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This is no secret to men in nursing. Certain male patients simply do better with a male nurse, said Rich Polli, RN. "There was one gentleman who had smoked himself into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," Polli recalled. "His lungs just didn't work anymore."

In the ICU where Polli worked, this patient had a reputation with the female nurses of being difficult. But Polli had a different experience with the man.

"I bathed him every day and shaved him," Polli said. "I took care of him like he was my own father."

The next time the man was admitted to the ICU, Polli said, it was like a reunion. The difficult patient had even stopped smoking. There are times, Polli said, when a male nurse is just going to be more tolerant of the male patient.

Although this may be true with some patients, if you're a good clinician, gender ultimately shouldn't matter, said Lynda Moore, NP, RN. She operates a health center at an oil refinery in Benicia, Calif., northeast of San Francisco, where the workers are predominantly men.

As part of the employee wellness program, she shows the men how to perform testicular self-exams. For many of the guys, this is a new concept.

"A couple of my fellows get a little red-faced," Moore said. "I deal with it in a very matter-of-fact way. I could just as well be talking about a phone bill. If they sense I'm uncomfortable, they'll be uncomfortable. When I hand them the little scrotum model, some of them do say 'ack.' "

Other times, a male patient might be more comfortable talking to a female nurse, she said. When discussing the side effects of blood pressure medication, for example, some men might feel more comfortable bringing up erectile dysfunction with women. "It's the testosterone thing," she said. "Men are always in competition with each other."

Moore recalls one of her male patients who didn't want to be examined, especially by a woman. Moore didn't get defensive about being put down as a woman, and the man agreed to the skin cancer screening. She discovered a fast-spreading cancerous lesion on his back that had to be removed.

Every nurse, male or female, needs to adapt to the male patient's individual and cultural attitudes, Moore said. If the nurse gets defensive or uncomfortable, she said, so will the patient.

Contact Donna Hemmila at dhemmila@prodigy.net