Nursing career: My career on the “people” side of healthcare began as a surgical technologist in the U.S. Army in 1977. Eventually I got an associate degree in nursing, then actively sought positions of increasing responsibility and/or more diverse clinical skills, e.g. shock/trauma, OR, critical care (MICU and PACU), GI endoscopy, etc.

After attaining my BSN my wife and I embarked on a travel nursing career, me in either OR or ICU and my wife in the ED. After a couple years I accepted my first director of surgical services position in South Carolina. Currently I get to blend the roots I’ve established and the travel I love through my interim leadership home-based business.

Something unique about you: I served as a hospital-wide director of education and director of public relations and marketing. As an interim director of surgical services I am active in educating about the expansive role that surgical services plays within the organization, relate it to the organization’s mission and values, and begin breaking down the silos of the past. 

Do you think school counselors adequately promote nursing to boys as a career option? No because it hasn’t been a traditional career choice in the past. We as nurses need to become visible by contacting schools — kindergarten through college — and offer to address classes and/or assemblies to discuss nursing as a career choice for both women and men, attend career days, conduct tours through the hospital, etc. I can’t tell you how fun it is! You get to talk about what you do and the kids are so full of excitement! I certainly appreciate the efforts of companies like Johnson & Johnson who are actively promoting nursing as a career in the mainstream media, not limiting themselves to nursing periodicals and journals.

The term “male nurse” — Yes or no? Doesn’t matter much to me, although sometimes I get the opportunity to lighten the moment when someone says, “So you’re a male nurse?” I’ll introduce my wife or a female colleague and say, “Yes, and this is so-and-so, she is a female nurse.” They grin and realize that a nurse is a nurse.

Do you find that patients accept nurses who are men? You must be sensitive to the individual you are caring for. Most patients are accepting, but there are some elderly ones that are still sensitive not only to gender but to race and cultures. We must be ready to accept that some of these biases endure, and that the hospital is not the place to confront or challenge the patient if they are adamantly opposed to having that caregiver. Instead, we should make whatever adjustments we can in collaboration with the patient.