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.

Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.
No sense delving into a conversation where people are just going to bring emotions into the fray. The studies are blatantly skewed for an agenda, but most people either have very little knowledge of statistics or didn't bother to actually read them.

Not worth debating.

Perhaps you need to look at the interactive results from the allnurses 2018 Salary Survey in which almost 17,000 nurses (including males) showed that male nurses do indeed make more than female nurses.

How Much Do Nurses Make? - 2018 Salary Survey Part 4

I can understand the perspective some people have that we should not entice or lie to get men to go into nursing. If they want become a nurse, let them, and if not don't encourage it. I think something that is being missed in the OPs message is that men are not getting the facts and information about the nursing field as a whole when they are young and seeking out college and career options.

I was an intelligent and caring young man so I knew to look for college degrees where I could help people but I never even considered nursing when I was in high school. In fact, my mother worked as a nursing assistant throughout my youth and I grew up hearing a lot about the medical field and still never considered nursing. I had it in my mind I would be a psychologist. Nursing seemed like a job for women who wanted to be an assistant to the healthcare provider, somewhat of a bimbo, and not very educated. I also assumed since they didn't seem like they were very educated and just an assistant they didn't make a good salary.

It wasn't until my freshman year in biology 101 class when I talked to some nursing students that I realized how much science/math their education consisted of. I also realized that there were roles in nursing like flight nursing, ICU, ED, travel nursing, etc that sounded really exciting and autonomous. I realized how vital their role was and definitely wasn't an assistant to somebody else but their own integral role of the team. I also realized the salary was well above average and with the right planning, overtime, certifications an RN could make a six-figure income. From there I was educated on advanced practice roles where a BSN RN could go on to get a masters or doctorate and be a full practice independent healthcare provider. If you were more interested in business some nurses went on to get MBAs and run healthcare companies. Some nurses got their Ph.D. and worked in research. Essentially, it became obvious that the word nurse was a synonym for healthcare and essentially means you can be anything you really want in this field.

It took me about 0.3 seconds to change my major.

I'm just saying that people in high school and younger are not aware and educated on all that when they are impressionable and deciding on career fields. If they were I think many men would find some rewarding aspects of the nursing field somewhere, maybe not bedside, but within the field as a whole.

Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.

If you want more men in nursing remove the misandry from the nursing schools. I personally caught a lot of prejudiced for being a male and having started in fire/ems; multiple instructors told me that men shouldn't be in nursing. Many of the male nurses I work with very similar experiences so I would conject that this is not uncommon in many areas.

Even in the hospital I often have labor/delivery, mom/baby, and NICU nurses who make well intentioned but rather insulting comments about how "cute" or "great" it is that a male nurse is taking care of a baby or a mom who delivered in the ED (and with the same tone as when a small child brings a piece of macaroni art home to their mom and they admire it before putting in on the refrigerator).

I'm a professional and I care about my patients, the patient's gender or complaint does not affect my ability to give quality care.

I'm also a male nursing student (in Canada) and I agree with other posters that there shouldn't be special incentives, especially monetary for males to go into nursing. I also don't think there should be seats reserved specifically for men either. Scholarships should be based on academic/extracurricular merit and financial need.

I don't think that tests of compassion/helping others is necessarily a good indicator of if a man should consider nursing. There are lots of reasons why someone may choose a certain career. I agree with Olddude and say that I don't feel like I'm an overly compassionate person or hand-holder either. I like helping people in a more 'immediate' way. I quickly discovered through my clinical placements that things like codes, Stemi's, traumas and assisting with procedures are what really excites me about becoming a RN. I was a combat arms trade in the military before taking nursing so maybe I chase the adrenaline or something.

I do think that diversity is good in any profession though and that it just helps to advance the profession overall and offer different perspectives. So I support more men in nursing from that standpoint. I also don't mind the idea of mentoring, to introduce people to careers they may not normally consider. I don't think there is anything specifically that a male nurse could do better than a female though, and I think arguments to that are a bit misogynistic.

Specializes in NICU.

I enjoyed working with male nurses,they were good when we had to fight for wages,working conditions,they did not take a lot of crap like us females. I felt it strengthened the ranks,provided they were in the right specialty.

Some used to get a little miffed when we used them too often for the heavy lifting ,pushing,equipment carriers.

What I do not want is educational standards to be lowered in order to help more pass,this will do more harm than good.The tougher the instructor the better the nurse.The level of maturity is also key,as I have encountered some younger ones not taking their assignments seriously enough,making serious mistakes and getting terminated.

What drives their decision to enter the profession is probably economics not an altruistic ideal,but we all have our reasons.

I am a male nurse, there should be NO artificial push to get men into nursing just as there should be NO artificial push to get women into STEM fields.

This diversity/inclusiveness BS is getting out of hand. I cringe every time I see that we "need" more female engineers or male teachers....people go where they want.

