Nursing Research Paper

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Apr 11, 2007

You could research salary discrepancies and career advancement opportunities between males and females in nursing. Or maybe you could tackle the issue of males working in places like labor and delivery.

anonymurse · Apr 11, 2007

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/6011/

This is a great page about the history of males in nursing, which is most of the history of nursing (right now they're staging a comeback). It lacks Nightingale's move to force men out of a male field, but you can research that elsewhere. The author WILL write back. He said he wrote an article for the new LWW mag on men in nursing, maybe you can get him to fax you a copy.

Doc to be · Apr 11, 2007

thanks for the help, i'm gonna send him an email tonight.

Doc to be · Apr 12, 2007

Have any of you read Men in Nursing: History, Challenges, and Opportunities by Chad E. O'Lynn and Russell E. Tranbarger? I'd like to read the whole book, but I don't think I'll be able to read it all while I'm writing my paper, so if anyone can think of interesting quotes or points made, lemme know :)

Another book I have in hand is Nurses' Work: Issues Across Time and Place. Can you all recommend any other books I might look for, or good articles from any peer-reviewed journals.

postmortem_cowboy · Apr 16, 2007

There's also a good thread on male patients that I'd just responded to here in the male forum, where male patients respond easier to male nurses and females with females as well... could do a paper on that, watch the thread and see if it goes anywhere... or how many instances that thread gets of people who have had this type of thing happen to them.

Wayne.

Doc to be · Apr 27, 2007

you guys are great, thanks for the help. I figured i should share it since you guys help me soo much :)

It would be a little better, but my thumb-drive decided that i would love all my files to be corrupted monday, so i had to start from semi-scratch and rushed it, but I'm mostly happy with it :)

Tell me what you think; don't be shy, i can take the abuse.

EDIT: wow, its long, rofl

Give Men a Chance

Matthew Curtis

English 102, Section 108

Dr. Davis

April 26, 2007

Between the years 2011 and 2020, 55% of the current nursing workforce are planning on retirement (Orlovsky, 2006, para. 2). A student enrolling in a 4-year baccalaureate nursing program this fall would not graduate until the year 2011.

According to Spratley, Johnson, Sochalski, Fritz, & Spencer (2001), men comprise only 5.4% of the RN workforce (as cited in O'Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p. 169). That percentage has stayed nearly the same for decades (Hart, 2005, p. 47); however, the nursing workforce has been expanding, and, while the percentage hasn’t budged, the absolute number of men in the nursing community has grown along with the expanding nursing community. The numbers of men in nursing have finally gotten to the point that they have a voice in the nursing workforce, and there are questions coming to light concerning men in the nursing workforce.

Why do men comprise such a small percentage of the nursing workforce? At a time when the United States needs as many nurses and nursing students as possible, why are 91% of students enrolled in baccalaureate nursing programs female (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2001, para. 1)? Why isn't the nursing workforce drawing from both sexes equally?

In a survey of 498 male nurses conducted by Hodes Research (2005), 40% of participants stated that they sometimes felt awkward or defensive because of stereotypes of men in nursing (p. 37). Many participants believed that stereotyping was the main reason that more men do not join the profession; specifically, 29% of male nurses cited the stereotype that all male nurses are homosexual and 38% cited the classic stereotype that nurses are females (Hodes, 2005, p. 31). Another stereotype cited by many respondents is that male nurses are chose nursing because they weren't good enough for medical school (Hodes, 2005, p. 46-132). Hodes (2005) states that, "Prior to embarking on a career in nursing, respondents perceived the profession as one traditionally dominated by females (85%) and not the most 'appropriate' profession for men to enter" (p. 19).

So, the main reason that there aren't more men in nursing is because it is considered to be a female profession, right? It is true that, for hundreds of years, most nurses have been female. It doesn't help that, as D'Antonio, Baer, Rinker, & Lynaugh (2006) stated, "At times when debates over higher education and independent careers for women provoked controversy and dissent, nursing leaders capitalized upon the image of nursing as traditional women's work" (p. 3). That stereotype drives many potential students away from nursing, but all of the stereotypes combined shouldn’t have such an effect that men comprise less then 6% of the workforce. Is there another reason for men to avoid nursing?

Right now men are nearly 6% of the workforce, but they comprise 13% of the students enrolled in nursing schools and 9% of students enrolled in baccalaureate nursing programs (Chung, 2000, para. 9; AACN, 2001, para. 1). Apparently, attracting men to the profession isn't the only problem; keeping men within the profession is a problem, as well. According to Duffin (2006), men are four times more likely to leave the profession than women. Why is this?

Men need the same training as women do in order to be successful nurses, correct? Unfortunately, many male nursing students do not receive the same education as their female counterparts. For instance, Eddie Herbert, director of nurses at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Houma, LA recalls:

"I was not allowed to enter the delivery room because I was a male student, but had to stand at the door of the room to catch a glimpse of the delivery. I was also not allowed to have a female patient. This all had to do with gender.” (Chung, 2000, para. 1-2)

Eddie attended nursing school 50 years ago, however, so surely men and women are being treated equally now, right? Unfortunately, for many male students, the answer is still "no." According to Burtt (1998), some students reported being excluded from childbirth and postpartum care and that one instructor told a student that it was "illegal for male students to be present for a birth and aftercare" (as cited in Genua, 2005, p. 6). Because male nursing students are vastly outnumbered by female nursing students, many of them feel isolated, and when they receive limited instruction or when they don’t receive instruction at all because of their gender, it only adds to this feeling of isolation (Duffin, 2006). This isolation is present in the classroom and work environment, and it stems from lack of training in intimate care and use of touch (Duffin; Keogh & Gleeson, 2006, p. 1173).

According to Poliafico (1998) hospitals in California banned male nurses from working in the labor and delivery rooms, yet still allowed male obstetricians to work in them (as cited in Genua, 2005, p. 6). This ban was upheld even though studies had shown that female patients did not find a difference between being examined by a male nurse or a male doctor (McKenna, 1991, as cited in Genua, 2005, p. 6). Researcher Madoka Inoue, a PhD student from Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia stated:

"Participants frequently felt isolated from female nurses and clients. The lack of formal preparation and support may impact on the recruitment and retention rates of male nurses. It is therefore essential that nursing education programs provide information, guidance and support to assist them in developing effective strategies when providing intimate care." (as cited in Duffin, 2006)

By definition, a nurse is a person who cares for the sick or infirm. So, a nurse’s responsibility is to care for the patient, and Keogh & Gleeson (2006) define touch as a primary expression of care in nursing (p. 1173). Chang (2001) describes touch as “a process that assists patients to achieve comfort, wellbeing and recovery” (as cited in Keogh & Gleeson, 2006, p. 1173). Earlier, I stated that not all male students receive the same training as their female classmates. Well, even for those that do receive an equal education, that education is tailored to female students. Use of touch is not discussed in many schools of nursing, and this leaves many male students and nurses anxious over its use because they fear sexual allegations that may arise from its misuse (Keogh & O'Lynn, 2006, as cited in Keogh & Gleeson, 2006, p. 1173). Paterson et al. (1996) quote a nursing student as stating:

"the teachers never discuss it [touch]. They just think that it is good enough to give us a lecture on the importance of touching. There were so many questions that I had back then. Link, do you touch everyone in the same way or should you touch men and women patients differently? Or how do you know if a patient might not want to be touched or get the wrong idea if you touch them?" (as cited in O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p. 177)

On one hand, many instructors see caring as an invisible construct for women, and thus they don’t discuss it in class because the female students are already familiar with caring (Paterson et al., 1996, as cited in O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p. 177-178). On the other hand, female faculty and coworkers expect male nurses to care for patients by using the same methods and behaviors as female nurses, and that causes some students to believe that they have to behave like female nurses to be proficient (Paterson et al., 1995, 1996, as cited in O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p. 178). Those authors quote an instructors evaluation of a male students approach to caring, where the instructor told him he “needed to be more open with [his] patients… [and he should] watch her [a female student] and try to be more like her” (as cited in O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006). However, Paterson et al. (1995, 1996) also noted that while students observed male nurses in the clinical environment, male students recognized that the nurses used different caring behaviors, such as a teasing-type of humor and establishing a sort of camaraderie with patients’ friends and family, that were not taught by the female faculty (as cited in O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p. 178). Paterson et al. quotes a student as stating:

"He [a male nurse] was a sort of friend, a tease at times, to the patients. He would go by their wheelchairs and give them a punch on the shoulder. It was a male thing. It wasn’t the same as how female nurses cared for the patients, but it was caring nonetheless." (as cited in O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p. 130)

Whether female faculty do not recognize these caring behaviors or they disregard them, female faculty do not discuss these more masculine forms of caring in class (O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p, 178). Why do male students have trouble learning caring behaviors? While men comprise almost 6% of the nursing workforce, they only comprise 3.5% of faculty at nursing schools and only 2.4% of deans of nursing schools (AACN, 2001, para. 3). Most nurse educators still see nursing as a female profession, and thus they feel that it should be taught by females. However, what’s most important to remember is that, in healthcare, you should never settle for less than the best. There are many men who could have been some of the best nurses right alongside of the best female nurses, but they shied away from nursing because of the prejudices inherent in the profession.

