So, I’m in my second semester of nursing school and have been assigned to a gynecological unit for about a 8 week clinical rotation (2 days a week).
I’ll admit that this is not my preference. I got into nursing school to get into emergency care but I know that is irrelevant and this is something I have to do.
Don’t get me wrong, I still want to do a good job. I guess I’m just nervous that it’s going to seem rather odd and uncomfortable for the patient to have a male nurse in this situation.
I welcome any advice. And i’ll say that I have a newfound respect for women after learning about all of the shit they have to go through.
As an emergency nurse, you’re going to have to deal with gynecological issues from time to time. I would assume, at some point, you’re not going to be able to pass it off to one of the female nurses.
Also, while it may make the patients a tad more uncomfortable then having another female nurse in the room (now, not the ER patients down the road), if you act professional and ‘like you belong there’ rather then like a student/fish out of water, they probably won’t think that much of it other then ‘huh, male nurse, well, let’s get this over with’. But I suppose the females here would have more input on the subject then I would.
I’ve had male and female nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel. If you act like a professional, you should be fine. The unit might require you to have a female chaperone in the room if you have to examine or treat a patient’s genitals. If this is a requirement, it’s not really a reflection on you, but it’s a legal precaution in case someone decides to try to sue.
Male nurses aren’t really common, but there’s nothing wrong with them. Most women who are old enough to have had a couple of GYN exams have usually had at least one male gynecologist examining them. And there are gynecology emergencies, you know, so you will need this rotation.
Assuming you mean OB or Maternal Fetal or Labor and Delivery (I don’t know any hospitals with a GYN specific floor, but maybe hospitals are different by you), they’re probably not going to let you do a lot, to be honest. It has nothing to do with you being a male, it has to do with you being a student. My OB rotation, which was 8 weeks, I got to do 2 postnatal mom exams (all external stuff, not even a breast exam) and 2 baby assessments. One day in triage, but they didn’t let us do internals. I did a couple of days in the nursery only because I got in good with the floor nurses and had almost four months of experience in a higher level NICU as a mom already, and they trusted me and saw how much I loved it there - my classmates each got half a shift in the nursery.
It’s a liability thing. OB is incredibly lawsuit prone, and they don’t want students putting their lawyers on alert.
That being said, and/or if I’m off base and you really do mean Gynecology and not Obstetrics…what they said. Stay professional, and you’ll be fine. There were a couple of guys in my clinical group, and while they felt a bit self-conscious, the patients were fine with them, and they relaxed pretty quickly. None of the patients requested that they be reassigned.
My favorite teacher from nursing school, by the way, is a male Certified Nurse Midwife who also works ER. It’s unusual, but it happens.
I didn’t think that this type of experience would be good in emergency too. But, that is true.
Whynot, that is the impression I was under. That I wouldn’t be allowed to do a lot. However, the critical skills that I need to perform deal primarily with IV and there’s nothing relating directly to any gynecological examinations or procedures.
I’m female, although not a nurse. I do have a lot of nurses in the family though, mostly female, but a couple of male nurses who are my cousins. One of the guys told me once that male patients had more problems with him handling their private parts, although male doctors didn’t seem to bother them.
My guess is that you’ll get over being uncomfortable. My mother told me a story of how when she was in training(this was the early 50’s) and one male patient on the student’s ward had bandaging on his scrotum that had to be changed periodically. The only married student among them was my mother, and they wanted her to do it, saying “You’re married, you know about this stuff!” So I guess it works both ways for students.
Thanks for clarifying. Interesting. Is this a hospital setting? I’m just curious as to why they have a gyne-but-not-OB unit - my local hospitals just put non-ob women on medsurg or telemetry or oncology or whatever.
But that’s not really important. What’s really important is that you remember that your patients are people, not vaginas. Remember that your patients generally look to you to set the tone. If you’re confident and fake it 'till you make it, they won’t generally question the appropriateness of your being there. If you’re not going to be doing gyne exams or procedures, then just think of it as medsurg for women.
