Why Do So Many Gay Men Become Nurses

I think the actual question is, why are so many male nurses gay men?

I've wondered that too, OP. My best guess is that there a number of genuinely caring gay men out there for whom nursing makes sense. Not me. You couldn't pay me enough to be a nurse. I went to med school because as a kid I wanted to know how things worked inside, not because I wanted "to help people," as so many med school hopefuls drone on about on their applications. Sure, helping people is a great fringe benefit but at the end of the day, I wanted to know how shit worked on the inside.

“Well, it was that or be a weather guy on TV.”

Why do so many lesbians drive Subaru Outbacks?

Because they were too busy partying in college and have crap grades and/or drive..

[quote] Because they were too busy partying in college and have crap grades and/or drive..

It is not a cakewalk to get a nursing degree

Sure it its. Average acceptance rate to get in nursing school is 70 percent! They'll accept anyone.

it is.

Nursing is an extremely respectable job and pays very well in many areas. Many of them also have 3 day work weeks - 12 hours a day.

That's a lot of time off. It's not a bad gig.

We need more good nurses. And nurses do an amazing job - doctors do relatively little during your hospital stay. It's all nurses 95% of the time.

I have the utmost respect for nurses. Sincerely.

[quote] Average acceptance rate to get in nursing school is 70 percent! They'll accept anyone.

Yes but what is the graduation rate

[quote] That's a lot of time off. It's not a bad gig.

Overworked. underpaid, with no respect from Doctors

Prolly cause gay men yearn to provide the nurturing their frigid cruel mothers withheld.

[quote]doctors do relatively little during your hospital stay.

Aside from saving your life, R9.

R2 / Gay MD - can I ask what your specialty is?

Sure. I'm an oncology radiologist, R14.

R15 may hats off to you, because that is such a difficult specialty - dealing with cancer 24/7

MD is a great career to keep Sociopaths and Serial Killers focused, off the streets and out of trouble.

Nurses are usually caretaker codependents who become burnt-out cunts by 40.

Not smart enough to become doctors? Who knows.

by coincidence Milo just tweeted on Parler about Nurses

"It is a profession for barren, vicious, control freaks"

Christ! What is Milo's goal with that post?

Because they want to land a doctor.

It's the same as, why are so many hairdressers gay men. It's considered girls work. No macho straight man would be caught dead being a hairdresser or nurse.

Barren control freaks? Talk about off the mark, most nurses are married with kids

[quote]No macho straight man would be caught dead being a hairdresser or nurse.

That's a very antiquated way of thinking R23, and it may have rung true in your day but no longer. At least as far as nurses are concerned. Thank god I can't speak for hairdressers.

I'm in my early forties and have worked in a number of hospitals. In each one the number of straight male nurses far outnumbered the gay male nurses.

OP, to further address your question, a lot of nurses simply couldn't get into med school. In 2019, almost 54,000 students applied to medical schools but only a little over 21,000 were accepted. Medical School is fiercely competitive. I have a family member in his seventies who got into med school with barely a B average. No more. If you don't have straight As from advanced classes you're wasting your time and money applying because you're not even going to get an interview. Nursing School has a much higher acceptance rate. A lot of nurses I know could have easily become doctors but they didn't want the expense of medical school. Their plan (which never works out) was to get their nursing degree, work five years and then apply to med school.

I could never get my nursing degree. The chemistry class alone would do me in.

For the sponge baths, catheter insertions and pubic shaving. Duh.

I get the sense that OP created this thread after seeing Milo's Parler post, R20.

r23 it’s only women’s work until it makes a profit.

The multi million dollar hair care brands and famous hair dressers are men. Same with fashion, culinary arts, home goods (Martha being the exception) etc.

If it’s for no wages or slave wages then it’s women’s work.

R29 Oh God, spare us the “Woe is me! I want to take a 12 year sabbatical to be a Mommy, then come out of semi-retirement at 38 and instantly be a CEO!” spill, especially spewing your bullshit to gay men... we’re the workhorses who get saddled with late nights & weekends after you dart out at 3pm everyday (2pm on Fridays) to do pick-up and run to dance & soccer practice.

I hope that Parler post is circulating well on nursing websites and that Milo comes to regret it when he gets Covid.

A lot of bottoms are nurses and flight attendants. They gravitate towards predominantly female careers.

I was in an elite hospital a few years ago and I was amazed at the combination of personal attentiveness and professionalism of the nurses. Is there another job where you have to study for several years and pass a licensing exam to wipe people's asses? They seem, amazingly, to understand that tasks like that are part of a calling with a high professional standard and not to bear any resentment about it or let ego get in the way. It gave me a new respect for the nursing profession.

For the early access vaccinations.

Did they intubate MIlo?

R9 with you 100%

Some of the posts above seem to come from people born in the stone age!

I have a very deep respect for nurses. Sure, there are going to be some assholes in the bunch, like any profession; however, overall I think they are amazing at their jobs.

My analogy is: the doctor slaps on the band-aid (no small feat and great respect), and the nurse kisses the boo-boo better, because we all know that's what REALLY helps to heal, the TLC.

Nursing is a well paid job, and it doesn’t take genius to clean out bed pans

Straight men are quickly discovering the field as other fields are dying in America

We all wanted to emulate Jane Dawson, R.N. from General Hospital

I'd be worried if they were becoming nuns.

I'm weirded out by male nurses and they all think they know so much more than they do.

Back in the 80s, a woman nurse told me the Vietnam War changed the attitude of men toward nursing school. Men who'd been medics wanted to continue taking care of people, but found medical school too daunting for any of several reasons. They still had the G.I. bill to pay for higher education, and some of them put it into nursing school.

Admiration and validation from a captive audience?

The penises you get to touch giving sponge baths and hopefully catching a cute doctor for a husband. But mostly the penises.

