Why are Nurses "Sexy"?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Thank you. That was nice to read. TV and films get so much of it wrong–we have people come in and ask why the doctor isn’t at their bedside, 24/7. <sigh> You did need your doctor, though–but you also needed nursing care. Turning, positioning, feeding, toileting, hygiene–all of these are under the nurse’s care. Without them, most patients would fare very badly.
(this gets kind of long, sorry)

Re the sexy thing. Nurses do lots of poorly understood (because unfamiliar), yet intimate things to people. We ask questions about stuff that perhaps even the spouse/parent knows nothing about. We are usually women; we have power of a sort over vulnerable people, and we have to touch, feel and probe–much more so than a doctor. He or she orders the dressing changes, we are the ones who actually do the work, for example. (some docs like to do their dressing changes, but the majority of them are done by nurses). We find out intimate things about you, and you can (and do) tell us anything. It’s no surprise that this has led some people to consider us sexy.

And then there are the ones whom I consider predators of a sort–the men (sorry, but for me, it’s always been men) who, whether to compensate for a perceived loss of power or maybe just because they’re jerks, like to taunt and harass the nurses. This can range from lewd suggestions to outright masturbation in front of the nurse (all for her benefit). I’ve had my share of these kind of folks. As long as the nurse remains impassive and assertive, these folks tend to stop what they’re doing. In the case of the lewd remarks, we swap pts amongst ourselves.

I have had to do this in the case of a very young looking nurse’s aide. An older male pt kept saying stuff to her like, “I’d really like to see you in a school uniform. Those sweet legs of yours (she was wearing scrubs). Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. You are a fine young thing.” This upset her greatly; she reported it to me as charge nurse, I confronted the pt, who denied that saying such things to her was a bad thing, so he got me as his nurse’s aide the rest of the shift, and she was re-assigned during his stay. Oh, and an incident report was filed, so that there was a paper trail in case he ever really got out of hand.

Needless to say, these folks aren’t the favorite patients on the unit, but (and this may surprise you) the care of these folks is not substandard or neglectful. We take care of everyone (except ourselves, but that’s another thread). An extreme example: nurses attempted to resuscitate Richard Speck, the infamous killer of nurses. It’s what we do. And if you’re troubled enough to feel that you have to masturbate in front of a young woman while you’re sick, then you need caring for. That’s kind of the attitude we strive for. (that is not to say we enable or encourage such behavior–we would put the kibosh on it right away. Not by screaming or yelling, but by saying, “that’s inappropriate. Stop that now.” kind of stuff.
For those lovely men who will not take limits from a woman (they still exist), depending on the doctor, we can tell the doc and the doc can go in and raise hell-much more so than the nurse. I’ve seen male doctors raise their voices and basically tell pts to knock it the hell off. That seems to work with this personality type for some reason. Hospital administrators, IME, are completely useless in these situations.

Sorry, strayed from the sexy nurse topic a bit. I would say that 99% of people don’t find the nurse sexy when they need her–they find her sexy when they’re feeling fine. We also struggle with the battle-axe/Nurse Ratchett stereotype, but that’s another thread as well…

And finally, here is one of my favorite quotes about nurses, from *Emily Post’s Book of Etiquette *(1956):

*“No professional calling except that of clergyman or physician is held in such admiration and respect as that of the trained nurse. So much so in fact, that her uniform is full protection against criticism, no matter how unconventional the situation in which she may on occasion find herself placed.”
*

Talk about social license! We break barriers, it makes sense that there would be an interest in us breaking sexual ones as well.

22

Those that I’m in contact with wear office casual attire. I’m not considering scrubs in this discussion, BTW.

23

I was going to mention this, too.

While I think the things about nurturing, providing human contact and conversation while you’re alone, bored and scared and also the whole “bed” thing (in massage therapy, we’re warned very strictly to refer to it as a “table” at all times, because “bed” makes people think of sex) are all accurate, the “sexy nurse” thing isn’t really about modern nurses. The "sexy nurse " wears an approximation of a very attractive uniform nearly 30 years out of date.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the move to scrubs was in fact designed to *desexualize *the nursing profession during a time period when terms like “sexual harassment” and “hostile work environment” because regulars on the evening news.

I, personally, think it sucks. :wink: I want whites when I’m a nurse!

24

I’ve seen my son in his scrubs: he doesn’t look all that sexy to me.

25

And that uniform was straight out of the 50’s and 60’s. Nursing is a conservative profession and change comes slowly for this kind of thing. When I started (1985), I wore whites --not that style. I wore white pants and tops from Carson’s (not a uniform shop). I loved whites. They are hopelessly impractical, though. The cap is mostly gone (and thank god–it was ugly, intrusive and dirty). Thing is–the symbol for “nurse” is still that damned cap. Males nurses are increasing (yay!), and they were never capped, so this symbol is outdated for today and also does not work for a portion of the profession.

