I am a 35 y.o. male nursing student. After having read several posts across various threads that discussed the need for more male nurses, I thought it would be interesting to start a thread with reasonable suggestions for attracting more males to the nursing profession. Here are my suggestions:
Nursing School
Drop the girly white uniforms. History is great and all, but every profession needs to keep up with the times. Like it or not, most people's image of medical professionals is molded by TV. As such, I believe more guys would be interested in nursing if we moved to a more up-to-date look that is more gender neutral - as generally portrayed on medical shows. Maybe we could utilize our school colors or something to identify us a students rather than looking like 1960's nurses.
Drop the feminine graduation requirements. Again, history is great and all, but a lot of guys just don't want to walk down an aisle carrying a candle. If you act like nursing is a female-dominated profession, then that is the way it will stay.
General
Add more men's scrubs/nursing shoes/accessories. Most uniform shops and online stores only cater to women. While I don't expect them to be 50/50, it would be nice to see at least a reasonable area to devoted to men other than paramedics. I would like to have a "nursing" watch that isn't white and doesn't have hearts and other feminine things on it. Create a line of items that are for male nurses, and you'll see more men become interested in the field.
i remember when i had my capping and pinning ceremony, there was one guy in the class the teacher actually put a cap(you know the ones they used to wear way back when) on his head, it looked so funny!! he just took it off!! lol!! it looked sooooo funny!! lol, lol, lol!!:rotfl:
i remember when i had my capping and pinning ceremony, there was one guy in the class the teacher actually put a cap(you know the ones they used to wear way back when) on his head, it looked so funny!! he just took it off!! lol!! it looked sooooo funny!! lol, lol
i'd wear one just to put a smile on the patients faces haha.
What?! No Dallas Cowboys scrubs!?!?!? *** people! ***. I think we need to go on strike, lol. Just kidding. I thought I'd squeeze that one in there due to the post on the poor nurses (sarcasm) in Kentucky who are striking. Dallas is 10-1! Whoohoo! Gimme a beer!
stevielynn said:
They have football scrubs.
I don't wear a "nurse" watch . . . I just wear a watch. Any watch with a second hand will do.
I don't buy any of the "kitschy" nurse stuff found in catalogs. Blech.
Some programs don't do the pinning ceremonies anymore - my school tried very hard to get us not to do it because they said it was "unprofessional". We voted and did it anyway. One guy didn't show for the graduation or the pinning - he just wanted to get to work.
I think the stereotype of nursing being a woman's job will slowly be worn down. Maybe not in my lifetime. But stereotypes are hard to change.
gt4everpn, BSN, RN
724 Posts
i remember when i had my capping and pinning ceremony, there was one guy in the class the teacher actually put a cap(you know the ones they used to wear way back when) on his head, it looked so funny!! he just took it off!! lol!! it looked sooooo funny!! lol, lol, lol!!:rotfl: