"Greg's a male nurse." "Yes. Thank you. Jack."

I'd like to start off with one of my favorite quotes from meet the parents:

Jack Byrnes: Greg's a male nurse.

Greg Focker: Yes. Thank you, Jack.
Kevin: Wow, that's great. I'd love to find time to do some volunteer work. Just the other day I saw a golden retriever, he had like a gimp, ya know I just wish I could have done something.
Greg Focker: Yeah, well I get paid too so it's sort of an everyone wins thing.

I haven't had too many people make fun of me for wanting to be a male nurse, in fact, the other day at the hospital I was very glad I was a guy. I was in the ICU in a patients room sitting by the side of his bed making sure he stayed there. He was there for some breathing troubles, but he also had some serious bi-polar. I was trying to watch some of general conference on the TV while he slept when out of nowhere, he laid up in his bed, looking very agitated. He started by ripping out his IV, then tore off all of his EKG chest leads. He then tore his hospital gown off, and headed straight for the hallway.

This all happened in a matter of 3 seconds, and I was on the side of his bed away from the door, so I had no time to do anything to stop him. He was about halfway out of his room when I caught up to him and pulled him back. This guy was pretty well built, so that's why I was glad I was a guy. I pulled him back, and then the battle started. As he hurled profanity after profanity at me, we wrestled each other. He was a big guy, but I was able to hold him off for a little bit.

Finally, after a minute or so, a couple nurses heard the commotion from down the hall, and came running to help me. We got him calmed down and sitting on the edge of his bed. Unfortunately, 15 minutes later, he got back up, headed straight for the hall again, and the fight started up again. This time, a couple of hospital security officers came in and relieved me of the fight. They threw the guy back and put him in a double wrist bend until he calmed down again.

By this time we had a doctor from the ER run up and order some IV Ativan for him, and we were finally able to relax again. This is one day that I don't think I would have been made fun of for becoming a male nurse.

I don't plan on being a nurse for more than a year or two, as I will hopefully get into graduate school after I get the required amount of critical care experience and go on to do what I really want to do: anesthesia. Man, that would have been nice to have some anesthesia agents that day! Just remember, if your ever dealing with a severe bipolar, sit in between them and the door! Stay tuned...