Are you MAN enough to be a Nurse?

[Cascadians]

[ Fair Use: For Educational / Research / Discussion Purposes Only ]

http://www.oregoncenterfornursing.org/about/ocnnews/heyfellas.html

November 14, 2002 - The Oregonian, by Wendy Y. Lawton

Hey, fellas: Operation tries to get guys into nursing

The headline reads like a tough-guy taunt: "Are you man enough . . . to be a nurse?"

Underneath the banner stand nine macho men -- Harley rider, black belt, combat medic -- who ply the profession of Florence Nightingale. They are, literally, the new poster boys for Oregon nursing.

The campaign, unveiled Wednesday in Portland, takes aim at nursing's sissified stereotype. The goal: attract more men to a field starved for recruits. A Northwest Health Foundation report released last year found that one in five Oregon nursing jobs will go unfilled by 2010. By 2020, nearly half will go empty -- just when aging baby boomers will need more medical care.

That's why the Oregon Center for Nursing, a nonprofit dedicated to solving the shortage, wants to get the guys early. Next week, the organization is shipping the poster to every middle and high school in the state.

"We need to appeal to the jock freshman or sophomore in high school," said Deborah Burton, the center's executive director. "They need to know that nursing is perfectly compatible with being a stereotypical male."

Nursing, however, has had a hard time shaking its girlie image.

Poster boy Walter Moore Jr., a Kaiser Permanente intensive-care nurse and former Navy Seal, remembers his first visit to the nursing department at a North Carolina community college more than 20 years ago. Dressed in a camouflage T-shirt, cowboy boots and baseball cap, Moore told the secretary he wanted to sign up for classes.

"No, no, no," he recalled her saying. "You must be looking for the welding department."

Even today, when Boy Scouts earn nursing merit badges, the field doesn't always sit well with the Steve McQueen set. When University of Portland student Bill Maddalena announced he was pursuing a nursing career, his father replied: "You'll make a great paramedic."

"Nursing is highly feminized," said Gene Tranbarger, president of the American Assembly for Men in Nursing. "People think about a white woman in a white cap. They think saint or madonna. And that's difficult for a 9-year-old boy to identify with."

Statistics bear this out. In Oregon, 11 percent of licensed registered nurses are men. Nationally, 5 percent are men. With a national shortage looming, guys are being wooed to fill the ranks. Health-products maker Johnson & Johnson, for example, prominently features men in its $20 million recruitment effort.

But only Oregon, Burton said, has created a campaign focused solely on guys. And it's testosterone heavy.

Portland-area nurses on the poster are posed in scrubs or suits or sporty gear. There's a rugby player, snowboarder, marathon runner, basketball power forward. Everyone's feet are firmly planted. Jaws are set. There isn't a single smile in the bunch.

The bad-boy black-and-white image will soon spring up on billboards and may land on TriMet buses and MAX trains. The center also has rolled out a class for high school boys, dubbed "Men in Scrubs," through the Saturday Academy in the Portland area.

Will the macho appeal work? Nurses said "yes" -- but that the job's versatility, challenge, fulfillment and travel must also be stressed. And there's the pay. The average Oregon nurse makes $25 an hour.

"Show me the money," Moore said. "That works pretty well."

[Cascadians]

image code not working for hunk poster

[Cascadians]

trying again ... poster published in newspaper ... cracking up the entire nursing staff! and the patients ...

[LasVegasRN]

I LOVE that!! What an excellent Ad campaign!! I hope it catches on nationwide!

[Stargazer]

That is just awesome. :)

[WashYaHands]

Excellent Ad Campaign, more states should do this.

Linda

[live4today, RN]

Originally posted by WashYaHands

Excellent Ad Campaign, more states should do this.

Linda

I totally agree with this idea too. Excellent indeed!

I would love to see many many many more men enter the nursing profession. The more the merrier, and the better for the female nurses when it comes to the "red tape and political jargon" that is drowning out our female voices. Men seem to be listened to far more intensely with a lot more respect than women are...IMHPO. Salaries will go up, the way nurses are treated on the job will change, and respect will eventually return to the profession because men demand and get what they often times demand when there are a mass number of them fighting for change on their jobs. This shouldn't be...but history has proven this to be the case in the working world.

Go men...you have my backing 100% in this profession! :kiss

[Eric]

I look like none of the men in that poster, but I'm gonna be a nurse anyway

[Reabock]

I am printing out the poster to take into work. I can say that I have enjoyed working with 99% of the male nurses I've worked with over the last 25 years, a higher ratio than I can say for the female nurses.

My only complaint is that they don't stick around Med-surg nursing very long, all seem to go into the specialities or get out completely.

[bagladyrn, RN]

I thinks they should do a poster with some (or all!) of our allnurses guys - would make an awesome ad!

[JonRN]

Great idea!!! I been preaching this for years, they should concentrate on medics getting out of the military, make them a deal they can't refuse, like giving them credit for experience if they are able to demonstrate competence. What turns a lot of these guys and ladies too off is having to take classes in things they already excel in. They feel it is a waste of time as did I when I was in school.

[Harleyhead]

As a male nurse and a Harley rider I failed to see the harley rider in the ad. I think its a great idea. I would like to see more men in nursing too.