What issues are involved in being a male nurse and what barriers are preventing males from choosing it as a career?
Currently in the nursing industry males make up as little as 10% of the nursing population in places like the UK (Whittock & Leonard, 2003a) even though many male nurses state that nursing is a rewarding and meaningful career (Rajacich, Kane, Williston, & Cameron, 2013). Nursing is still seen as female dominated industry (Hoffnung, 2013) and as stated by Sherrod, Sherrod & Rasch, nursing has yet to break the gender roles that other professions have managed to (Rajacich et al., 2013) even though women have to reach a higher standard to progress in male dominated professions (Hoffnung, 2013).
Male registered nurses are faced with quite a large variety of challenge and as stated by Burnett 44% of male nurses experienced discrimination, 31% suffered with social isolation (Rajacich et al., 2013) and many felt concerned that they were to be excluded from gender specific areas or procedures because of their gender (Whittock & Leonard, 2003a). As stated by Ollyn, male nurses also felt that there were barriers which made them feel unwelcome as they feared that other nurses would think they were displaying sexual misconduct with female patients and with regards to their education felt they were unprepared to work with women and felt that they had a lack of teaching regarding the difference between communicating with a female to a male. There are also gender based stereotypes towards male nurses from colleagues and patients with some colleagues believing that they should not even be a nurse and only call upon a male nurses for jobs that require strength (Rajacich et al., 2013). What these nurses do not realise is that in som...
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...alities questioned until the current stereotype is broken and nursing for men becomes an option from a young age. Hopefully in time a male nurse will one day be called “Nurse” like every other female rather than “Male Nurse” and feel like they are able to achieve the same as any of their nursing colleagues.
Works Cited
Hoffnung, M. (2013). Lifespan development: a chronological approach John Wiley and Sons Australia.
Rajacich, D., Kane, D., Williston, C., & Cameron, S. (2013). If They Do Call You a Nurse, It Is Always a “Male Nurse”: Experiences of Men in the Nursing Profession. Nursing Forum, 48(1), 71-80. doi:10.1111/nuf.12008
Whittock, M., & Leonard, L. (2003a). Stepping outside the stereotype. A pilot study of the motivations and experiences of males in the nursing profession. Journal of Nursing Management, 11(4), 242-249. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2834.2003.00379.x
The author explores some stereotypes based on what types of jobs are more women’s type of jobs or more manly jobs. Careers such as carpenters and truck drivers are all almost exclusively male jobs, whereas careers in nursing or secretary work are all almost exclusively a woman’s type of work. Since the 1970’s, women have made head way into male dominated jobs. However, the author states that even though women have made it into male dominated jobs, this is not true for the reverse situation. The woman type jobs are still almost exclusively women’s jobs with men making little entry into them.
Angelou once said, “The people may forget the nurses name, but they will never forget how that nurse made them feel.” Nursing is a profession. Unfortunately, nursing does not always get the credit it deserves because of these stereotypes. Nursing is not a gay profession for males. Due to the shortage of nurses, our society needs more nurses now than never. Nurses make a difference in almost every person’s lives just not in hospital rooms but also in schools and clinics. Nursing in not easy job but somebody has to do it. There has to those individuals who must take on this challenge and be the difference in someone’s life. People could not care if someone considers them a failure for being a nurse and not a doctor. Most doctors could not do their job effectively without the help and assistance of nurses. The money is there for those who think nurses does not get paid that much. Healthcare is one of the biggest factors in our world, and for our world to progress further, an increase in employment for nursing is necessary. These stereotypes should not and will not stop the field of nursing from
The articles were to be peer reviewed, and have a minimum of one nurse as an author. The research was completed on the EBSCO online research database using the Cumulative Index to Nursing database and Allied Health Literature with full text. The concept of nursing being a predominantly female profession is currently being influenced by the media, and society as a whole (Lou, Yu & Chen, 2010) This is being portrayed through movies with how frequent you see females as nurses within television series but you rarely or never see males. When you finally see the ‘male nurse’ they are usually portrayed negatively such as portrayed in this film. Jack tries persistently to persuade Greg to switch career paths because he considers it a female line of work. Constant portrayal of nursing being a female role in movies and television shows is leading to the population being misinformed about the male nursing profession. The truth is that males have an equal role in the nursing work force. David Stanley stated in an article that male nurse’s are considered to be aggressive. (2012) When Greg got upset, and started yelling, “bomb” on the plane, he had to be detained. This could be considered portraying a male nurse as being an aggressor. This proves the statement previously stated about males could be viewed as more aggressive. Just because there is a correlation of males nurses
Shawn Brodess joked “Yeah, in nursing school, I felt like I had to do more than a female. Like I had to prove myself. I had to sign up for every job task that was considered a female role.” Most males will attend nursing school with thinking of the challenges ahead of them. During clinical, a patient might not prefer a male nursing student. When I was in clinical for my nursing assistant, we were in groups of three. Our group had the only male in the class. Our first patient was a patient with dementia. We all went in and introduced ourselves. The patient looked at the male and asked him “So are you a pervert or something. Wanting to take care of old women.” The boy face was bright red and he never came back to school after
Harris, Sara, and Laura E. Berk. Instructor's Resource Manual for Berk Exploring Lifespan Development, Second Edition. 2nd ed. Illinois: Allyn & Bacon, 2011. Print.
