Category: Male Nursing

Male nurse facts

Fun Male Nurse Facts You Might Not Know 😉

More and more men are today joining the ranks of male nurses in the medical field. Here are some little-known facts about male nurses. Did you know that:

•    In third century Rome, groups of male nurses known as the Parabolani, provided care for sick and dying people on the great plain of Alexandria

•    During the Crusades, male nurses comprised the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, and were set up to help their sick and dying brethren who fought valiantly in the Crusades

•    It hasn’t always been easy. In 1901 the United States military, which up until then had included male nurses, changed to only have women nurses. It was actually many years later, after the Korean War, that men were allowed back into nursing.

•    Today, the chances of having a male nurse are five times greater in the military than in the civilian world.

•    Nowadays the nursing population is between 6% and 7% male. World definitely needs more male nurses. Check male nurses statistics.

•    James Derham was an African slave who saved enough money to buy his freedom. He worked as a male nurse in New Orleans in 1783 and eventually became a doctor. He was the first black nurse in history.

•    Because of the massive nursing shortage in the 1980s and 1990s, more men became nurses during this time.

•    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, men make higher wages and male nurses earn more than female nurses do. Women make only about 86.6% of what male nurses bring in as nurses.

•    Famous poet Walt Whitman was actually a male nurse. He served his nursing time in Washington, D.C. as a volunteer hospital nurse during the Civil War. He wrote down his experiences in nursing in the volume “Drumtaps” and also journaled extensively about it with two other poems entitled “Specimens” and “Collect”

So there you have it, some interesting facts about male nurses.

Opportunities For The Male Nurse

Many years ago, it was nearly unheard of for male nurses to exist in the mostly female dominated world of nursing. That has changed so much today, and more and more male nurses are part of the medical workforce.

What sort of opportunities are there for male nurses? There are many. Although the economy is struggling, the demand for skilled and excellent nursing care is strong. The field of nursing is one that provides so many chances for employment for qualified male nurses.

Because of the large baby boom back after world war two, those who were produced from it are retiring at record rates, leaving a huge gap in nursing openings.

There are tremendous opportunities for advancement for the male nurse as well. You won’t just get stuck at one level of employment, there is so much available that it is easy for well qualified male nurses to move ahead in the medical industry.

And you could not pick a better profession. You are trained in highly sought after skills, and have chances every day to provide caring, thoughtful, quality care to individuals who really need it. The field of nursing is one that helps people directly, through one on one contact, and involves you in the process of being right there when sick and injured people most need someone professional to walk with them through their difficulties on the path of getting better.

Nurses are an integral and essential cog in the medical world’s wheel. More and more, hospitals and doctor’s offices alike are coming to see the incredible value that nursing provides to their clientele and their businesses.

Male nurses are in high demand, and becoming a larger percentage of the normally female dominated workforce every year. To be a male nurse is to have a fulfilling role.

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Nursing ethics for male nurses

Nursing ethics for male nurses emphasize the necessity of making moral judgments in the case of specific situations. It is rule of conduct that needs to be adhered to and it is based on the relationship of the male nurse with the patient. These ethics are generally centered on collaborative care, dignity of the patient, morality and human rights.

Like medical ethics, the nursing ethics that are applicable to male nurses focuses on their behavior as professionals that also include the determination of right or wrong in performing nursing procedures and responsibilities. One of the most important nursing ethics for male nurses is “non-maleficence” that means not to harm the patient. This ethic has been drawn out from the Hippocratic Oath that is also applicable to female nurses also.

Male nurses also need to respect the rule of autonomy that emphasizes on the right of individuals to make decisions that are good for themselves. Like for example the male nurses cannot force a patient to take a medication that he/she refuses to take. The male nurse must determine the cause of the refusal and provide proper education to the patient. After this, if the patient refuses the nurse must report the matter to the prescribing doctor.

When it comes to catering to female patients these male nurses should not provide Peri care. This should be taken care of by female nurses. Male nurses should ensure that the best nursing procedures must be delivered with compassion and competence when dealing with patients.

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Nursing ethics for female nurses

Nursing ethics are the basic rules of conduct that both female and male nurses have to abide to. They are focused on the best interests and the well being of the patient. Nursing ethics for female nurses are just as important as the ethics that are applicable to male nurses. They need to ensure that the needs and the interests of the patient are looked after well in order to ensure his/her road to recovery.

Veracity is an important ethic that female nurses must abide to when they are dealing with patients. They must tell the truth however with certain limitations so that the road to recovery of the patient is not impeded. This however has a dilemma in certain cases especially when the family of terminally ill patients. The opposite case may also occur when the patient requests the female nurse not to disclose the details of the illness to the family. In this manner the female nurse can discuss issues and also decide on what is considered best for the patient.

Beneficence is another important nursing ethic for female nurses and this means that they need to do all that is good for the benefit and the well being of their patient. All the nursing procedures must be performed taking into consideration the best interests of the patient.

Another important ethic that the female nurses must abide to is that they should maintain confidentiality about all the interactions that take place between the patient and the medical team is kept secret. This also includes sensitive information that has the possibility of harming the reputation of the patient.

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How To Deal Female Patients By Male Nurse

Male nurse have subsisted for several years although this line of work has been always dominated mostly by females. Because the profession of nursing deals with intense care providing which mostly related with health as well as personal concern services and thus women are most suitable to this profession. Even the men are well appreciated in care-providing category but they are mostly seen facing issues in this field for various reason. It has also seen in most cases that patients as well as the associate hospital members have generated issues in various different related reasons to nursing assistants or care givers with the male nurses. In various cases male nurses are also trained to learn the suitable way to deal the female patients specially.

