Nurse Recruiting Program Aims At Men

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Monday, March 25, 2002

Program calls for male nurses

By Jeff Linkous

The Associated Press

http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/03/25/fin_program_calls_for.html

TRENTON, N.J.-Recruiting efforts aimed at boosting the thinning ranks of registered nurses are targeting a nearly untapped labor pool: men.

A campaign kicked off last month by New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson features men in nearly half its advertising, and 21 of the 68 nurses profiled on the health care giant's promotional Web site are men.

Men make up about 6 percent of the 2.7 million nurses in the United States, and a nationwide poll found only one in 10 men considers it a career choice.

There are an estimated 126,000 vacant full-time nursing positions at hospitals across the country. That number is forecast to triple by 2020.

"If you exclude men from recruiting, then you reduce half the potential population to recruit from," Johnson & Johnson spokesman John McKeegan said.

Johnson & Johnson's program includes recruitment posters, brochures and videos to be placed in 25,000 high schools and 1,500 nursing schools and organizations.

"If men realized what they're getting into, they would see this with much more optimism. There are so many opportunities that could unfold: business, management, clinical specialties," said Peter Buerhaus, senior associate dean for research at Vanderbilt University's School of Nursing in Nashville.

Michael Desjardins, a 33-year-old registered nurse who attends the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and is president of the National Student Nurse Association, said: "I make $23 an hour. That's a great salary. I'm still working on my undergraduate degree and I can support my wife and baby."

Kevin McDonald, 24, a nurse in the cardiac surgical intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, said nursing duties are varied and put a lot of powerful technology in the hands of those on the job.

"So many advances in the medical field have made the job more complex but strengthened it as a profession," he said.

I sent away for the recruitment info --can get as many as 500 brochures. Very well done, got posters and video too for free!

Check out :http://www.discovernursing.com

Karen

[DethOkay]

sounds like its more of the same, and 24$ an hour to start??? where?? its soulds like a armed services recruiting posters

Come join the servece.... Just dont tell them they will be scraping seagull crap off the flight deck of a carrier ...........

[Mijourney]

Hi. DethOkay, I see your point, but note that the professor from Vanderbilt seems to be encouraging men to go into the areas that traditionally have provided the highest level of comfort and rewards for men: business, management, and clinical specialties. In the nursing arena, these areas traditionally have been where you reaped the most financial, political, and personal gain.

It's true that in generalized nursing practice you may feel that your career seems dull, unimportant, with more pain than gain. In a specialized practice or in business or management, you may feel more energized and motivated because you see yourself as having a wider impact on a larger number of people, and you're getting greater financial rewards and more respect. I personally feel that both general practice and specialty nurses are special people and the good ones deserve accolades for their work.