Have you ever mistaken a male nurse for a doctor or a female doctor for a nurse? The healthcare field as was know it traditionally was run by male physicians and female nurses. Dating back to the 1800’s, however, it was actually men, among them Walt Whitman, that were the earliest nurses (Male Nurse Magazine, 2012). Men in America were subsequently excluded from the field until approximately the 1950’s when men begun to reenter the field (Male Nurse Magazine, 2012).
The percentage of male nurses and female physicians continues to rise, and yet almost century old stereotypes still exist in these professions. “Gender stereotypes are easily and automatically activated, and they often lead to biased judgements” (Northouse, 2013, p. 358.) People immediately see a male and assume he is a physician and a female a nurse. These gender stereotypes are highly resistant to change (Northouse, 2013, p. 358).
My husband works as a male nurse for a local hospital and experiences gender bias on a daily basis. He is presumed to be a physician by patients, patients’ family members, and even other medical staff, including physicians themselves. Likewise, female physician’s are mistaken for nurses and often approached to perform the duties of a nurse. Sometimes their opinion is even discredited because they are female physicians and not male physicians. My husband’s account is not out of the ordinary in this line of work. This view is consistent in other hospitals and in other work fields. Women in leadership roles need to make themselves more visible to facilitate the reduction of these stereotypes and encourage other women to take on leadership roles.
Women must also see to it that they do not respond to stereotypes with counter productive behaviors (Northouse, 2013, p. 360). Instead, women should demonstrate their effectiveness in these roles, and in time they will prove these stereotypes false.
Klass, P. (1984, November). HERS. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/01/garden/hers.html?pagewanted=all
Male Nurse Magazine (2012). “In the Profession” Retrieved from
http://www.malenursemagazine.com/historyofmalenurses.html
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: SAGE
Publications, Inc.
Although I don’t work in healthcare, I have seen gender bias take place in the aviation industry. In addition to the gender bias I’ve noticed in my industry, I’m also certain that it is prevalent in other industries, such as healthcare. Both of my parents work in the healthcare industry – my mother as an RN and my father as a respiratory therapist. At the hospital where my father works each department wears different color scrubs, which I believe may help patients and families of patients differentiate between who is caring for them.
The gender bias is difficult and slow to change as you mentioned in your post. In the situation of older patients it may be more difficult for them to accept the fact that they are being cared for by a female physician or a male nurse when compared to patients of my generation. In fact, as a young woman, I am more comfortable (and thankful) that my doctor is a woman. I feel she can better relate to challenges that I face with my body, whereas a male doctor may not truly understand me.
Overall, I believe that the gender bias in the healthcare industry is decreasing as the number of male nurses and female physicians increase. Ultimately the correct care and treatment by a healthcare professional is more important than the gender or type of scrubs he or she is wearing.
I too work in the healthcare field for a large medical facility. I have seen the gender bias as well in terms of patients assuming female healthcare workers are nurses. In fact one doctor in particular, in the clinic I work in, is a young, female, physician, who is often not taken as seriously as her older male co-physician within the same speciality because of her appearance. Patients constantly question her ability to do her job and when she is wearing her surgical scrubs they often assume she is a nurse and call on her to do tasks they’d as of their nurses. This seems to be not just an age bias but gender bias as well. The patients in my clinic also do seem to gravitate towards the male physicians.
We do have one male nurse on staff in my department yet most times it seems people don’t know what his job title actually is. For whatever reason he is also not mandated to wear scrubs as the women are which I’m sure also serves to confuse patients into considering him a physician. Overall I think from my experience people tend to gravitate towards women as nurses because it is believed that they are more nurturing and compassionate (stereotype) and the physicians more strong, stoic and capable of carrying out specific often difficult duties. However also from my experience in healthcare I know most if not all of the aforementioned sterotypes and biases to be unfair and often untrue.
Coleen,
Good Post. You make some interesting points about gender stereotypes in the medical field. I will have to admit that when I was young child, I thought that all doctors were men. It is clear from you post that confusing male nurses and female doctors is still be a stereotype that needs to be addressed. I would have to agree that stereotypes are hard to change. I think it is interesting they your husband is mistaken for a physician. I am sure the he and the female doctors are frustrated with the stereotype. Do you think there is any that can be done to prevent this? I might understand patients and family members of the patients could be mistaken about who is the doctor according to the stereotypes, but the other staff at the hospital confusing them is alarming. I guess if he works a large hospital and not all of the staff is familiar with one another it could happen. I would assume that this proves your point about the stereotype. Good Post I enjoyed reading it.
Henry