Here Are Some Issues Discussed Which Generally Comes In Between Female Patients And Male Nurse

Male nurse dealing with female patients could be a bit critical circumstances sometime. Many a times there always can be always few female patients who habitually find themselves into uncomfortable circumstances with male nurses. These are also frequent case considered and seen in between male nurses and nursing assistants. Hospitals are always considered for its skilled nursing services and have preferred patient dignity (specially female and old patient) to be taken as high priority. In many different cases, home health or the private caregiver agencies do not usually appoints the male nurse or staffs to care female patients.

The male health caring staffs stays extra cautious in whatever they say and do exactly. Very unfortunately, many issues have always risen related to molestation or sexual harassment or rapes. The Health care staffs generally take every necessary attempt to ensure the backgrounds carefully so as to be sure that the employees appointed in the hospitals are clean and doesn’t have any criminal records. Along with this, the behavior or character is something which is impossible to judge completely. Although the male nurse unlike all the medical staff, accept sensitivity guidance which compromises issues like patient dignity and unsuitable behavior with both patients and any staff members (especially female).

Nursing includes social Interaction and bonding with people. As it is that nursing care teams include generally female, male nurse or staff members can also have hard time fitting in. many a times it has also seen that a female supervisors have shown good results in terms of rendering their service. The patients relate better with the female nurse because they ensures more support and understanding as compared to male nurse.

There are various several cases seen where a female patient have failed to express her illness to a male nurse. Even a male has although trained and graduated learning things, many a times it happens that a male nurse ignore some minute detail about a female patient and thus the male nurse are not at all recommended in case of dealing with any female nurse. This situation can be same with all female patient no matter what their age is, thus the idea has evolved that male nurses are not very suitable dealing with female patient and vice-versa.

Male nursing vs female nursing

In today’s career boards, nursing is still greatly occupied by female professionals, the result of a century’s worth of this field being cemented as a “feminine” career option. This strong social expectation presents challenges to the minority of male nurses who are faced with strong stereotyping and consequent specialization orientation. These factors create gaps in the understanding of the male nurse vs female nurse both from patients and hospital teams that has piqued several studies’ interest.

Historically however, professional nursing was mostly undertaken by men, firstly through mendicant religious orders accompanying the crusades, and later on with medical teams in wars, were taking teams composed by women was unthinkable at the time. The shift towards a female dominated nursing came at the turn of the 19th century through the work of Florence Nightingale, who maintained the idea, consistent with Victorian family values of the era, that women were naturally caring and nurturing, and therefore intrinsically fit for the nursing profession, not even needing education before apprenticeship with medical teams. The nursing associations formed at this time were all female, and the American nursing Association excludes male members up until the 1930’s.

This is the mindset which still prevails today, nursing as female dominated profession. In our society, the values mostly associated with this career, nurturing, intimate care and dependency relationships are still closely associated with female gender stereotypes, while men are seen to fit in more aggressive, dominant roles, hard to reconcile with this sort of medical assistance. However, the increasing flexibility brought by an increasing comfort with personal choices not encumbered by social gender molds has made it possible for many men to consider this career, greatly aided by the increasing reputation of nursing, and the higher pay offered for a job in great demand.

Even with this increase, the number of males in the nursing profession is still within a small percentage, and men are still very much faced with a certain level of stereotyping and discomfort from different sectors. Studies show that overall, they are well received by their female peers, who welcome their different skills. When it comes to society at large however, the pressure of stereotypes that frequently try to tag male nurses with homosexuality to make sense of their “feminine” jobs can be felt harshly.

Patients however, being on the receiving end of nurse care, have their own particular reactions to the introduction of males to this career, often expressing reluctance in seeing intimate care provided by men. In many hospitals, male nurses are barred from tasking within ob-gyn wards, with the argument their presence would increase discomfort for patients, and receiving the counter argument that this unfairly implies a lesser level of professionalism from male nurses when compared to male doctors, who are a common staple in these care specializations.

This adjustment effort has mostly lead to a more accentuated specialization within male nurses. To a great extent, male dominated medical teams steer their own gender’s nurses toward types of care that are easier to reconcile with the traditional gender role. Task oriented specializations like the ER, psychiatric wards and anesthesiology don’t imply the level of intimate care that seems to be the core cause of discomfort from patients and the medical organization.

Nursing ethics

The Ethical Dilemmas that Nurses Often Face

A nurse has the health of another person in the palm of their hand. Critical mistakes to be made can be found from every aspect of many situations. A nurse has to put aside personal thoughts and emotions, in many cases, in order to make the right decision for the patient. There will come many times within a nurse’s career that they will face nursing ethical dilemmas. These problems can arise from unexpected places and put the jeopardy of their job and well-being at risk. In order to avoid these dilemmas it is imperative that a nurse always remembers the nurses code of ethics.

In all professional relationships a nurse should treat people with dignity, respect, and individual worth. This should be done without any regard to economical status, nature of health problems, or personal attributes.

A nurse’s primary commitment should always be to the patient. This should be done regardless of whether the patient is an individual, a family, a whole group, or an entire community.

An ethical nurse should always be the advocate for the patient’s health. They should always keep the patients safety and rights in mind.

The ethical nurse will provide the patient with the best care possible by delegating tasks as needed to the staff that they are overseeing,and will be responsible for individual nursing practices at all times.

An ethical nurse will treat herself or himself in the same regard as the patients they treat. They will maintain competence and ensure professional growth.

Through collective action, the nurse will continuously participate in the health care environment for the patients and staff.

The ethical nurse will participate in advancement of the nursing profession and ensure knowledgeable development in all aspects of the job.

The nurse will work with others in the medical profession in order to meet all areas of the health care need.

Shaping social policy, maintaining integrity in the profession, and articulating nursing values, should be at the forefront of the nursing profession and all of its members.

Please share your comments on “what is nursing ethics?” We would love to hear from you.

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