Should I enter the NHS as a trainee nurse if I am gender critical?

[Balicious]

I have been offered a place on a nursing degree apprenticeship within a GP surgery. Since I applied I have watched YouTube videos that GP nurses have posted in relation to the trans healthcare they have to provide. It appears the NHS is pro-trans and since the scandal came out about the rape on a NHS ward and the gaslighting of a patient following this assault, I am rethinking entering the NHS at all. Please help! I am deeply concerned about gender ideology and the effects it is having on women and children. I must admit I would struggle to treat anyone under the age of 18 with hormone blockers/hormonal injections. Will I struggle in the NHS with these views? Am I nursing material or should I reconsider? Honest opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Well if you cannot support patient choice then you'll be shit at patient care.

Oh please. A trainee is not in a position to ‘refuse treatment’ to anyone. I wondered how long it would be before the TRA showed up to try to persuade or guilt trip or harangue the OP out of this traineeship, to make sure that there would be one less person in the NHS with a functioning brain cell.

Oh knob off, people aren't "TRAs" or whatever other strawman you want to invent for pointing out that an entrenched prejudice against a group of patients isn't going to swing it in nursing, and OP most certainly needs to be made aware she will not be in a position where she can refuse or undermine care for trans patients, even if it does conflict with her beliefs. I'm not saying she can't go into nursing but like anyone who does she needs to be honest with herself about whether she can put her personal prejudices aside when she's on the job.

I am GC and work in health care, am open about the fact that I don't believe humans can change sex, and it has never been a problem. Provided you treat everyone with respect and professionalism you are likely to be fine. Dilemmas like transwomen on female inpatient wards are uncommon.

(Our local obstetrics and gynaecology unit is called Women's Outpatients. This makes me ridiculously happy.)

Sometimes you just have to keep your opinions to yourself. I'm a teacher and gender critical and (although I post on Mon) I wouldn't share my views on Twitter or FB or it would affect my job. In the same way I wouldn't swear or post drunken pictures etc. I haven't ever come across a child or parent irl who is trans. If I did, I would treat them with respect. I would vocally disagree with certain things eg putting pronouns on name badges (not necessary, I'm Mrs anyway) or not being allowed to use gendered terms eg boys and girls. But beyond that, my gender critical views are separate from my job.

Gosh, so many wide-eyed trans threads in the last few days since the Twitter storm. What a coincidence.

@user3837313202

If you think your personal opinions would affect the treatment a patient might receive, then this isn't the right job for you.

I would say the same to a pro lifer who wanted to be a pharmacist (morning after pill) or GP.

Agree with this.

Unless you can’t remain professional and courteous to all despite personal views on trans/homeless/substance abuse/offenders etc then you should be fine.

Congratulations and I hope you can move beyond this.

I am GC and I am a nurse in a GP practice. It's not an issue. We have some trans patients, I treat them with respect, the same as I would treat any patient. I use preferred pronouns etc because it would be rude and disrespectful not to. If you feel you can't do this then nursing is not the career for you.
If however, you are just concerned about providing treatment specifically for gender transition then all you need to do is not work in a specialist gender transition service. GP practices do not provide this treatment. We do have a few patients with 'shared care' agreements - this means they have their blood tests with us, to save them from traveling long distances to the gender identity clinic, but the hormone treatments are provided by the specialists.

I'm as GC as they come but it shouldn't matter in terms of patients and the care you deliver. I am nothing but respectful and supportive of teenagers I work with who believe they're the wrong sex - I know they need compassionate adults who focus on the whole child and their needs, not activists virtue signalling or imposing their own political views on them.
To my mind, the challenges will be just as in schools, ensuring that all the Stonewall flag flyers don't drown out all the rational balanced adults delivering our roles - be it medicine or education.
It's good to think critically and it's scary out there at the moment if you believe in safeguarding children as a priority. However, the interim report from the Cass Review demonstrating the appalling standards of unevidenced medical care offered to such vulnerable children will result in changes quite quickly. Medicine needs critical intelligent thinkers, able to prioritise patent needs, not lobby group demands.
Good luck.

Have you got any type of support work or care experience OP?

If not I would do this BEFORE applying for nursing it's a bloody hard slog! There's lots of unusual things you will see as a nurse.... but you have to put it aside.

@ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave

Gosh, so many wide-eyed trans threads in the last few days since the Twitter storm. What a coincidence.

Well indeed. How odd that OP wasn’t posting last week - would she struggle in the NHS given thar a huge number of treatments are only needed because of lifestyle choices, and what if she has to help diabetics who are just greedy? 🙄

No, OP only wants to post from a band wagon.

As everyone else has said, if it means you wouldn't be comfortable providing care prescribed by a doctor then no, it's probably not the right career. If you're willing to treat everyone with respect, use the name someone has asked for and the pronouns they use, then crack on. Your personal beliefs are entirely your own, but everyone needs to be treated with respect in a medical setting.

