Bringing in the Boys: How to Attract More Male Nurses

Do you support the growth or do you have concerns? This article will explore a few of the ways experts support more men entering the profession. Nurses General Nursing Article

Men in nursing - it's a simple phrase that can bring many emotions to the surface for nurses of both genders. You might feel that we need more men to level out the amount of estrogen on units across the country. Or, you may believe that the pay inequalities between male and female nurses are already enough of an issue that advocating for more men will only compound the discrepancy.

No matter what side of the aisle you land on, it's an argument worth discussing. According to the United States Census Bureau, the proportion of male registered nurses has increased from 2.7% in 1970 to 9.6% in 2013, and for licensed practical and vocational nurses, it has risen from 3.9% to 8.1% during the same time. And, whether you believe we are in the midst of a nursing shortage or not - there remain many nurse vacancies that could be filled by men.

So, what are some of the ways experts advocate using to increase the number of men in nursing? Let's discuss them below.

Starting Conversations Early

High schools help our young people choose professions. They complete personality tests that identify their strongest traits and passions to help determine a career that aligns with the strengths identified. But, are young men and women supported to break down the gender walls to choose the profession that is right for them? Are young men who score high in compassion and helping others encouraged to consider nursing as a career or are they encouraged to find a health and human services field more suited to men?

To increase the number of men in nursing, we must continue to break down gender roles. One strategy is to begin conversations with men from an early age about entering nursing school right out of high school or in early adulthood. Discussing non-traditional nursing roles with men might also be helpful. A few of the areas of nursing that tend to see a higher male population include intensive care, cardiac care, emergency rooms, and flight nursing. If we can attract men to enter nursing at an early age and sustain a long career, we will see diversity within the profession.

Offer Support in College

The first day of nursing school might be when many men receive the first glimpse into the future of their careers - one of being the minority. Whether you are in the U.S. or across the pond, nursing vacancies continue to be an issue, and many feel that attracting more men to nursing is a viable option to fill these vacancies.

So, how do we support men and offer encouragement to enter nursing school? Coventry University in the UK is offering male nursing students a $3,800 stipend for school to encourage men to choose nursing. The Oregon Center for Nursing launched their "Are You Man Enough to be a Nurse" Campaign in 2002 to inspire men to enter the profession. And, many schools around the globe are using their marketing dollars to run social media campaigns to attract young Millennial and Generation Zee's men to nursing programs.

Provide Mentoring

Every nurse needs a mentor. Finding a quality mentor is one of the best professional relationships you will ever have, regardless of your gender.

The University of Texas Arlington Online offers support for mentoring in nursing and states that one role of a mentor is to support minority and male students. Diversifying mentors and future nurses can lessen future health disparities in our society by providing diverse role models. It might also be a good idea for male nurses to find a fellow male nurse as their mentor. Offering strong male role models to new graduates can provide guidance in regards to all aspects of a successful nursing career.

Set Goals

If you want change in any area of life, you must set goals. Advancing Men in Nursing (AAMN) believed this and initiated a campaign to encourage men to enter the nursing profession. Their goal?

The AAMN wants to increase the number of men enrolling into nursing programs by 20% by 2020 - also known as the "20 X 20" initiative. As part of the program, they have created the Best School for Men in Nursing Awards Program. To be eligible for this award, AAMN will review the school's marketing material, strategic plans to increase gender diversity in nursing, course syllabi, and other information highlighting the program's dedication to expanding the diversity in nursing.

On Target?

Are we on the right track by offering stipends to men who want to become nurses? Should we continue to run campaigns and tell young men the benefits of a career in nursing? Or, should we stop and allow whatever happens to our profession happen? Tell us your thoughts about this important subject, we would love to hear them.

Although there is so much I want to reply to, I am going to address the OP's article. In my nursing class, there were 3 dudes including myself. In our first fundamentals class, we had a section where we discussed men in nursing and guess which 3 students were the quietest?

Also in our fundamentals class, we had a unit on patient violence towards nurses and our instructor had us watch a few youtube videos of patients going postal and attacking nurses. Our teacher asked a few of the gals what they would do and they said something along the lines of "Hide behind knotizer!". It was a joke but my reaction was like "Ok, then pay me hazard pay" and "punches hurt me too".

Several times I had my female classmates joke that they would just get me to lift their heavy box or turn their heavy patient. My teacher was actually really good about shutting this stuff down by saying stuff like "ok, then you need to take one of his patients for him."

Can you imagine the fallout if I had said, even jokingly, "I'll get one of the female nurses to make dinner for my patient" or "I'll get one of the female nurses to come clean your room"? I would have been in front of the dean and possibly out of the program.