Scrubs did become popular a bit after the woman’s movement (again, nursing is slow to change stuff). For awhile, anything went, but in the past 7 years or so, hospital’s have been trying to get a handle on uniforms for nurses. RNs are required to wear “ceil blue” at my hospital; aides are in purple (gag) and secretaries are in black (depressing). Radiology techs/lab/respiratory therapists etc all have a different color scrub to wear. Nursing suffers from a lack of distinction since the old uniform has gone–often the pt or family has no idea who is at the bedside with them, because all personnel are in scrubs. The color coding does nothing because the pts don’t know the color key! And here is where we’re stuck. Me, I’d like to go back to whites for RNs only. But there is also (sadly) that contingent of nurses who cannot be relied on to wear appropriate underwear under whites–or to remove stains. :frowning: :rolleyes:

26

Nurses are female (usually), intelligent, knowledgeable, caring, hard-working, there to help when you’re vulnerable :cool: … and they wear a uniform. :o

27

Yeah, but you lot across the pond (used to, at least) call nurses “sister.” What a bunch of incestuous pervs!

28

Yep. It’s maybe even a bit tighter than the ones from the 50’s, 'cause it’s from the mid seventies and that was the style. A very attractive style, if you have the figure for it. I picked that picture 'cause it is, to me, very pretty, despite the very large needle!

Yes! Maybe not so tight, and maybe not even skirts (although I personally prefer skirts) but something that screams “nurse” without any ambiguity. I agree with you that confusion is a big problem in today’s hospitals, even for people like me, who try really hard to pay attention and have some concept of what each person’s job duties are. Everyone knows the doctor by her white coat. No one knows a nurse from a receptionist anymore, which has got to annoy patients when they ask a “nurse” for a Tylenol, only to feel like they’re being given the run-around because the physical therapist they asked can’t do that! Like we need to add that kind of stress and ill-will to the situation.

29

My mom’s an RN, and I remember her mourning the loss of the whites. I used to zip her up before she went on-shift, and unzip her when she got home. As much as she loved the whites, she didn’t miss the cap - except for formal occasions, when she wore it anyway.

I asked about that. She said when they started getting more equipment in the ICUs, especially the NICUs, nurses kept catching their caps on the equipment. It became so much of a pain that they stopped wearing them, and the trend caught on with other nursing sections.

30

Well, I wasn’t really asking for an explanation, just a rhetorical question to express my point of view. However, kunilou’s explanation (post #10), while technically correct, is taking rationality to the extreme.

So is mine. She used to practice taking blood on us.

31

Yup, that’s me. I had some major abdominal surgery a couple of years ago, and when it came time for me to lose my Foley catheter, they sent in a very cute and very young student nurse to do the job. Had I not had my intestines rearranged 36 hours before, I’d have been the biggest horndawg in the world with the idea of this sweet young thing working down there.

However, I was feeling bad enough that all I could do when she was done was to thank her for not laughing when she saw my equipment.

32

I have no idea.

I’ve spent extended time in the hospital twice (by extended, I mean a week or so, nothing serious) and every nurse I’ve had were, as others have put it, matronly with one exception. For my surgery, they needed to shave my pubic area (I’ve got no idea why) and it was done by a large biker looking dude. He was wearing a nurses uniform…but I’ve always been skeptical.

33

Thank you so much for the mental picture this gives me. It’s the highlight of an otherwise shitty week. :smiley:

34

I don’t know why, but this thread made me think of Nurse Ratched (“ONE FLEW OVER THE COOKOO’S NEST”)-she was a pretty scarey dame!

35

“Lovely Rita, meter maid, may I enquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me?”

36

Definitely the old, all-white uniform—white hose, white shoes—and especially the cap. There’s a purity thing going on there. But as posted, with her knowledge of secret things, there’s also the dirty thing. It’s a mixture of sacred and profane.

Now they wear scrubs and there’s little mystique.

ETA @ralph: yeah but what about the OTHER nurses? Yummy!

37

Well, you can wear whites if you want to. My classmates and I all wore whites and the traditional winged cap for our pinning ceremony. Most wore pantsuit style uniforms but several wore dresses that looked straight out of the 60’s that they bought from various internet sites. You could even wear the whites to work if you wanted to, but it would certainly get you a reputation among your coworkers.
dress and skirt

several dresses

38

The second one (very attractive uniform) is much sexier than the first. She looks like a nurse, not a caricature of one. She has the little hat and she’s probably wearing white hose, too. :eek:

39

We are not allowed to wear whites, period. This was a big issue, but nursing admin, in its attempt to be an advocate and voice for the nurses put it to a vote about 5 years ago, then closed the voting when they could see that the bulk of votes was against their executive decision. This is a true story.
Some hospitals do allow nurses to wear X uniform or default whites. Some even let the nurse still choose the pattern/color of scrubs! Such variety and choice would boggle me mind… :slight_smile:

40

You know, you’re talking about both my mother and one of my sisters. Watch your tongue.