had to put up with the amount of B.S. in the military (and I thought that was bad at the time) as I do in nursing school. I have to say, however, I don't think much or any of it is due to my gender. I have some wonderful professors and some really bad ones.
During my first semester of clinical rotations, half of our class of about 72 failed. All four male students in my class passed. I'm not so sure all the men are passing this semester and we have had some previous male failures join my class since then, but none of them ever claimed they failed due to gender bias. They simply got low grades.
I do, however, see that many of the students (male and female) who were suspended from the program, kicked out, or held back were students that questioned the professors too much or somehow brought negative attention to themselves. I see my nursing program as being very political. You play the game or you lose. I don't know if that's a result of female management or just the mixture of personalities that came together to form this strange brew, but this is not my first educational experience and I have never seen anything like this before in other programs. I was warned by previous students to "lay low" and to "not question" instructors. This has worked well for me and other students that seem to have mastered this art. I hate to play the game but I know that it is only until I graduate...or is it? Most of the nurses I have worked with during my clinical rotations, all female, have been truely wonderful. The ones who have not been were not particularly nasty only to males as evidenced by the many female students have similar complaints about those particular nurses.
I guess what I am saying is that maybe it is not so much the fact that you are male as the fact that you "question" more than they think a student should. It's difficult for me, being 32 years old, to sit back and take all the crap they dish out, especially when they talk to you like you're a child but I just try to find the humor in the situation and laugh it up on the inside.
We do have some younger instructors who have voiced their frustration about the current administration and staff and many good ones have resigned. I can only hope that things will change for the better once the older generation retires along with their biases and stereotypes. Again, there are many good instructors of all ages but at least in my school, most of the particularly vindictive ones are older.
I work in the Hosp and am also a clinical instructor in OB and Peds. It really hasn't been a bad experience but for anyone who is a student all I can say is do what's assigned. There is lots of what looks like busy work and some is so simple. Where I do clinicals they do lots of little things for little points and there are those who skip those little things thinking what is 2-6 points. Well it can be a difference in passing or not if you aren't good at the tests for the big things.
One thing they ask at this school is to do bib posting on a discussion board..each in the clinical group HAS to post bibs and each has to DISCUSS the others articles. The one male post his articles late 2 of 4 times and didn't do discussions on 9 of the others. That's not to say it's all males but this one had already failed his last semester at another school for skipping a clinical day with and excuse of being sick then they saw him at work. The one male in my preceptor group hasn't done the required turn in the hours precepting and worksheets after each day..told me he'd e-mailed them to me, told me he'd send them again on a Monday got them on Wed with oh I forgot, turned in papers 5 days late....but it's just not the males. There are 4 females repeating this semester. There are also 4 who haven't gotten in their on call OB hours (males got theirs) but since I also work L&D I know that those 4 haven't called the unit on days there is no class to check if there are labor pts where they could finish the hours. OB rotation has been over going on 6 weeks now and there is only 3 weeks left to have all work done for graduation.
So making that long story short all I can say is do the work assigned. And yes there are instructors out there that are worse then others same as nurses better or worse then others.
HAHAHAHAHAHA I made it and passed her class. To top it off she screwed up and sent me an email with blatant discrimination. So now the assistant dean is "my advocate" and "She who hates men" (as most students are calling her) is back pedaling. I do thank all of you for the words of encouragement. So two semesters to go. Oh yeah I am getting married on June 2nd and going on a cruise on 5 June.
Life is good!!!!!!!!!!
I had the same trouble through school as well, not to mention that I was at a school that had only been accepting men since 1982. I wanted to go through nursing school there b/c of their rep with nursing (best in the state). I am also a single father as well as military. In light of juggling all that, I chose 4 years of nursing. There were several times throughout that I felt I was pit against. There were the pregnant class members who got anything but a backrub from the prof., but when my daughter had surgery, and I told them I had to leave early from clinicals (a few days in advance) I got the same ill remarks "don't let this happen again, this is your last free day" So I went the next year and a half (believe it or not) without missing a day of lecture or clinicals. All I can say is congrats and hang in there b/c nursing is so rewarding and the field is wide open for advancement. I am preparing to go back for my CRNA in Dec. (that is if I am accepted). I love my job!
..................................J
hi! I am a Korean male nurse. In Korea male nurses are very rare about 1% of all nurses. I also was a military officer and now I am looking for jobs in New York. As you have seen, gender discrimination makes male nurses be hard. Cheer up! Even though we are a small group, we will be consideralbly contribute to special and general medical parts.
Good luck for you!
I realize that I am late posting into this thread but just joined the forums. I too am a male nursing student, 22 years as an LVN with a total of 33 years working surgery and ICU 2 years combat medic with one tour in Nam. I am taking my ADN and will graduate in May of 2006. I have seen over the years a great number of "Anti-Male" nurses and instructors and was sick to death hearing how men are the johnny come lately to nursing. Here is a simple historical fact for all the males in nursing or taking nursing classes. The women are the johnny come latelies to nursing. The first nurses were MEN in the Knights Templar.
As for how times are changing I see a great deal of support from female nurses now for males joining nursing. The anti-male crowd has thinned dramatically and IMHO they have dried up and withered away from their own hate and insecurity.
Adam,
As a prof I can tell you that discrimination is discrimination, period. The standard and equal treatment must be applied to all parties involved. If a prof is making exception in polices for one person, it must be granted for all parties. Most profs do there best to avoid even the appearance of special treatment. If you truly believe there is unequal treatment you need to document it and address it with the prof. If there is no resolution, then it needs to be forwarded “up the chain of command”. I do however recognized this is easier to state than accomplish. If you can tolerate this situation it might be best to do so, and the address it after the course it completed and hopefully help another male student that will follow in your foot steps.
Todd
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