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.
