What is it about nursing school (and the nursing field as a whole) that makes it tougher on guys, in your opinion?
Lack of male role models, teachers, and support resources. The media image of male nurses isn't the greatest either. Think meet the foockers.
Again I think it truly depends on the school and situation. Think a lot of nurses basically are used to being told what to do under doctors. They get out on their own and get in charge in nursing schools and get put in a position of power which is something new for them. I think it then goes to their head. Again this varies by school and person. Not every older nurse I ran into was bad but lets be realistic and nurses who are in their 50's and 60's now grew up in some different times. Like I said as more guys get into nursing and we get more male nurse educators I would expect the situation to improve. I seemed more welcomed by the younger teachers. I didn't feel rejected by the older teachers but I didn't get the same level of welcomeness feeling. I've heard about programs with ~20% guys gradating all but one. I've also heard of schools blowing away 100% of their males. It is vary dependent on the school.
The NCLEX questions are awful. They are ambiguous. I don't understand what the question is asking half the time. I've remember text in the book verbatim and I wasn't sure if I answered the question right. I had two textbooks that gave conflicting information. Google NCLEX style questions for a taste of those.
I truly think guys and girls learn differently sometimes. I watched a girl easily answer a question I didn't understand. That was the one where I could remember exactly what the text said. In my eyes it was ambiguous. In hers she answered it no hesitation. Stuff like that is in the literature also.
I'm just curious about the specific challenges of being a male nurse/ nursing student.
I just had to many bad experiences happen. I only ran issues one time with a person not wanting a male caregiver and they were older and female. I expected that. I just really was shocked when I was tossed by a female nurse for a procedure that wasn't even that invasive. This was due 100% to gender and it wasn't anything I did as she just came on rotation so I couldn't have done anything to piss her off. It ruined clinical that day because I didn't know if the lady didn't want a guy or what and I was still supposed to care for her. It was confusing. But what am I to do about it?
Every guy who is a nurse I think is going to get tossed out of a room by a patient at least once. Girls will probably get tossed out also but I think it happens less. It is not social acceptable for a guy to toss a women out of the room. We are conditioned to think of nurses as female. I've heard horror stories about OB. I've also heard of guys that make it also and have a good experience. I've heard about guys being just told to go sit in rooms during the OB rotation. It is just the implication isn't very flattering. Your experience will be totally school and teacher dependent.
The more subtle forms of sexism where teachers were like ok ladies lets go! Several women students told me they were excited to see guys get into nursing as girls are mean. They worked in the healthcare system. They all used the same verbiage. I had some flattering stereotypes but sterotypes none the less. I usually said well I think I sometimes bring a different perspective but so and so (a girl) seems like she is very professional and would be a good nurse also.
A student said "No, offense guys but you do xzy". She didn't mean it in a bad way but if I said no offense girls you do xzy it wouldn't go over well.
It defiantly had some room for improvement.