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.

It drives me NUTS to hear the phrase "male nurse"!! Does it matter the nurse's gender!? You don't say "I'm a female nurse" if you're a woman who happens to be a nurse!! We are nurses. Period. It doesn't matter your gender. You don't have a "male engineer or fill in the blank with ANY other job (except for physicians in which women are "women doctors", which drives me equally mad)... Yes, we need more men in nursing, but why the distinction? A nurse is a nurse regardless of gender.

but the lack of diversity in many areas is because of an inherently racist and sexist system that resembled South Africa until a few decades ago. Change is always slow, and there are many obvious social issues like poverty related to past abuses and policies. I think there should be efforts to make and keep a diverse workplace, and that doesn't imply and drop in quality and talent.

Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
This kind of stuff isn't even an option for me. 12 year old girl complaining of chest pain gets an EKG. If 10 year of girl needs a foley, you won't be able to get the doc to do it. 15 year old with a ruptured ectopic, you have to do a focused assessment. In most of these cases we would have a chaperone in the room, but that is required by policy regardless of the gender of the clinician.

I realize that routine screenings are not the same as treatment of acute problems but we don't entertain the idea that only female or male clinicians can provide certain kinds of care. It isn't uncommon that we have a night shift where all of the adult ED and peds ED staff are male (and we have nights that are all female for that matter), what would we do then?

Yea, acute care is a different environment. I do know if I ever did such a thing as scoliosis screening on the girls a lynch mob would show up at school the next day for me, so I don't even go there...

Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
It drives me NUTS to hear the phrase "male nurse"!! Does it matter the nurse's gender!? You don't say "I'm a female nurse" if you're a woman who happens to be a nurse!! We are nurses. Period. It doesn't matter your gender. You don't have a "male engineer or fill in the blank with ANY other job (except for physicians in which women are "women doctors", which drives me equally mad)... Yes, we need more men in nursing, but why the distinction? A nurse is a nurse regardless of gender.

This is a good observation...but I think society is a long way from being able to separate the difference. As a school nurse I have an opportunity to call several parents on a daily basis. It goes like this, Parent - "Hello?"...me - "Hi, this is OldDude, school nurse at blah blah elementary." It is very common for the next parent response to be - "Yes maam...I mean yes sir." It is obvious that the word "nurse" triggers the person to imagine a female and their automatic response is "maam."

Being a man in a predominantly woman's world has never bothered me. I've often attended school nurse events where I will be the only guy in a room full of women. Makes me feels "special." HaHa!!

And...I have no idea of salary disparity between men and women but I DO know that money is not a long term motivator so I'll say again that there shouldn't be any incentives offered to men that isn't available to women to get into nursing.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
It drives me NUTS to hear the phrase "male nurse"!! Does it matter the nurse's gender!? You don't say "I'm a female nurse" if you're a woman who happens to be a nurse!! We are nurses. Period. It doesn't matter your gender. You don't have a "male engineer or fill in the blank with ANY other job (except for physicians in which women are "women doctors", which drives me equally mad)... Yes, we need more men in nursing, but why the distinction? A nurse is a nurse regardless of gender.

I call my husband a "male nurse," or sometimes just "murse" for short. Usually only when I'm being Dom, though.

Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
I call my husband a "male nurse," or sometimes just "murse" for short. Usually only when I'm being Dom, though.

Evidently he doesn't object...:blink:

Are schools doing this?

And when if they do, how does it affect their NCLEX pass rate?

No, they're not. This is a classic/standard trope amongst those who are anti-affirmative action. Admission standards and curriculum are not being diluted. Just more dog whistling from those most comfortable maintaining a certain demographic status quo.

No, they're not. This is a classic/standard trope amongst those who are anti-affirmative action. Admission standards and curriculum are not being diluted. Just more dog whistling from those most comfortable maintaining a certain demographic status quo.

I don't think you need to be "anti-affirmative action" to be concerned about the proliferation of nursing schools in the US, particularly the for-profit nursing schools, which have low admission standards and low NCLEX pass rates. That is a real thing (and has nothing to do with race or "demographics"). There are plenty of nursing programs in the country now that will take anyone with "a pulse and a checkbook," as the old cliche' goes, and that will take anyone who will pay outrageous tuition for the privilege of getting into nursing school when no legitimate nursing school in the area will take them.

The state of FL, in response to intense lobbying by the for-profit "school" industry, passed legislation a number of years ago specifically written to make it easier and cheaper to open and operate schools of nursing in the state, by lowering the standards that the schools have to meet. They took away control from the BON and gave it to the state DOE. The result so far has been a flood of "mom 'n pop" nursing schools which will enroll anyone, regardless, and, in some cases, have NCLEX pass rates of

Dranger is right. The wage gap has been debunked so many times.

For starters, it is and has been illegal to pay a man more than a woman for doing the exact same position.

New grad nurses at my local hospital (and at every hospital) working on the exact same floor at the same education level starting at the exact same time are going to start off making the same amount of money.

