Male Nurses

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Having typed into the search bar and gotten no results, I begin. The profession once dominated by females now has male nurses. I have never had a problem with male nurses as co-workers, but I have noticed an alarming rate at which the males have ascended to the top positions. I recently visited the VA Hospital ER and it was totally staffed by male nurses. I worked in an ER where the head of the Trauma Unit was a male nurse. The flight nurses tended to be predominately male. What is it that female nurses do not ascend to the top anymore? Is it lack of ambition? Why is it that so few male nurses are promoted above their numerous female co-workers? I am not trying to start a gender war, I just want to understand the trend I am witnessing.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

Interesting observation there, BackFromRetirement. I wish I could fascinate you with facts, but all I can give you is my interpretation of an observation.

First, my numbers are all from memory, so there's always a margin of error.

When I became an LPN in 1983, the percentage of male nurses in the nursing field was 7%. By the time I graduated as an RN in 1990, the percentage had risen to 12%. I have no idea was the percentage is now. I assume it's higher. I figure, the more male nurses, the more in higher positions.

It's sorta like like the old Elvis joke: When Elvis died in 1977, there were exactly 12 Professional Elvis Impersonators. By the year 2000, there were as many as 1200 Professional Elvis Impersonators. That means, if that trend continues, by the year 2023, one in evey four people will be a Professional Elvis Impersonator.

Hope this helps. And doesn't hinder.

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Thanks Davey. At this time of the day, my correlation abilities are a bit slow. Could you be more specific?

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

An uneducated guess--- those specialties you mention, ER, Trauma, and Flight Nursing, as well as Critical Care seem to have a higher percentage of men within the specialties than nursing as a whole. Many were EMTs, paramedics and/or trained in the military.

Not sure how you are defining the "top positions", though-- do you mean most in-demand specialties, or as Nurse Managers supervising others within their units?

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Yes, heads of the most exciting positions.

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Having typed into the search bar and gotten no results, I begin. The profession once dominated by females now has male nurses. I have never had a problem with male nurses as co-workers, but I have noticed an alarming rate at which the males have ascended to the top positions. I recently visited the VA Hospital ER and it was totally staffed by male nurses. I worked in an ER where the head of the Trauma Unit was a male nurse. The flight nurses tended to be predominately male. What is it that female nurses do not ascend to the top anymore? Is it lack of ambition? Why is it that so few male nurses are promoted above their numerous female co-workers? I am not trying to start a gender war, I just want to understand the trend I am witnessing.

According to the most recent survey numbers, men make up 5.4% of RNs.

Being as the above may, male nurses (didn't that term go the same way of "orderlies"?) tend to concentrate in certain areas of practice, hence why you may see an "all male" or mostly male ERs and units.

Consider also the main reason many female nurses take time off or leave the profession; marriage and to have/raise babies often does not apply to male nurses, hence they are free to work on their career. Ok, men do marry, but they do not take maternity leave, nor do many take time off when their children are born. They hold by and large to their role as "bread-winners", and perhaps may become more of a shift hound now that they have another mouth to feed.

Men also in general tend to stay focused on work and not the tittle-tattle, back stabing and gossip that often pervades nursing, especially on the floors. This refects well perhaps with the administration in terms of work record, and helps when promotion and or other job openings come up.

As for travel nurses, all of the male RNs one knows are agency/travel nurses. Again, not having children to take care of, and or arrange care for, also the wunderlust so often given to men suits travel nursing. Men tend also not to be tied down by family commitments (taking care of parents, or other family members, and so forth), that allows them to pick-up and go when it comes to travel nursing.

Much of this and other reasons explains whey men are often at the top of their profession. Women who also have the same aspirations often have to choose between their career and marriage/children. Just look around at the few women that have broken the "glass ceiling" or even today's hearings for the a new SCOTUS, a woman who is over forty, at or near the top of her game professionally, but unmarried and childless.

Many women have found out that the femininst "we can have it all" is a bunch of flannel. Sadly often a woman must choose between being a wife and or mother and building her professional career. Even in nursing, women that stuck with it and went from bedside to management to administration and even executive level often were spinsters.

Think also as society's values have shifted, and the image of the RN have changed from starched whitesand capped "angel of mercy" to a healthcare "professional), have given men room to enter the profession and stick with it without inflicting any damage to their manhood.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

"Exciting" is relative. You might also be talking about positions that an aging female nurse population might not feel capable (physically) of taking on.

I think that Davey was quoting the statistics of the male nursing population in order to demonstrate just how many more male nurses you will encounter in any giving nursing role, not just at the top.

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I agree with nursel56, I think men who get into nursing are generally drawn to those areas. Sometimes because they came from similar fields as EMT/paramedic/military and sometimes I think because it just seems more exciting.

We do have some male nurse managers in my facility but not nearly as many as there are female of course. Maybe because fewer men are drawn to nursing management? Though I'd guess at my facility anyway, there are fewer male NMs simply because there are fewer male nurses.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
What is it that female nurses do not ascend to the top anymore?

I'm not sure I agree with this. I work at a medium-sized 400-bed hospital. We have only two male managers and one male director (he's the only non-nurse director) and probably 30 or more females in management and upper management positions. The Quality Control nurse is female, the infectious control nurse is female, the Employee health nurse is female, the director of trauma services is female, all the educators are female on and on and on. the BON in FL and the nurses associations are all dominated by females. The VP of Patient Care Services however is a male nurse, but he replaced a female whom replaced a female prior to her. His boss the CEO is female.

However, it's not surprising that males are ambitious and career driven and aim for the top. It's what males do. Also it's no surprise that ER and flight positions have a disportionate number of males because males tend to go for the more "exciting" and complex positions, it's what males do.

I think while males are making their mark, and perhaps in disportionate ways considering their small numbers total, still nursing is female dominated in upper management. Just my observations, and I allow it might not be that everywhere.

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Specializes in Psych.

I work in hospice. I am the only male. It does my head in sometimes too. It is possible to be kind and compassionate without female bits and it is possible to be rough and aggressive without male bits. That's all I'll say about that...

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.
Yes, heads of the most exciting positions.

Female RN's aren't always looking for "excitement" though. In my specialty of pediatrics, it is amazing when I work on a unit that even has just one male RN.

Also, I still see many females becoming nurse managers, nurse practitioners, nurse educators, etc. They simply may not be flocking to "exciting" jobs as much.

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Maybe men are genetically wired to be more ambitious? I know in my household, dh does feel the need to "climb the corporate ladder", while sometimes I feel I'm just happy where I am, and not sure about doing more to enhance my career - although I probably WILL, I don't feel that drive that he does. But that maybe an isolated case. I know there are certainly some very ambitious females out there! It would take a lot of research to get the answer to what you're asking, and even whether it's true overall or specific to your employer.

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