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.

I you think your personal beliefs should interfere with another persons access to healthcare, then no, you are not nursing material.

@Nousernameforme

Trainee nurse is it bollocks it's a troll looking for screen shots

I wondered about this as well, especially using the term "pro-trans", as if GC equals anti-trans.

I quite agree that one should leave one’s politics and personal opinions at the door and treat all patients with respect irrespective of their views.

Here’s how the LGBTQ+ staff network of a major London trust approached that important matter: “no TERFS allowed.” It was not clear whether this referred to staff, or patients, or both.

The Trust’s response was that it treated all patients with dignity and respect (good) but implied that the earlier tweet was somehow justified because it “followed a previous instance of online abuse directed at our LGBTQ+ network.“ So much for leaving politics at the door.

twitter.com/NoXYinXXprisons/status/1505262848515223552?s=20&t=h91-UIQ9sJwlbK9uJ7JD8Q

If you can’t leave your personal beliefs at the door and treat patients accordingly then no, it’s not for you.

Depends if you can leave your personal opinions at home to do the job properly

Medical care isn’t something you get to be a bigot about from treating enemy soldiers on the front lines to providing abortion healthcare it doesn’t matter what you think of the individual and their life choices, it matters that you can do your job anyway

I work in the NHS and unless you work in that particular area I doubt you’ll even be involved other than that you treat all patients the same, you won’t have time to do otherwise.

acrimoniousone that behaviour was disgraceful everybody deserves the simple recognition of being called their name. If a HCP cant be minimally professional how could they obtain consent (when possible) of their patient.

OP nursing is a dont bring your full self to work job. So if you are going into a profession such as nursing you need to be able to treat the person in front of you in accordance with its professional ethics.
If you are unable to do that then nursing is not the profession for you.

If you are unsure, if your personal ethics align with the professional nursing ethics you need to do your research first.
If you are conscious objector its up to you to find out what guidance must you follow to ensure that your choices as a nurse is not detriment to the paitent care.
If your objection is to a specific cource of treatments is ethical and allowed within nursing you would need to discuss this with your training orginisation and the GPs you will be working in, if they wish to facilitate your limits and provide cover that their choice.
But IMO a GP is a little like A&E in that the HCP ends up having to deal with whoever comes through the door. However unlike A&E in the GPs the doctor is the first point of contact and is directing any treatments. Nevertheless the paitent deserves to be treated professionally if you feel your personal ethics do not allow that then nursing is not the profession for you.

Don't people get the hormones once they've been prescribed through their GP and perhaps sometimes need help?

Hormone injections to trans persons are administered at the practice I work so yep.

I am clinical in the NHS (not a nurse) trust me someone being trans will be the least of your worries, you will have to treat rapists and murderers, people who are that rude and aggressive you’re scared they’re going to attack you (and some do), people who verbally abuse you, make disgusting sexual comments about you etc. You need to be able to put your opinions about that person to one side and offer the same standard of care you would to any patient, if you can’t do that then a patient facing role isn’t for you.

Are you doing child or adult nursing OP? Would you feel more comfortable in adult nursing, with regards to informed consent etc? If you feel you still couldn't provide prescribed treatment, then maybe you do need to think again. It points to putting your own beliefs and feelings before your patient's. There maybe other scenarios where you feel the same, but don't know it yet. You will, at some point in your career, have to provide care with compassion and respect, to people who have very different beliefs, or who have done truly hideous things.

@Elsiebear90

I am clinical in the NHS (not a nurse) trust me someone being trans will be the least of your worries, you will have to treat rapists and murderers, people who are that rude and aggressive you’re scared they’re going to attack you (and some do), people who verbally abuse you, make disgusting sexual comments about you etc. You need to be able to put your opinions about that person to one side and offer the same standard of care you would to any patient, if you can’t do that then a patient facing role isn’t for you.

Well put. I was thinking the exact same line.... after a 13hour shift .... least of your worries!

Plenty of nhs staff have their own personal views on all sorts of things. You just leave it at home and act in a professional manner at work.

If you think you won't be able to treat patients due to broader ideological differences then no, I don't think nursing is for you. You will treat plenty of people whose politics are different to yours, who have committed crimes, who are racist or sexist or homophobic or misogynist.

If it's that you can't handle treating a person with the medical care prescribed to them by a doctor because you think their treatment should be different, then I suggest perhaps you go to medical school and become a doctor and make care decisions in order with your own views, or perhaps find a way onto the General Medical Council to make your views known. Otherwise, your job is to treat the patient as their doctor has prescribed*, not to pass judgement on whether or not you personally would treat them that way.

*I know nurses have clinical decisions to make, too, but that isn't relevant in this specific scenario.

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

This is a good point. I don't see the next wave of primary school kids being so readily swayed, they are already different.

The more gc people in there the better!

Absolutely brilliant post @acrimoniousone. The perfect summary of the bottom line.

Please don’t

Ps I don't think anyone would suggest not treating a trans person, I am thinking more of the trans agenda within the nhs

Interesting responses. The OP didn't say she didn't want to treat trans people or implied anything about not treating them with dignity, yet somehow that's what's been leapt on.

There are serious considerations here for NHS staff and there have been a large number of incidents where staff have been put in a very difficult position.

Take the many whistleblowers at the Tavistock. I think that's 35 resignations now?
Someone upthread mentioned that it would be 'unkind' to refuse treatment to a trans teenager.
What if that teenager was the one who had said that 'my mum wants this more than me', or one of those who came out as trans after being bullied for a lesbian and that mum was one of the openly homophobic parents mentioned in the review?
There's nothing kind about giving irreversible medical treatment to a teenager who doesn't want it and is only agreeing because of homophobia from their peers and parents.
Or if you're one of those clinicians who were told not to raise concerns with the safeguarding lead?

Or take the recent case of a woman who was raped on a single sex ward and told that it couldn't have happened because there were 'no men' on the ward? If you're the nurse who is expected to tell a woman she wasn't raped because NHS policy said it couldn't have happened?

I would find it very difficult to turn a blind eye to any of those scenarios, all of which have actually happened.

This isn't about refusing treatment to trans people or refusing to treat them with dignity. It's about medical professionals being put in a position where they have to go directly against their medical judgment.

Another analogy is a nurse working in one of the hospitals overseas that perform FGM on girls. Is she supposed to say 'it's my job' and wash her hands of it because she was respectful and kind to the girl on the post-op ward?

This isn't about the OP not being kind or not wanting to treat trans people. It's about being worried about having to go ahead with treatment that is clearly bad for the patient and having to enforce policies that go against safeguarding.

OP, it's difficult to tell someone else what to do with something like this, but I do know that the NHS needs nurses who will genuinely put their patients first and not look the other way in cases of medical malpractice or safeguarding concerns.

If you think your opinion on how someone lives their life is more important then the how the individual wants to lead their life, then no you should probably stay away from a nursing.

Sounds like nursing is not the career for you if you are not in support of it being Pro-Trans. Dear God!

Also adding the terrible story of supposedly GC staff mistreating the trans teenager upthread is from yet another new poster who has only posted once and that is on this thread.

@Byrnealicious

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.

Look up what unconditional positive regards means. Then start your course and see if its for you. You’ll quickly know if its not.

Something fishy about this thread.

Why wouldn't you enter training. The NHS supports trans people , it doesn't mean you have to change your feelings or beliefs. Just treat your patients as individuals and with compassion