When I try to explain this to people, they will bring up something like "but why do women in the wnba make less than men in the nba" or another question relating to that. It's because more people watch NBA way more than they do the WNBA. More viewers = more money and advertising that can be done, thus, men in the NBA will be offered much heftier contracts than their WNBA counterparts. I know this has nothing to do with nursing, this is just a topic that people who think the wage gap is still here like to point out, which is why I always bring it up when making my point.

In conclusion, that 86 cents to the man's dollar is not based off of hourly wage but ANNUAL wage. ANNUALY men make more than women because they typically work longer hours and don't take as much time off from work as women do. This does not equate that men make more for doing the same job.

I would also like to point out that men also dominate in STEM degrees while women dominate in areas such as nursing, the cosmetics industry, etc. which obviously do not earn as much as a STEM degree would. This doesn't mean that women are at a disadvantage (you are actually more likely to be accepted into a STEM program if you are a woman based off your gender alone) we simply choose to not go into STEM because typically it's not something we want to do.

As a young woman I promise you I wouldn't defend something like the wage gap if it were real. I just want to provide insight on the subject because many people still do not completely understand that it's not there anymore.

I don't think you need to be "anti-affirmative action" to be concerned about the proliferation of nursing schools in the US, particularly the for-profit nursing schools, which have low admission standards and low NCLEX pass rates. That is a real thing (and has nothing to do with race or "demographics"). There are plenty of nursing programs in the country now that will take anyone with "a pulse and a checkbook," as the old cliche' goes, and that will take anyone who will pay outrageous tuition for the privilege of getting into nursing school when no legitimate nursing school in the area will take them.

The state of FL, in response to intense lobbying by the for-profit "school" industry, passed legislation a number of years ago specifically written to make it easier and cheaper to open and operate schools of nursing in the state, by lowering the standards that the schools have to meet. They took away control from the BON and gave it to the state DOE. The result so far has been a flood of "mom 'n pop" nursing schools which will enroll anyone, regardless, and, in some cases, have NCLEX pass rates of

True, but the issue of for-profit nursing schools is not the practice to which the OP was alluding.

Dranger is right. The wage gap has been debunked so many times.

For starters, it is and has been illegal to pay a man more than a woman for doing the exact same position.

New grad nurses at my local hospital (and at every hospital) working on the exact same floor at the same education level starting at the exact same time are going to start off making the same amount of money.

When I try to explain this to people, they will bring up something like "but why do women in the wnba make less than men in the nba" or another question relating to that. It's because more people watch NBA way more than they do the WNBA. More viewers = more money and advertising that can be done, thus, men in the NBA will be offered much heftier contracts than their WNBA counterparts. I know this has nothing to do with nursing, this is just a topic that people who think the wage gap is still here like to point out, which is why I always bring it up when making my point.

In conclusion, that 86 cents to the man's dollar is not based off of hourly wage but ANNUAL wage. ANNUALY men make more than women because they typically work longer hours and don't take as much time off from work as women do. This does not equate that men make more for doing the same job.

I would also like to point out that men also dominate in STEM degrees while women dominate in areas such as nursing, the cosmetics industry, etc. which obviously do not earn as much as a STEM degree would. This doesn't mean that women are at a disadvantage (you are actually more likely to be accepted into a STEM program if you are a woman based off your gender alone) we simply choose to not go into STEM because typically it's not something we want to do.

As a young woman I promise you I wouldn't defend something like the wage gap if it were real. I just want to provide insight on the subject because many people still do not completely understand that it's not there anymore.

No...not at all debunked.

6 ways to convince a skeptic the pay gap is real

Extensive research demonstrates that the gender pay gap exists, but there are many skeptics who still think otherwise.

According to the Institute for Women's Policy and Research (IWPR) and the American University of American Women, U.S. women working full-time earned just $0.80 for every dollar earned by a man in 2016. At this rate of change, women are expected to reach pay equity with men in 2059.

The wage gap widens even more when broken down by race. Black women make $0.63 for every dollar, while Latina women earn $0.54 cents. For women of color, the timeline for pay equity is even longer; the IWPR found that Latina women would have to wait until 2233 and black women until 2124.

The narrowing, but persistent, gender gap in pay

Gender pay gap has narrowed, but changed little in past decade | Pew Research Center

The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap: AAUW

The Gender Pay Gap - Myth vs. Fact | National Organization for Women

but the lack of diversity in many areas is because of an inherently racist and sexist system that resembled South Africa until a few decades ago. Change is always slow, and there are many obvious social issues like poverty related to past abuses and policies. I think there should be efforts to make and keep a diverse workplace, and that doesn't imply and drop in quality and talent.

As a minority and a male nurse I strongly object to any artificial efforts to alter workplace demographics. I do not believe race or sex should have any impact on employment, good or bad. If an employer is found to discriminate against a particular protected class that is one thing but any efforts to force an artificial diversity is counter productive.

I look to the recent Harvard lawsuit as a disgusting example.

As a male nurse I know that nursing is fundamentally a social profession that requires a great deal of empathy and social skills, for the most part. Many men may not be attracted to the profession for either personal reasons, social, or cultural reasons and I am OK with that.

As a minority and a male all I ask for is equal consideration for any given job, review my experience and skills only. I would immediately turn down any job that gave me any kind of preference due to my double minority status.

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