I work at a college in Indiana while I am finishing up my nursing pre-reqs. This morning I noticed the most recent graduating class picture hanging in the nursing faculty offices. Out of fifty students, ten of them were men (aka 20%). I was scanning through previous years stored upstairs because I was curious, and I have to say it is remarkable how many more men have graduated in the past five years compared to the pictures from just fifteen years ago.
So, a three part question:
1)How many men were/are in your class?
2)Do you think the ratio for men/women will ever near 50/50, and if so, how long do you suspect this will take?
3)If this trend is universal, as I suspect it may be, what do you think this means for nursing as a whole? Will this mean a drastic change in the way nursing is viewed or practiced, or do you think it will remain the exact same discipline, but with more gender equality and nothing else?
If this needs moved to the student section, please feel free to do so. I posted it here because I thought it would be interesting to see the results of nurses who graduated a few years prior, in addition to current nursing students. Have a good day everybody.