I've worked in the NHS over a number of decades and here is my take on this subject. I am a bit passionate so do bear in mind!

It seems a good indicator of your suitability to become a nurse that you are even needing to consider this. Nurses MUST be impartial and keep their opinions and judgments to themselves. Your behaviour must NEVER be influenced by any moral, social or political belief and if it does then you shouldn't be in the profession. We have way too many issues as it is in the workforce re: homophobia, racism etc without adding to that.

As an aside, you are (if you apply) going to come across ALOT of rather unpleasant things in your career (from molesters and killers to domestic abusers etc) and you will have to treat them ALL the same. If you can't tolerate the diversity of your community, I am struggling to see how you would approach people who are actually problematic for society.

If you want to get ahead in the NHS you will need to shut up and not say anything that may even remotely come across as anti-trans.

Personally I couldn't work in the NHS if I had strong views about any kind of minority group. Why? Because I couldn't be the true me at work and that doesn't feel authentic. Nursing (as with any job in the NHS) isn't just a job, its who you are.

Apologies for the directness. If you want a conversation about this do feel free to DM me.

All patients should be treated the same. You leave your own personal beliefs at the door.

I think you'll be better placed to care for people if you accept it.

Except women of course. But hey ho.

Also just an aside, if you work in certain specialisms you will find a huge number of trans people. At one point I was treating 8 or 9 transgender individuals (not relating to their transition, nor were we a service for trans individuals specifically).

If nursing is the job for you, and you have considered all the other groups of folks in society who will cross your doorstep as above, murderers, rapists, abusers of all kind including abusers of nhs staff, then I doubt you will come across enough trans people with problems that require you to be involved in it that much of an issue.

Even Stone Wall suggest there are only 1% of population and they include non-binary and all sorts of people within that not who have not actually medically transitioned you'd be maybe talking 1 or 2 in a GP practice list. And I'm sure people in that position will be careful who they see/trust.

@acrimoniousone

Ex-nurse, first post. Nerve touched.

I worked in ICU (fun fact - it's brilliant for newly qualified nurses but they are frequently scared off) and had a patient who attempted suicide. Although they survived it wasn't a cry for help and they suffered devastating injuries. The patient was no longer able to live with their immediate family's rejection of their chosen gender identity.

This led to a bizzare situation where some staff supported the patients' choice and others sympathised with the parents views - this person was over eighteen but still at home. It led to stupidity such as the patient's name above their bed being changed with the shift.

I thought it was fucking disgusting and advocated for the patient. This young adult had horrific trauma both physical and mental - this wasn't attention-seeking but a miraculous survival. I had sympathy for the parents but their principles mattered more than the child desperately reaching out to them. To see this supported by a majority of staff - well, I didn't work there much longer.

They made a reasonable recovery but it was life changing injuries. It is hard - in ICU your patients are, on the whole, asleep or out of it so the main interaction is with the family and of course you build a connection.

But it is never the place of a nurse to make value judgements when it is related to a patient. They should always advocate for their patient and respect their choices. This was a few years ago and hopefully it may have improved now but I will never forget it.

I also won't forget the rampant bullying from both staff and patients, the appalling starving of the NHS over many years and the abysmal care I have both observed and received. And it wasn't that long ago.

You will notice I don't mention my own views on transgender issues. Because it doesn't (or shouldn't) fucking matter. If you can't stow your opinions you shouldn't be even thinking about nursing, it's no different to views on abortion.

Excellent post.

(Also a nurse)

If you've been accepted onto a degree course apprenticeship then I assume you've already been recruited in line with the values of the NHS constitution.

If it is only under 18s that you would think you would have a problem with treating then if you were an adult nurse that shouldnt come into it at all, and even paediatric nurses I believe it would be those who had specialised (though during training you may have time on that speciality - unlikely though)

And in fairness it seems like it's actually conducting care directly relating to transitioning rather than caring for someone who has transitioned/is transitioning - ie someone who is trans but has broken their leg I'm assuming you wouldn't have an issue with treating the broken leg - to me this is no different that those who opt out of abortion care - they can't object to caring for someone who has had an abortion, or is going to have an abortion - but they can object to being the person who is directly involved (ie give the medication to)

I dont think the trans narrative will keep its grip for the amount of years you'd spend in the profession tbh.

I think go for it, you dont have to drink the Kool Aid, you just have to treat all patients with due care and respect, regardless of personal opinion.
Most people in customer facing jobs have to do the same thing.

In the 80s I had a Catholic GP who refused to prescribe the pill!!

Im gender critical and i dont think this would even be relevent in your day to day life unless you specialised in that area. On a day to day basis you would treat everybody with dignity and respect whether you agree with them or not. No matter who they are, what theyve done or what they believe. If you dont think you could manage that then dont go into nursing.

The sensible thing to do with a nursing degree is train to do botox and fillers afterwards & work self employed doing that.