So my solution to getting more men into nurses? Do away with the anti-men jabs. Even if they are said in good fun.

I work in Washington State. In regards to pay, my hospital has a union (it's a ****** food worker's union) and all the wage steps are listed in the various collective bargaining agreements. They also state how much years of experience can bump you up in terms of pay. IE 1-2 years = one step increase 3-4 years = 2 steps ECT.

I'm a new nurse and I have no bargaining leg to stand on but I was bumped up one pay step (a whole .40) by asking and being confident that I deserved it. If you KNOW you are getting paid less than your male coworkers for the SOLE reason that you are a woman, please bring it to HR because that **** is illegal.

Cheers, y'all!

I do not know of any at a national level but I do know there are many state level women's focused nursing organizations. I know of at least one Filipino women's nursing organization, now that is getting specific!

Then by all means please point them all out to us. I cant seem to Google a single women's only nursing association.

Specializes in school nurse.
I'm not sure exactly what the acronym is, but it means that she added the bold to your comment. (something Bold Mine)

Bolded by me, maybe?

Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

My first career was in the science research field, more of my colleagues were men. I was not specifically recruited or pushed into it, I loved science and that's what I wanted to do. I didn't pay attention at all to the fact that my classes in college and graduate school were more heavily attended by males, I'm not even sure I really noticed, but statistically I guess that's what it was. Now I'm in the female dominated field of nursing. I've had competent and incompetent coworkers in all my jobs, equally split between males and females. In neither profession did I think that there should be more of a specific gender. There should only be a push for competent individuals that want to work in their fields. Who cares what their gender is?

Still waiting for the trolls to post all those women only nursing organizations.

I've been a nurse for over 20 years and have done lots of research in nursing. I found that nursing is the most abused, exploited and discriminated of all occupations/professions that I've seen. The unfortunate reality as to why this is the case is that it's a female dominated occupation/profession.

One of the shocking realities was when my municipal employer was trying to reduce a large number of its nurses in it's nursing homes. The number of Part Time employees at these nursing homes was 70% and were deemed essential services, which meant that they couldn't strike. In addition this workforce was primarily women. I compared this workforce with two other essential services work forces within the same municipal corporation: Police and Fire Departments which were male dominated. Police and Fire were approximately 100% Full Time employees.

I'll never forget the words of the Fire Chief when I asked him how many Part Time/Full Time firefighters there were. He stated, "There's no such thing as a Part Time Firefighter".

So the unfortunate reality is that the ongoing abuse, exploitation and discrimination that nurses experience will continue unless more men enter the profession.

Indeed!

If you compare "accountability" between male/female dominated professions, I.e. cop vs nurse, cops have very little accountability vs nurses who have a board overseeing them that has no purpose whatsoever beyond dishing out discipline.

Talk to a patient in a stern voice as a nurse & it can very easily be a felony (I.e. vulnerable adult), vs cops can cuss, beat & kill with few repercussions. In America, we have a "right to remain silent ", but not when dealing with the board of nursing. Hearsay isn't admissible in court, except against those who care for the vulnerable (nurses).

Getting men into the profession isn't about wages, it's about working conditions and basic standards of fairness. Nurses routinely shred each other & won't come to the defense of each other, even in the most egregious cases. Look how many nurses were ready to jump all over nurse wubbels for being arrested for doing her job on this very board! There were a number of posts criticizing her for being "unprofessional" when she was being man handled by a psycho cop.

We need male nurses to reduce the lateral violence in nursing.

Although there is so much I want to reply to, I am going to address the OP's article. In my nursing class, there were 3 dudes including myself. In our first fundamentals class, we had a section where we discussed men in nursing and guess which 3 students were the quietest?

Also in our fundamentals class, we had a unit on patient violence towards nurses and our instructor had us watch a few youtube videos of patients going postal and attacking nurses. Our teacher asked a few of the gals what they would do and they said something along the lines of "Hide behind knotizer!". It was a joke but my reaction was like "Ok, then pay me hazard pay" and "punches hurt me too".

Several times I had my female classmates joke that they would just get me to lift their heavy box or turn their heavy patient. My teacher was actually really good about shutting this stuff down by saying stuff like "ok, then you need to take one of his patients for him."

Can you imagine the fallout if I had said, even jokingly, "I'll get one of the female nurses to make dinner for my patient" or "I'll get one of the female nurses to come clean your room"? I would have been in front of the dean and possibly out of the program.

So my solution to getting more men into nurses? Do away with the anti-men jabs. Even if they are said in good fun.I work in Washington State. In regards to pay, my hospital has a union (it's a ****** food worker's union) and all the wage steps are listed in the various collective bargaining agreements. They also state how much years of experience can bump you up in terms of pay. IE 1-2 years = one step increase 3-4 years = 2 steps ECT.