There are currently about 120,000 nursing positions open in the United States (Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS], 2003). It is estimated that in the year 2020, that shortage will increase to 340,000 positions (AACN, 2007). The United States needs as many nurses as possible now, and it needs the best nurses that it can get, and that can’t happen until gender-based prejudices have been eliminated from the nursing workforce. Female nurses need to accept men as fellow nurses. A good nurse does not have to be a female; a good nurse has to care. Paterson et al. (1996) quotes a student as saying:

"I was amazed at the relationship he [another male nurse] had with his patients. He was loud at times. He told jokes. He teased them a lot. But they loved him. And you could tell he cared about them deeply. I think some of the female nurses on the unit thought he was too casual and not caring enough. I think they were wrong." (as cited in O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2006, p. 130)

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2001). Effective strategies for increasing diversity in nursing programs. Retrieved April 24, 2007, from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Web site: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Publications/issues/dec01.htm

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2007). Nursing shortage: Fact sheet. Retrieved April 25, 2007, from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Web site: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Media/FactSheets/NursingShortage.htm

Bernard Hodes Group. (2005). Men in Nursing2005 – Hodes Research.

Chung, V. (2000). Men in Nursing. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from Minority Nurse Web site: http://www.minoritynurse.com/features/nurse_emp/08-30-00c.htm

Columbia Broadcasting System. (2003). Nursing shortage in critical stage. Retrieved April 25, 2007, from the Columbia Broadcasting System Web site: http://www.cbsnews.com/

D'Antonio, P., Baer, E. D., Rinker, S. D. & Lynaugh, J. E. (Ed.). (2006). Nurses' work: Issues across time and place. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.

Duffin, C. (2006).Lack of training in intimate care adds to male nurses' isolation. Nursing Standard. 20, 10.

Genua, J. A. (Fall 2005). The Vision of Male Nurses: Roles, Barriers and Stereotypes. InterAction, 4-7

Hart, K (2005). What do men in nursing really think? Nursing2005, 35, Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://www.nursing2005.com

References

Inoue, M, & Wynaden, D. (2006). Male nurses' experiences providing intimate care for women clients. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 55, 559-567.

Keogh, B, & Gleeson, M. (2006). Caring for female patients: The expereriences of male nurses. British Journal of Nursing. 15, 1172-1175.

O'Lynn, C. E. & Tranbarger, R. E. (Eds.). (2006). Men in nursing: History, challenges, and opportunities. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Orlovsky, C. (2006). Mass nurse retirement expected in 2011: Survey. Retrieved April 24, 2007, from the American Mobile Nurses Web site: http://www.amnhealthcare.com/News.aspx?id=15444

Paterson, B. L., Crawford, M., Saydak, M., Venkatesh, P., Tschikota, S., & Aronwitz, T. (1995). How male nursing students learn to care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 22(3), 600-609.

Paterson, B. L., Tschikota, S., Crawford, M., Saydak, M., Venkatesh, P., & Aronowitz, T. (1996). Learning to care: Gender issues for male nursing students. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 28(1), 25-39

Spratley, E., Johnson, A., Sochalski, J., Fritz, M., & Spencer, W. (2001). The registered nurse population March 2000: Findings from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (Report). Washingston, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Resources and Services Administration.

Thrall, T. H. (2006).So long gender bias. Hospitals & Health Networks. 80, 22.

CRNAhopefulguy · May 4, 2007

nice paper. good read. i think in doing the apa format, i dont believe you need to put the page number in the parenthesis. Just (author. year) not (author, year, page number). Also im guessing its an informal paper considering the many what if, what are, questions. Makes you think, but i remember someone telling me not to ask questions, but rather answer them.

Doc to be · May 4, 2007

nice paper. good read. i think in doing the apa format, i dont believe you need to put the page number in the parenthesis. Just (author. year) not (author, year, page number). Also im guessing its an informal paper considering the many what if, what are, questions. Makes you think, but i remember someone telling me not to ask questions, but rather answer them.

It was a formal research paper, but if I let it get too formal, it get's boring. I gotta ask questions in order to engage the reader. I'm about to go check and see what I made.

EDIT: ZOMG!@!!!@@!#!#$!%!%!~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

I GOT AN A-!!!!!!!!

:w00t::w00t::w00t::w00t::w00t::w00t:

Argument - Though it got off to a slightly bumpy start, it quickly became clear what your object was in this paper. I think ultimately you made a good causal argument about the reasons why there is a shortage of males in the profession and you had TONS of good research to back you up so you came across as credible.
APA - used the citation style very well!
Writing - a few typos and minor technical stuff, but overall well written. I knew you had it in you to write a really strong paper and you finally showed me I was right.
Grade: A-

PHEW! I had some worries, but apparently I finally got it something right!

You did a good job of ending on a quote here - that's a tricky thing to do, but you chose your quote to use here wisely, so it works.

Heh, I wasn't but halfway through drafting the paper when I first came across that quote, and the moment I read it, I said "BAM! That's going on the end":)

lancei · Jan 30, 2008

I am a nursing student and currently is enrolled in nursing research subject....I really had a difficulty in formulating my titles...In fact I have already passed almost 300 title in total, however all of these were rejected...The research title must be about bedside care...huhuhhuh...any help from you would be much appreciated...thanks a million!