No cameras, no gerbils, no dildoes.
You’d be surprised how applicable this advice is in practically any workplace.
Oh for goodness sakes. :rolleyes:
I had reason to visit a (new) gynaecologist just last week for some ‘girlie’ issues, and after deciding from previous tests and scans and taking a very thorough history that I wasn’t going to cark it any time soon, we decided I was probably due for a Pap Test anyways.
So he then asked me if I wanted a nurse to be present during the procedure.
I laughed RIGHT out loud and patiently explained to him, "Mate, I’ve had FOUR KIDS erupt out of my vagina. I’ve had Pap Tests religiously every two years since forever, I’ve had cervical ablations done, d & c’s, cysts removed from ovaries and the odd polyp squished from my uterus as well. There’s been more blokes poking around my nether regions (for medical reasons) than your average crack whore would experience in a good month. 
He laughed too, and might I add he performed the best Pap that I’ve ever had!
But yes, I can understand the caution of male docs and nurses. It’s just sad really that the push to sue is so strong, it overrides our basic commonsense and humanity. There’s lots I really love about our new modern world, but that aspect is just shite.
YMMV etc.
Also, remember no tipping.
Many years ago I was a first-year med student with idealistic notions of saving small children from cancer. The first time we visited a hospital ward and I had to look at a man whose nuts had swollen up to the size of a football from congestive heart failure because he had been smoking for 30 years, I realized medicine probably was not going to be as rewarding as I imagined, and I departed the program, never to return.
So my advice is, if you have trouble dealing with hoo-hoos, consider whether nursing is what you’re really supposed to be doing.
OTOH, if you really like ginormous balls…
To illustrate my point, I actually just went to a new gynecologist and when I made the appointment, I didn’t even bother to ask if the doctor was male or female. I’ve always assumed that there is very little that is sexually interesting about seeing vulva after vulva peeking out through the drapes fully exposed to the harsh exam lights. And on my end, I know there is nothing sexually interesting for me in an exam.
That seems a bit hasty at this point.
I could have written the OP a few years ago, except that it would have been GERIATRICS and BECAUSE OLD PEOPLE SCARE ME, instead of GYNO and MALE NURSE.
We all have patient populations or specialties which just aren’t are thing, especially as students. We can run away, sure, or we can examine why we’re scared and take a deep breath and put on our big boy/girl scrubs and get in there and give excellent patient care anyhow. And then, after we’ve tried it, our attitude may change. Or it may not, and we may chose another specialty, sure. But I would not suggest running preemptively.
I work almost exclusively with older folks now, by the way. Still not my greatest thing ever (once I’ve gotten a little more schooling, I do want to change specialties), but not nearly the terror there used to be. Because, just as the OP will learn that they’re not vaginas, they’re people, I’ve learned that they’re not weakness and sadness and shriveled up dreams shuffling their way to the grave, they’re people. People, people, people, all the way down…
I work on and antepartum floor in a very busy women’s specialty hospital. We get a lot of students and some male students. Most of my patients do not object to the maleness of the student (they are very used to males- docs of all kinds, RT’s, PT’s, lab, nutrition and housekeeping services, etc.) as much as they don’t care for students.
My advice in all difficult nursing situations in to ‘amp up your professionalism’. Thorough clinical examinations, timely and punctual interventions, explaining what you are doing as you are doing it (or even before) and friendly but reserved conversation with very little casual chit-chat will take you a long way and leave little room for misinterpretation.
Good luck to you!
You’re not the first guy to go through this rotation (my OB rotation had 2 guys). Learn whatever you can, stay professional, and keep an open mind. You may end up loving it and wanting to stick with it. That goes for all of your rotations. I was sure I would not like what I’m doing now, but here I am, almost 6 years after that rotation, and I’m certified in it.
I used to get exams done at a local teaching hospital and in the spirit of SCIENCE I would sometimes allow a student to perform a pelvic exam on me.
My advice:
We all want to get this over with as fast as possible but if you rush when you’re inexperienced, I guarantee you’re being rough. It’s better to take your time (we’ll all survive the embarassment) than jam your fingers/speculum in there, make some hasty inquires, yank it out and then flee (PS - it was usually female students who did this).
Personally I have no problem with a male nurse or doctor doing a pelvic exam – as long as they are professional, gentle, and quick (in that order) gender is irrelevant.
As someone who has rotated in many emergency departments, I definitely agree with the advice to try to learn as much as you can on this kind of rotation, because I can assure you that ERs have a TON of patients with vaginal bleeding (either from miscarriages or just heavy periods) as well as pregnant ladies coming in with any number of complaints.
Oh, and that’s not even counting all the female patients who come in with abdominal pain that end up having some gynecological going on, like an ovarian cyst or pelvic inflammatory disease from a sexually transmitted disease.
There are those women out there who think that male medical professionals get turned on by pelvic exams (probably because they’ve never heard of things like “the whiff test” and have never seen the kinds of things that vaginas can ooze when diseased), but I do think a lot of women understand it’s just part of the job and won’t mind allowing you to be part of things if you come across as polite, respectful, and confident that you know what you’re doing. 
Don’t worry about it. You are a professional and most women will see you that way and not feel weird being exposed around you. I had a male gyn most of my life. A male GP and cardiologist who have seen my chest while doing ekgs, echos, etc. A male cosmetic surgeon who saw me disrobed in great detail. I never gave it a second thought or felt uncomfortable at all. The male gyn and plastic surgeon did always have a female nurse in the room and was never alone with me disrobed. I never felt it was necessary, personally, but I understand it is probably for liability reasons or to make some patients feel more comfortable. Now I have a female gyn but I don’t have any personal preference.
Another vote for “I’m female and I don’t really care what gender you are” when doing whatever you have to do to my private parts as a medical professional. As long as you are courteous and professional it’s all good.
The only time I was just a little weirded out was when I got a doctor for my annual pap and he was not only significantly younger than me, he was really cute. But that was more weird in a “I’m probably old enough to be his mother” sense than his gender, I think.
Just to make this a bit more representative, I’m going to speak up and say that I would be completely uncomfortable with a male nurse for any gyno or OB procedures, and in any non- urgent scenario would request a different nurse. It has nothing to do with doubting your competence or think you find my lady bits irresistibly sexy. However, I know that I could not relax during a procedure with a male in the room, and clenched muscles make for a really unpleasant time for everyone involved.
Overall, a lot of good advice so far. In some ways, it’s a relief to hear that so many of you would be comfortable in this situation.
However, I think Doper’s are a bit more reasonable than the general population. I guess I’ll have to wait and find out how this goes. Appreciate your honesty, iftheresaway.****
The only nurses I’ve ever had problems with have been female. Some younger nurses that were too heavy on the perfume, and and older nurse that reminded me enough of my mother enought that it creeped me out. Also I felt like she was talking down to me & got pissed off that she took it upon herself to use my first name.
Time & place matter. In parts of Europe (like Germany or Scandanavia) it’s normal for patients of both sexes to be naked for routine physical exams (meanwhile all my physicals growing up that I can remember were fully clothed & I was weighed with shoes & coat on). A generation earlier and my dad had to go naked and get his temperature taken the old fashioned way while my grandmother was in the room well into his teens (he joked it was good practice for the draft board).
My wife is a nurse and puts foley catheters on men all the time. Recently an elderly patient as her “Does your husband know what you do at work?” 
You’re a medical professional there to help people. So don’t let it unduly bother you.
My father’s last job was as Purchasing Manager for a hospital - he was a Founding Member. The hospital’s first patient arrived several weeks before the official opening: a mid-delivery woman whose husband had been driving her to the downtown maternity clinic and who had already crowned. When the husband saw that the lights in the new hospital were on, he stopped and went to the ER. Both the head of the Emergency Service* and the head of ObGyn were males.
The child and mother finished the process in fine health and the hospital’s personnel considered it a Good Omen that their first patient had been a birth - “we sure will get our share of deaths, so much nicer to start with a life!”
Welcome to the part of the hospital where life happens. The one where you eventually want to work will, as others have already said, see life happening too.
- the head of the ER had flunked ObGyn repeatedly, it was the one subject he had problems with, being otherwise one of those guys who screw up the curve for everybody else. When he saw the head of ObGyn appear, he went down on his knees and exclaimed “thank you God!” Reporters on site claim that, mystical moments notwithstanding, the head of ObGyn had come running down the hallway rather than appearing form a cloud to a soundtrack of blaring trumpets.
That is a really cool way of looking at it that I hadn’t thought of. I think I’m starting to warm up to the idea now.
My ex-wife worked in the medical field. I regard her as a professional, though she was not an MD: she was an audiologist, with a Doctor of Audiology. Regardless, she had studied the necessary anatomy, dissected the cadavers (“head, neck, and chest work,” as she put it), and done everything else she should have. To her, talking about anatomy was as common as dirt. Sometimes to my shock.
One time, she went to the gynecologist. Afterwards, she told me, that on this visit, the doctor was training a new nurse. This nurse was a guy. I was shocked, but she shrugged it off (and I’m paraphrasing): “He’s a nurse, he needs training, he’s learning, as I did once, there were curtains, he couldn’t see my face. I was just another vagina.” Knowing her professionalism, and that of the physicians she (and I, as a result of her work) knew, I did not doubt her.
Switch the roles. I went for a vasectomy. My urologist (I’ll call him “Dr. Neil”), had male nurses prep me, and get ready for the procedure. While I was lying on the table, shaved and frozen “down there,” Dr. Neil asked me if he could bring in a female med student to observe. He said that he would not if I did not want it. I agreed–she could not see my face, she had no idea who I was, and to paraphrase my wife and her vagina, I was “just another set of balls.” I heard the student talking to Dr. Neil during the procedure. But when it was all over and I got up, she was gone. Dr. Neil and the male nurses were the only ones in attendance.
I think medical professionals–physicians, nurses, and others who deal with patients–are aware of the ethics of their respective professions, and deal with them accordingly. Further, and especially during training, they do what they can to lessen the embarrassment of patients. I have no idea who the female med student was who observed my vasectomy, and she has no idea who I was. But she was professional at all times, as were the male nurses and Dr. Neil.
OP, stay professional and detached. If you can, you will do well; I’m sure.