Yes, this is in a hospital. To my knowledge, they have infants and women but it is not obstetrics. I’m sure I’ll find out more when I start, which is wednesday.
Yeah, I guess “med-surg for women” is a good way of looking at it. I will do my best for sure.
Just wanted to chime in that a lot of women, myself included, really don’t see it as awkward or even notable. We’ve had threads here, a lot of women have no preference or actually prefer male gynecologists. Chances are that most of the ladies you encounter won’t even give you a second thought. After you’ve had a pelvic exam or two in your life, it usually becomes a medical exam like any other and you aren’t sitting around thinking “OMG men! Vaginas!”
I have had kind of a lot of hospital time, including a week for an operation on my labia. I had female nurses and male nurses. My comfort level had very little to do with the sex of the nurses, but more to do with how they treated me and how they conducted themselves. Relax, you’ll do fine. Just being aware of the fact that you may make some women uncomfortable, will help you treat them in a proper and professional manner.
I’m another who finds no discomfort with male nurses in any situation. If a nurse is professional, competent, and kind, that’s all I care about.
Good luck to you.
ETA: Whoever said that the gyno stuff is not irrelevant to ER work is quite correct. Unfortunately, women can sustain genital injuries and have gynelogical emergencies. They’re body parts, just like any other body parts, and stuff happens.
Yep, I will echo this sentiment. Male doctors and nurses don’t bother me much, esp in an gyno situation, plus they are usually gentler, if you know what I mean.
If it makes you feel any better, I prefer male gynos. I’m not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the idea that, since they don’t have the equipment, they can’t judge me if I’m doing something wrong.
A young doctor interning at a hospital was given an assignment to conduct an examination of a patient by himself for the first time. He entered the examination room and found a lovely young woman sitting on the table totally naked. He was determined to keep his cool, kept his eyes locked on her, and introduced himself. Then he held up the probe of his stethescope and explained that he wanted to start the examination by listening to her chest. He took the probe and placed it carefully over her heart, but he couldn’t hear a thing. He moved it side to side, but there was still no sound. He asked the young woman to breath in and out, and then to cough, but there was no sound coming from her chest. He was getting noticeably nervous when the young woman offered, “Maybe that will work better if you stick those little things in your ears”.
My very conservative mother prefers a male gyno, but I suspect that has more to do with the male gyno being a full time gynecologist (and therefore VERY familiar with all the little details that make examinations more comfortable for her) as opposed to the ‘I maybe do this twice a month’ female doctors. Despite being on the receiving end of it themselves they tend to forget that speculums were very nearly banned by the Geneva conventions…
I’m glad you’re learning about the problems that are specific to women. It’s a world of its own. Fake being cool and almost bored, and the patients will be cool with you too.
I hope that is a fictitional joke.
If any male walked in on a totally naked female in a clinical setting the only professional thing to do would be to exit the room immediately and only return with a chaperone, after she was given a gown to wear. There is NO situation that a concious patient would require to be naked in.
To the OP:
during my 3 year nurse training I had to do an obstetrics module each year of about 6 weeks each time, and I was required to do post partum exams of all the ladies that I was responsible for, which I did unacompanied behind a curtain.
I did find it extremely embarrasing, but none of the ladies seemed to mind.
The first and second years I was very concientious and did all the checks properly.
The third year I just asked them if they were OK, and only if they complained would I check visually.
As the only male on the ward, I knew that they would be checked properly at least once a day by a female, so I wasn’t concerned that a major problem would ensue just because I didn’t look.
That was back in the 1980s, when people weren’t so litigious, but if I were doing it now, there is no way I would examine a female’s genitalia without a chaperone.
Male doctors have chaperones now, so male nurses should too, to protect themselves.
I strongly prefer female medical personnel when dealing with GYN, but that’s me. I’ve actually found the pelvic exam less physically uncomfortable with a woman, due to smaller hands and the fact she’s been on the receiving end of that exam herself, so knows what it’s like. If the only medical people available are male and I need care, as long as they behave professionally and try to be reasonably gentle about exams and such, I can deal.