If nursing is so hard, why are so many nurses shipped in from 3rd world countries in the Caribbean and the Philippines?

I really appreciate male nurses, whether they are gay or straight. There are certain medical procedures in which the nurse is present that I would prefer to have a male in the room. For example, I had an examination for a benign testicular cyst in which I was lying on the table naked from the waist down while the doctor prodded and felt around to see if it had changed. There was a nurse in the room assisting; I would have been much more comfortable with a man. I had a complete skin exam ( the nurse was male) in which I eventually exposed everything. I was much more comfortable. Not an exam, but an ultrasound on my testicles was done with a female technician. A male spreading the gel on my balls would have been much better. So, men, get into nursing or x-ray technology.

The lure of nursing is those cute white caps. Also, the navy capes.

"The lure of nursing is those cute white caps"

Agree.

Yes, we need more male nurses.

r43, that’s very interesting and makes a lot of sense.

Aging Bottoms have to do something?

R46, The NHS was heavily reliant on Caribbean nurses in its early days, and they stuck it out despite vicious racism from patients and colleagues. They faced many obstacles regarding promotion, but some made it to positions of authority. When I was a student nurse I met a director of nursing from St.Lucia, who was approaching retirement. She had faced terrible difficulties in her career, but had climbed her way up. She had very high standards, and expected you to always do your utmost. I adored her.

I have worked with many Filipino nurses. They are very highly skilled and knowledgeable, and very dedicated.

My mom is an old-school nurse who got a degree from a Catholic nursing school. Even has her cap still signed and in plastic.

She HATES men in the profession. She is very defensive of it being an historically women’s profession that men only now want to be a part of because there’s money in it.

for what's it's worth, 2 years ago when i was in the hospital for a few days for a minor surgery, 3 out of 4 of the male nurses i saw on the floor I was on were really handsome!...

made me want to just visit the hospital and that floor to see them again! lol!...

Several more reasons:

1) Nursing school can take as little as 2 years, which means it's a way for people who don't have strong financial support to get into a field that will pay living wages.

2) And as many of us don't have strong family support, because our families have issues with the gay kid, we have suffered and care more about relieving suffering than the average citizen.

3) Healthcare takes a combination of masculine and feminine qualities; masculine logic and feminine emotional intelligence, masculine dispassion and feminine empathy. The healthcare field is a good fit for people who have developed both their masculine and feminine side, but who have better uses for their energy than haranguing people about pronouns.

[quote]masculine logic and feminine emotional intelligence, masculine dispassion and feminine empathy

JFC.

RNs are not giving patients sponge baths or wiping asses. That’s what certified nursing assistants (CNAs) do. For fucks sake. CNAs are also underpaid. RNs often have long shifts (12 hours on) and work with jerks - sometimes the patients are jerks, or the family members, or doctors. Even other nurses who think they are better because they have seniority.

Access to the drug cabinet.

Duh.

Who knows OP.

For all the hand wringing men only make up less than 10% of RNs in USA.

That being said they often make damn good money, and in some cases out earning female RNs in same specialty or on same floor/unit.

To put it bluntly men approach nursing same as they do most any other career. They also (for most part) avoid the pitfalls and minefields often found in pink ghetto employment. That is the backstabbing, cliques, etc.....

R54

Feeling among many older nurses (and some younger) is that worst thing for profession is the rise of men becoming professional nurses. It just changes the dynamics of a floor, unit, hospital nursing service.

Generally and historically nurses were bound together not just by their profession, but gender. Thus you get what happens whenever anything from a boarding school to steno pool is dominated by females. Dating, marriage, having babies, raising children, etc... all the sorts of things that are part of women's lives in addition to their work.

Many male nurses don't play that nonsense. They report for duty, do their job (and often very well), then go home. Maybe an effeminate gay male nurse might become "one of the girls", but guys like ones seen this thread am guessing not.

Men don't have periods or other feminine problems that cause them to take PTO. In fact many male nurses are aggressive about their careers as any other guy. OTOH if your a female nurse looking to land a doctor, killing time until you get married, or think "it's just a job", someone who comes in like gangbusters may rattle that cage.

Many female nurses aren't thrilled with male nurses in OB/GYN, Peds, NICU or other areas dealing with women and children. But anti-discrimination laws go both ways so that's that.

When going around asking patients in labor and delivery if mom to be minds if a male student nurse is involved some female RNs put things in such a away that makes it sound dirty.

"For all the hand wringing men only make up less than 10% of RNs in USA."

In my experience, the percentage is much higher in Critical Care nursing - surgery, ER, PACU, ICU, etc. There, in my experience, it's more like 20-40%.

Whatever happened to candy-stripers?

R63

Guys tend to go where the action is in nursing IMHO; that and they don't want to get mixed up with the BS that happens on floors.

R64

Volunteers both older teens and adults are still around, but for obvious PC reasons that candy striper or "Blue Teens (Red Cross) uniforms are for most part gone just like starched white uniforms and hats for nurses.

I'm gay and Filipino. I would have got right in.

It beats being a flight attendant during a pandemic.

It's because of insecurities of systemic sexism.

Nursing is still seen as a "woman' job" and, as of now, gay men are the main contingency of the male population who aren't hung up about that.

The straight male population, for the most part, still has patriarchal hangups. So it's not that a high number of gay men become nurses, it's that straight men tend to not become nurses. That creates a skewed higher percentage of male nurses who are gay.

Contrariwise, why do so many nurses become gay men?

I remember when Sami Brady was a candy striper. She ran that hospital.

Nurses are sometimes sorry for their choice of career because 1. There's a critical shortage of qualified nurses which equates to working their asses off to do the work of two people and 2. Bending down to hospital beds and moving patients will ruin your back in short effect.