Being A Male Practice Nurse

by Liam Stephens
Posted on Healthcarerepublic.com Blogs

‘Oh... you're a man.' Patients can get really cross when they've walked down the corridor to the GP's after a male voice calling them.
Other comments include ‘It's you, is it? I wouldn't have bothered with the aftershave if I'd known it was you...' (He wasn't kidding about the aftershave).

I run a potential response through my mind; replying in a Russell Brandish tone. ‘Tis true I'm a maaaan, but not as you know it. Follow me!' Before skipping down the corridor. Lacking Brand's charisma, what I really say is ‘Yes, I'm a man and I am a nurse.'

Being a male nurse afforded some novelty to your arrival on the ward as a student in the early nineties. Now, male nurses especially in the traditionally manly specialities of ITU and A&E are pretty common. At least that's what I thought until I started working as a practice nurse.

After such (ahem), trail blazers as Charge Nurse Charlie in Casualty, Martin Platt of Coronation Street and Robert Powell as Nurse Weird in Holby City, I thought ‘What's the big deal?'

We need more men in practice nursing. I have a plan. I will pitch a new character to the Eastenders' script writers. A male practice nurse who is nothing like Charlie et al. or the last nurse on the square, the simple-minded but big-hearted Sonya.

He'll be a respected, progressive professional portraying practice nursing, and maleness in a shining light. Or perhaps we should just go with the Russell Brand thing....