I'm a new nurse and I have no bargaining leg to stand on but I was bumped up one pay step (a whole .40) by asking and being confident that I deserved it. If you KNOW you are getting paid less than your male coworkers for the SOLE reason that you are a woman, please bring it to HR because that **** is illegal.

Cheers, y'all!

This stuff happens to me all the time, and it doesn't bother me at all. I work in an ER, and there is a lot of workplace banter. This is not discrimination, and doesn't bother any of the guys I work with. Honestly, I don't think this a big factor in the percentage of men in nursing. As far as genders go, we seem to be fairly well appreciated.

Regarding pay- I also just went full time and was paid only by years of service. Although, if you were to look at the average pay of men VS women in this area, I am sure men are higher, as most work in hospitals or systems that pay more. For all I know there are other discriminatory pay issues, but in the three local hospitals with which I am familiar, it is all based on years of service.

Specializes in Diabetes, Transplant, CCU, Neurology.

Regarding pay. My hospital pays time and a half for overtime, plus premium pay ($6/hr) most every day, and often double premium ($12/hr). We also get a pretty generous night shift diff of about $6/hr and $8/hr on weekends. I'm a guy. I worked more OT than 90% of the nurses in the hospital. I worked a lot of weekends. I got great evaluations, so my pay went up faster. Plus, I went to the trouble of becoming a Clin 4, the highest on the Clinical Ladder. Consequently, I made more than most of the nurses at the hospital. So, on the survey, I probably moved the salary for males up some. But, a lot of the guys there did work overtime. In some cases, he was supporting a stay-at-home mom who was home schooling their kids. He needed to make more. Many of the female nurses did not work overtime--3 twelves and they were out of there. The one nurse said she didn't negotiate her salary as they told her it wasn't negotiable. That's what one hospital told me, until I said I'd probably look elsewhere then. All of the sudden, it became negotiable. If they want you, they WILL negotiate. If they have too many nurses in the area, they might not need to negotiate. I've been all over the country: Oklahoma, New Mexico, California, Virginia. I was not a travel nurse. My wife and I were in demand. If you are limited to a place that doesn't need you--move. It's not as hard as it seems.

Right, same thing for pushing women into male dominated fields.

The reason for the push of females into "male dominated fields" is to be more progressive. The majority of women back in the day were to be homemakers. When women entered the workforce, there were few options. Teacher, nurse, secretary, stewardess...Move forward a few decades and the nation was realizing women are just as intelligent and capable as men. Therefore, we should not limit ourselves in choice of career. It is ABSOLUTELY necessary to introduce sciences and mechanics etc...to younger generations so that they can think bigger. A wider net of career opportunities for women will yield higher job satisfaction, which in general, leads to greater overall happiness. Not to mention, if women stuck with the stereotypical "woman job," there wouldn't be many job opportunities due to oversaturation.

We don't need to do this for men. You already dominate much of the work force.

Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

First of all, we should stop referring to them as "boys"

Indeed!

Getting men into the profession isn't about wages, it's about working conditions and basic standards of fairness. Nurses routinely shred each other & won't come to the defense of each other, even in the most egregious cases. Look how many nurses were ready to jump all over nurse wubbels for being arrested for doing her job on this very board! There were a number of posts criticizing her for being "unprofessional" when she was being man handled by a psycho cop.

We need male nurses to reduce the lateral violence in nursing.

Except I see so many people on this board, and in real life, going on and on about how increasing the number of men in nursing IS about increasing wages because "women get paid less for the same work".

Why aren't we addressing the issue of lateral violence by offering assertiveness classes to ALL healthcare workers instead of "we need more men to stick up for the women".

This stuff happens to me all the time, and it doesn't bother me at all. I work in an ER, and there is a lot of workplace banter. This is not discrimination, and doesn't bother any of the guys I work with. Honestly, I don't think this a big factor in the percentage of men in nursing. As far as genders go, we seem to be fairly well appreciated.

So what extra duties are my female coworkers doing for me? Why am I going above and beyond for them? If you're doing the "heavy lifting for them" then of course they appreciate you but are you getting paid extra? If not, and they are not repaying you in some other way, why are you doing it? Not trying to be hostile at all. Just very curious. Because suddenly if one gender is doing more work than the other, it paints the picture that one gender is better at the job.

EDIT: Yeah it's all workplace banter until someone (man or woman) gets offended and goes to HR and suddenly you have to attend sensitivity training or are moved around. It happened to me once. Based on everything I have seen (which is anecdotal, I admit) women are more often than not the ones believed when it comes down to "he said she said" cases.

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