Gynecology Nurses
Gynecology nurses are another of the nursing specialties were the specialization is in a particular set of organs, rather than a set of diseases or a specific place of work. It’s looking after what are colloquially known, in my part of the world, as “women’s bits”. The reproductive system, in other words, and the diseases that can attack it. I’m willing to be proven wrong here by I would imagine that this is a field which is almost exclusively female: not that there are not men with the necessary amount of empathy, but simply for cultural reasons I would think.
The training for this specialty is much as it is for all other forms of nursing. You’ll need to be licensed as a nurse, and to be able to take that exam you need one of the three following things: a full four year college degree, a two year one or to have been on a one year Diploma program. You’ll also find that the senior jobs (like managing other nurses) and the more interesting ones, will be reserved for those with that full college degree. But if you want to start working and earning more quickly there are many different programs to help you turn that original Diploma into such a degree. You’ll also find that there’s good military training in the basics of nursing: with the influx of women into the uniformed services in recent decades, yes, even in gynecology.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Male nurses, even in gynecology, are on the rise; this transition is rocky at times. According to a USA Today article, http://www.usatoday.com/educate/college/business/articles/20030720.htm, male nurses are often discriminated against, especially when it comes to vaginal exams. The article told the story of a male nurse who was suing two separate hospitals for discrimination. Some employers believed “a female patient has the right to refuse a male nurse,†he said. “How would you like to be told a white patient can refuse a black nurse?â€
This gets tricky, I think. In any examination room, it’s common to have a sign on the wall claiming that a patient has the right to request the presence of a second person in the room in addition to the doctor. This is especially seen in gynecology offices, where, traditionally, a male gynecologist would basically protect himself from lawsuits with the presence of a female nurse. Of course, lawsuit aside, it’s been understood that gynecology patients often feel more at ease with a female present.
But today there are more female gynecologists and the use of (mostly female) nurse-midwifes and such, and more and more males are becoming nurses. It’s interesting to watch this transformation.
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I’ve seen intelligence which suggests that the UK is beginning to have male midwives as well. Strangely, by reputation, they’re a lot more empathic than many female ones. I’m not sure why though: it could be that only the most empathic of males go into such a specialty or it could be that there’s something a little odd about midwife training.
Certainly, the sort of intelligence you get from newspaper stories about midwives currently is that they don’t want to give anyone an epidural, don’t want drugs to be used: they think there’s something noble about a “natural” birth.
Seems very strange to me: sure, women did without these things for hundreds of thousands of years, but then again 20% of them died doing so. And in great pain as well.
Clearly my simple male intelligence can’t work out why doing something painfully is better than doing it without pain.