The Role Of Male Nurses In Nursing

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Despite having the majority be women, nursing has started to become a profession for males as well. Men make up around 10% of the nursing workforce in both the UK and USA. Nurses are typically regarded as a female role and males in nursing often find themselves being referred to as 'male nurses ' or a 'murse ' to distinguish them from the female nurses. With increasing expectations of workplace equality during the late 20th century, nursing became an officially gender-neutral profession, though in practice the percentage of male nurses remains well below that of female physicians in the early 21st century. The number of active nurses in general that are working has started to decrease. Because of the low amount of active nurses, hospitals …show more content…

Before the foundation of modern nursing, members of religious orders such as nuns and monks often provided nursing-like care. Examples exist in Christian, Islamic and Buddhist traditions amongst others. These traditions were influential in the development of the ethos of modern nursing. Nursing has been labeled as a job for a female, as a doctor is a man’s role. Nursing historians face the challenge of determining whether care provided to the sick or injured in antiquity was nursing care. In the fifth century BC, for example, the Hippocratic Collection in places describes skilled care and observation of patients by male "attendants", who may have been early nurses. During the Reformation of the 16th century, Protestant reformers shut down the monasteries and convents, allowing a few hundred municipal hospices to remain in operation in northern Europe. Those nuns who had been serving as nurses were given pensions or told to get married and stay home. Nursing care went to the inexperienced as traditional caretakers, rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, were removed from their positions. The nursing profession suffered a major setback for approximately 200 …show more content…

Stereotypes of taking up a female position, lack of male interest in the profession, low wage, nursing job nicknames, such as Sister and Matron, and the assumption that male nurses will have a harder time in the workplace carrying out their duties are just a few examples. There is a shortage of male nurses at the moment, but there is no sign that they suffer in their career. Despite equal opportunity legislation, nursing has continued to be a female-dominated profession. For instance, the male-to-female ratio of nurses is approximately 1:19 in Canada and the United States. Evidence suggests that male nurses can be fast

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