Healthcare is a continuous emerging industry across the world. With our ever changing life styles and the increased levels of pollution across the world more and more people are suffering from various health issues. Nursing is an extremely diverse profession and among the highest educated with several levels ranging from a licensed practical nurse (LPN) to a registered nurse (RN) on up to a Doctorate in Nursing. Diane Viens (2003) states that ‘The NP is a critical member of the workforce to assume the leadership roles within practice, education, research, health systems, and health policy’.
The history of nursing dates back to the medieval times to today. It started off with nuns, in addition to their religious practices, attended the sick and dying. Nurses were usually females back then. When the Crimean War went on, an English nurse, Florence Nightingale, started the foundation for nursing. Florence Nightingale wrote the first book of nursing, saying the requirements, and details of nursing. In 1901, New Zealand founded the first registration of nurses with the Nurses Registration Act. One of the first Registered nurses was Ellen Dougherty. Over the years nursing developed to what it is today. Even today nursing is still evolving, innovating, and expanding. Today instead of only having female nurses, there are many male nurses in the field. Although, nursing has stayed somewhat the same over the years, technology has had a big impact on it. This impact has mostly been positive. Technology makes nurses jobs easier, it facilitates communication on the go, and allows remote care/monitoring. With technology, nurses don’t have to be with the patient 24/7. Technology does things nurses used to do, so that nurses can attend other things. With more technology coming into the medical field, this will only help the nurses more in the future.
However, “male nurses have constructed a gender-based identity that accords with what is acceptable to the society…this allows a male nurse to retain masculine qualities while fitting in with the society’s expectations of what is primarily perceived as a woman’s role” (Loughrey, 2008).
RNs are on the top of the list of jobs open in health care, and are also in the top ten to have open jobs (Damp). In the US there are approximately 3.1 million RNs; they make up about seventy percent of a hospital staff. Nurses aren’t only women now; statistics have shown that the amount of men in the nursing field is growing (Cardillo). Nursing is expected to be in a higher demand in cities, and small areas. It is expected for it to grow twenty-six percent in the next few years ("Degree Programs for Registered Nurses”). Facilities are never over staffed; nursing jobs will always be
There was seldom a mention of male and male students choosing to become nurses. Along with the belief of nursing being a career choice more female-directed, there was also the repeated mention of the career being for middle-class women (Price, 2008). Historically, women have been the dominant face of nursing and it has always been considered a suitable career for women, whereas most careers in the past would never be acceptable for a female. For some of the female students who were interviewed, this stereotype was part of a deferent to choosing nursing. They did not want to be thought of as a stereotypical women, and be casted into a mould of what most women choose (Price, Hall, Angus, & Peter, 2013). In a modern society, more and more women are wishing to push the boundaries on what use to be referred to as a male dominated territory. This is true in careers as well. Many females second guess their decision in choosing nursing due to
Exploring Lifespan Development (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Levy-Hinte, J. & Sons, J. London, M. (Producer), & Hardwicke, C. (Director). (2003). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary'.
Image and profession go hand in hand. Image plays a very important yet controversial role in the nursing profession. The image of nursing is often inaccurate and falls short of the fair and correct portrayal of what the role of nursing truly is (Summers, 2010). With an inaccurate portrayal of what nursing really is comes the challenges of the profession. Popular stereotypes in nursing coming from both the past and today media and expectations take away the true meaning and role of the modern profession. Some common stereotypes include but are not limited to: unskilled, a way to marriage, and a physician’s helpmate. These stereotypes lead to many problems within the nursing profession including poor working conditions, insufficient support
Furthermore, the lack of male teachers and male role models in nursing education programs enhance the discrimination issues. In the absence of male teachers, male students remain exposed to a female dominated teaching faculty, in addition to feminine orientated interpretations of the nursing profession (Mohamed, Mohamed, 2015). It was perceive male and female student’s encounter different learning experiences, however this was based on the sexist fact men lack maternal instinct. Also observed in practical classroom settings teachers generally selected males for gender role-play activities and rarely selected males for the nurse role. Evidently, nurse educators frequently refer to a nurse in a female context during teaching situations, furthermore nursing textbooks project a strong feminine tone. The exclusion of male nursing students from certain practical and clinical training programs can negativity impact a students future career decisions (Kouta, Kaite, 2011). Improvements to teacher training and the updating of nursing resources, acknowledging nurses of both gender, can facilitate positive male student nurse outcomes to future career pathways (Mohamed, Mohamed,
Just 2.7 percent of the working nurse population in the United States are men. To understand why nursing is dominated by women, we have to examine the its history. Male nurses may belong, but there?s still not many around. According to the U.S. Labor Department statistics, "6.7 percent of registered nurses were male"(statistics). Gender discrimination in nursing exists because of prejudices male students encounter in the classroom, in the workplace and with the patients.
In the operation of the healthcare system, gender plays a central role. Gender discrimination in the healthcare exists either in the field of education, workplace or while attending to the patients. Interestingly, as opposed to other areas where discrimination lies heavily to a particular gender; gender inequality in health happens to both women and men. Gender inequality in the health care service negatively affects the quality of care given and perpetuates patient biases to a gender. Also, the gender disparities in the field of health assists researchers and practitioners to study conditions and their probable manifestations within both sexes.