Are you encouraging other XYs to pursue nursing?

RescueNinjaKy · Mar 4, 2015

While I feel there should be efforts to increase diversity in all professions, I know of no exclusion of interested and qualified males from the profession.
I'm fine with some PR encouraging men to enter the profession, but oppose any type of affirmative action or preferential treatment over women.

I agree completely

middleager · Mar 4, 2015

I agree 100% that the efforts should be at breaking down stereotypes, PR, perhaps recruiting into the profession is acceptable but it has to come down to whom is the most qualified. Nursing is literally a life and death profession, picking a less qualified person would be dangerous and irresponsible. Now, related but off the subject, how do you feel about affirmative action in other areas that benefit women. I am thinking of examples such as lowering physical requirements for fire and police to allow more women to pass the test? Those are physical requirements so not so much an apples to apples but I am curious. I agree with you but I think that should apply universally in all professions for race and gender. I am just curious as it seems in general we are more accepting of actual preference or affirmative action in gender and race depending on who the parties are. Once you get by the "I know a lot of females who aren't good...I think this is an interesting topic. It is timely as we start gearing up for a presidential election (I know...groan) where one of the probable candidates will be pushing gender hard. Just yesterday her statement was "Isn't it about time to have a woman in the Whitehouse". Not trying to go off topic or start a gender war I just find it interesting and wonder if we do not view workplace diversity different when the traditional roles are reversed.

elkpark · Mar 4, 2015

I agree 100% that the efforts should be at breaking down stereotypes, PR, perhaps recruiting into the profession is acceptable but it has to come down to whom is the most qualified.

I'm not sure how long you've been in nursing, but there have been big, national PR campaigns in the past (mostly in times of actual shortage) to recruit men into nursing.

toERortonot · Mar 13, 2015

I also think the OP is getting a lot of pushback due to his implication that women tend to have more personality problems. He's tried to imply it in so many ways without actually coming out and saying it that it's kind of laughable.

as a second career nurse, a dudes' behavior is almost identical to females in the workplace (HEALTHCARE or not).

middleager · Mar 13, 2015

I agree, the comment implying one gender or the other has more personality problems, more or less behavior issues, or is more or less qualified has no place in these conversations because they are ridiculous

cinlou, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 19, 2015

I think many men still do not see nursing as a viable option. I attend career fairs often and I encourage highschool boys as much as the girls to be nurses, even to start out as nurse aides to see if the health care field is an area of interest for them. As a CNA they can use that experience to decide if nursing, rad tech, surg tech, PT etc. is for them.

middleager · Mar 20, 2015

I agree, that was my experience when I was doing a JA class in a local high school. Some of the same social stigma that keeps the number of females in engineering keep males from considering nursing. The question becomes what to do about it, and I think the answer is the same things we did to address the gender disparity in MD's continue to push the it is a great career for young men, feature males in ads about nursing and encourage educators to encourage males to go into nursing. Not much else you can do.

cinlou, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 20, 2015

Johnson and Johnson does a great deal for nursing and have many free posters of male nurses and other types of nursing jobs, get on their site and order some to post around your schools I have.

SunriseDay · Mar 21, 2015

I'd say there IS discouragement to go into nursing for Guys. There are harmful stereotypes, especially in the south. I've lived in Northern California and I see more male nurses going into the field and people who have relatives who are males which are comparatively, but when I went down there once, I saw the major hospitals were nearly 100% female nurses, including the schools (along with the easier programs to get into vs here where it's more impacted)...

Also, there's a little discrimination here also (though maybe less so)..

I took a CNA class for 1 week (hated the program which was closing down bc of inspections, ect, and dropped it, it only 2 yrs old anyways) here locally and the CNA instructor (only 2 males in that class) like sexually harassed the 2 males (or really, just one male) in the class with inappropriate demonstrations (poking butthole, body ect) and literally pointing out that they were the only males there. It's just awkward how males going into nursing can be bothered and considered "feminine" for doing it. And granted, this is Cali, so the 2 guys out of 8 people could be 0/8 in another place.

My parent, who is a baby-boomer age, also thinks male nurses are probably gay. I still think (although nearly half of med schools now are female) that most people think males are doctors and females the nurses or underlings. You go to dr's offices, and often you'll see most of the office people-secretaries are also still female. Anything "assistant" has a female-role, anything "leader" has a male role... but these ideas are very damaging. Personally, I'd like to see ALL fields to be 50/50.

Hot-button topic.

middleager · Mar 21, 2015

I could not agree more. Most of what I experienced teaching JA were harmful stereotypes and of course being gay was one of them. Don't get me wrong, I have no issue what so ever with homosexuality, fully understand the gay community has it's own challenges in this society. But at the age where young people, in this case young men are choosing a profession they are heavily influenced by perception. The media does it's best to play that stereotype, just look at the number of gay male nurses on almost any series, Nurse Jackie, etc. We know this is Hollywood but for a 16-17 year old boy trying to figure out where he wants to go after school...it has an impact. I also don't think stereotyping males is as serious as say females and African Americans because historically males, especially white males have been the purveyors of discrimination not the victims, it will take awhile. Diversity in a profession as important and intimate as nursing could really make a difference in the patients experience. Not because one gender or the other is better or worse than the other, but because there is a certain level of comfort for many with people they can identify with.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Mar 21, 2015

I feel that as far as I can remember in my 24-year nursing career, there's always been a push to encourage more males in the nursing profession in one form or another. Growing up, I was fed with the negative stereotypes of nursing as a profession in my own family. And it wasn't because it is female dominated but rather the fact that my dad perceived it as a "subservient" role. I chose nursing against my family's wishes as I reached young adulthood thinking that the perks of future mobility and economic stability will pay off. I ended up finding a career that had a lot of potential for myself.

I think that males pick nursing now as a career for the same reason. There has been a steady upward trend in the number of males entering the profession though it hasn't reached a ratio comparable to gender diversity among physicians (statistics state around 10% are males in nursing compared to around 30% of females who are in medicine). However, if you breakdown nursing by specialty, you will find that certain fields have a significant number of males (more than 10%) - critical care, emergency, trauma, and some APN roles have traditionally attracted more males than other nursing specialties.

The CRNA role for instance reports 40% of its practitioners being males. I have seen more males in the fields I've chosen in my career after my prelicensure nursing education. In my ACNP class in 2003, of 10 students 4 are males and in my current role as a critical care NP, 5 of 16 are males. I can not claim that these represent the overall picture of gender distribution in my specialty in general but my personal experience appears to show that gender ratio is higher than the overall average of 1 in 10 nurses are male.

warthawg · Mar 21, 2015

So far I have been met with open arms when I talk to female counterparts about wanting to become an NP. Of course I can only speak from a small group located in the Midwest, but I think overall most females seem to be on board about males going into nursing. Im just not sure, I think you will find some out there that are not going to support it.