Well, you're certainly not subtle, given your choice of avatar and all...I think we all know exactly how you feel about women, affirmative action, and a lot of other things...

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

I'm sure I don't really have to tell you that no one is PUSHING women into "male dominated" fields. There is a movement right now, however, to remove barriers that have traditionally been placed with the sole purpose of keeping women and other minorities out of certain fields. Efforts to remove those barriers that are much needed and still inadequate/underrepresented, and very much under threat in today's "climate".

Perhaps you need to look at the interactive results from the allnurses 2018 Salary Survey in which almost 17,000 nurses (including males) showed that male nurses do indeed make more than female nurses.

How Much Do Nurses Make? - 2018 Salary Survey Part 4

I personally witnessed this during my first nursing job in 93'. My one male co-worker hired at the same time I later found out was making $3.00 more per hr. than the other female new grads. That's a big difference. I have no reason to think that it's any different today.

I personally witnessed this during my first nursing job in 93'. My one male co-worker hired at the same time I later found out was making $3.00 more per hr. than the other female new grads. That's a big difference. I have no reason to think that it's any different today.

I can't speak for the US system at all but in Canada (at least in my province) wages for staff nurses are based on a collective bargaining agreement between the nurses union and the employer. So as a guy, if I get hired into a unit position in any hospital in the province I would definitely not be making any more money than a female nurse hired on the same unit.

Now I won't say that as a guy it may or may not be easier for me to get hired into specific units based on my gender. That's definitely up for debate. I also think there is still a wage gap because there are disproportionately more men hired into management positions (which are not union bargaining positions, and are negotiated between the employer and the individual). Also I'm not sure how the US works but in my province there are very few or no premiums for specialty units. So an ICU nurse makes the same as a Dialysis nurse, makes the same as a Flight Nurse, makes the same as a Med/Surg nurse given that the years of seniority are the same. So even though there are usually more men in specialties such as Flight, ER, and ICU, they aren't making more than a female nurse on medicine because of it.

I would be sick if I knew that I would get $3 more an hour than an equally qualified woman being hired on the same unit as me (or any other unit for that matter).

Specializes in Practice educator.

I used to work in a builders merchants and when I announced I was going to Brighton to do my nurse training I was mocked relentlessly with homophobic jokes. Now I am not a softy, I took this for the banter it was and was in no way bothered by it, my usual kind of comeback was I am going to work in a profession that is 90% female you work in a profession that is 90% male, enjoy looking at your mates orifice crack. But the stereotypes are real and continue even to this day. Being one the few male nurses in University was an absolute treat, I was spoiled rotten by my peers in many ways. WAs a hell of a lot of fun.

This is a continuing issue for all cultures, even my Filipino colleagues had the same issue.

I don't know what the answer is, or even if we need an answer, people go where they want to work and if you're that weak willed of a character that you don't go in to a profession because of silly jokes and stereotyping then that job isn't for you. Financial incentives is just stupid.

Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

Male here as well, and I also agree nothing special should be done to entice males into the profession. I'm not sure why nursing as a whole would want to increase the percentage of males int he profession, artificially at least.

The equal salary debate in nursing is an interesting one; wouldn't increasing the percentage of males in the profession help pull up the wages for everyone? We've seen the opposite of this happen in other fields.

I have always found it very interesting the distribution of males within nursing. Males make up less than 10% of all nurses, but 40% of CRNAs, and CRNA make twice as much as male RNs. Men are also found in higher concentrations in higher paid nursing specialties; is this preferential hiring/glass escalator or are those specialties higher paying because they have more men?

Nursing remains with a wage gap (0.93 for RN, 0.87-0.89 for APN) but is better then the all-profession average of 0.77.

I can't speak for the US system at all but in Canada (at least in my province) wages for staff nurses are based on a collective bargaining agreement between the nurses union and the employer. So as a guy, if I get hired into a unit position in any hospital in the province I would definitely not be making any more money than a female nurse hired on the same unit.

Now I won't say that as a guy it may or may not be easier for me to get hired into specific units based on my gender. That's definitely up for debate. I also think there is still a wage gap because there are disproportionately more men hired into management positions (which are not union bargaining positions, and are negotiated between the employer and the individual). Also I'm not sure how the US works but in my province there are very few or no premiums for specialty units. So an ICU nurse makes the same as a Dialysis nurse, makes the same as a Flight Nurse, makes the same as a Med/Surg nurse given that the years of seniority are the same. So even though there are usually more men in specialties such as Flight, ER, and ICU, they aren't making more than a female nurse on medicine because of it.

I would be sick if I knew that I would get $3 more an hour than an equally qualified woman being hired on the same unit as me (or any other unit for that matter).

Yes, and this is a perfect illustration of why unions are so important. I have never worked in a unionized facility, and unions here in the states have been decimated.

I have absolutely nothing against men entering into non-traditionally male careers. But how much one is paid should have nothing to do with what does or does not dangle between ones legs.

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