Confessions of a male nurse why i want to be a nurse
People see male nurses, and often confuse them for janitors or doctors. In school male nurses are usually outnumbered 10 to 1. A lot of people think that male nurses are gay, and they make cruel jokes about that behind their backs. Have you ever wondered what the male nurse thinks of all that? Here is one man’s story call it: Confessions Of A Male Nurse.
I can still remember the look on my guidance counselor’s face when I told him that I wanted to be a nurse. “Wouldn’t you rather become a doctor? Men usually become doctors, not nurses.” I just shook my head as I left his office, it wasn’t his fault really. He just probably wasn’t used to the idea that men could become nurses. And he certainly isn’t alone in that.
I was working out at Gold’s, when in walked my friend Lenny. I hadn’t seen Len in over ten years, so I took a break and we sat down to catch up on things. “So what are you doing with yourself lately?” he asked me. “I heard you lost your job at the calculator factory.” “Well it’s been difficult yes, but I have a new career now. I was just certified as a registered nurse, I work in the general surgery department.” There was a silent pause there for a minute. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he took all that in. “A nurse? Really? You never struck me as the type who would go for that.”
At work it is a bit easier. Most of the time we are so busy, no one really stops to notice that I am a nurse. Most of our patients just want to be helped and go home. Not all of them however, just last week we had a patient in who was suffering from chest pains, and angina. I was asked to do the preliminary exam. Everything was fine for a minute, then the lady asked me, “Are you the doctor?” I replied. “No ma’am I’m the nurse, the doctor will be in to see you shortly.”
For a second I seriously thought she had had a heart attack. She turned three shades of red and then screamed at the top of her lungs. “Get this man away from me! I want a real nurse not some crazy man! Don’t let that weirdo touch me!” Other nurses came in to relieve me, there wasn’t much I could say except, “Sorry to have disturbed you, have a nice day.”
I like my job as a nurse, I like the challenge of trying to make it through this day and then the next. The work is never boring, and I am thinking of becoming a specialist. There is a lot of room in nursing for both men and women, and considering how understaffed most medical facilities are, you would think that more of them would realize that. Unlike most of my other male friends, I have never been out of work. In fact I am getting overtime right now. Male or female a nurse is a nurse.
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1). Discrimination against male nurses
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