Certified Nursing Assistant

According to the article, "Male Nurse":Experiences of Men in the Nursing Profession", one of the challenges that face men in nursing is the idea of being perceived as the "muscle strength". Because of this, men were often enlisted for more physically demanding task (Bernard Hodes Group, 2005), such as lifting and performing manual duties that requires strong physical strength. The research concluded that one way of retaining male nurses in the profession is to de-gender caring and changing the gender stereotypes (Hemsley- Brown & Foskett, 1999). Focusing on the caring aspect of the profession is essential to the profession, regardless if you are male or female.

The US News ranked a Nurse Anesthetist number 4 in the top 100 best jobs of 2016. Although satisfying, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) is a highly stressful nursing specialty (Phillips, 2010). According to Gouveia (2016), a registered nurse is ranked top 5 in most stressful jobs. Some of the brightest and best CRNAs, even past presidents of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) have taken their own life because of addiction (Quinlan, 2009). Substance abuse and addiction is a well-known topic unfortunately, it continues to be an issue and struggle everyday for some anesthesia providers. CRNAS are well-educated individuals; however, the prevalence, and relapse rates for substance abuse are alarming. The

The Certified Nursing Assistant program started this year with a new instructor, Karla Garrison RN BSN. Karla was previously one of the state board of nursing examiners and tested our students last year. After being impressed with our students and our program as well as the opportunity to make a difference Karla joined our team. Under her leadership we have transferred to a new curriculum and new text books that are more focused on meeting the Arizona state board exam requirements.

Male nurses are not typically encouraged by the society we live in today. Men are not in favor of being called nurses and maybe would have a bit more encouragement if the caregiver word would simply be changed from ‘nurse’ to ‘medic’ (Gorgos). Just the change in title can make a positive difference to both men and women in the nursing field. Men and women enter the nursing career with the same goals and interests; but are still yet separated by the name ‘nurse’ and ‘male nurse’ (Kouta). Eddie Hebert a 35-year nursing veteran claims that the caregiver one usually pictures a white woman. This image is being projected into the American public. He believes that, “Caregiving is not feminine; it's universal.” The lack of men in nursing though is, “a result of cultural stereotypes and image” (Gorgos). On the

According to the U.S. Census Bureau men made up 7.6% of nurses in the year 2000 (Landivar, 2013). Even though this does seem like a small number, the amount of males in this profession has risen exponentially from 1970 and continues to rise. In the year 2011, around 330,000 males were nurses (Landivar, 2013). This is why I decided to choose the film Meet the Parents (produced in

Current statistics also support the idea that an increase in male nurses would help resolve the impending nursing shortage and in turn, decrease male unemployment rates. Although the U.S. is not currently experiencing a lack of nurses, these shortages historically come in cycles (Egenes, 2012, p. 21). Egenes declares, “In a recent study, Peter Buerhaus (2009) of the Vanderbuilt University School of Nursing predicted a national shortfall of 260,000 registered nurses by 2025” (2012, p. 21). The next nursing shortage is, therefore, expected to be drastic and should be prepared for. Bringing males into the field can be a significant factor in resolving this issue. Additionally, through this increase, men will experience a decrease in unemployment

Even after decades, not much has changed regarding men in this specific career path. When we see movies like “meet the parents” in which the father in law constantly makes fun of Ben Stiller for being a male nurse when he clearly loves his job doesn’t seem to be fair. It is interesting to note that women today have taken positions in programs such as engineering, medicine, and law. However, they are not talked about as much as men in nursing field. Although females continue to exceed men as nurses significantly, the stats of male nurses have increased. The document “Men in nursing occupations” by liana Christian

According to the United States Census Bureau, health-care is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, but unfortunately, men still only make up a small percentage of nurses working in the United States. Nevertheless, the popularity of this career path among men is steadily increasing. Men’s representation among nurses increased; about 2.7 percent of registered nurses were men in 1970 compared with 9.6 percent in 2011. The representation of men among licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses grew from 3.9 percent in 1970 to 8.1 percent in 2011. Men are more likely to be found in high-paying nursing occupations. Although women make up a unproportional share of all nursing occupations, the highest representation among nurse

In order for nursing to become a less skewed occupation the image of nursing needs to change. According to Weaver et al. (2014), the negative images of how men are depicted in popular culture harm recruitment and retention of men in the profession. If the image of nursing on television comes across as attractive and diverse, career retention rates of male nurses may improve. Also, policy makers should promote male nursing as an attractive and valid career option. A barrier to recruitment is the lack of male nursing role models in media. Nursing needs to look more desirable to men (Weaver et al., 2014, p.834). According to Genua (2005), more men should be depicted as nurses on television, on billboards, and in advertisements. Also, young boys should be educated about the field. Other important elements to consider are defeminizing the caring aspect of nursing and recognizing the contributions men have made to nursing (Genua, 2005, p.7). Sayman (2015), also agrees that

Although never a major part, male nurses have been involved in the nursing occupation since the start. In the beginning, men provided treatment to the sick and dying as early as 400BC and 500BC. The actions that led to the profession of nursing also led to the prevention of male nurses from entering the profession. In the 1800’s Florence Nightingale believed women had a natural ability to care for the sick and dying. She established nursing schools that did not mix male and female students together. By doing this, men were barred from attending these types of nursing schools. However, men were able to work in mental hospitals where their physical strength was used to restrain patients. These types of hospitals provided men training in

Men are becoming registered and licensed practical nurse. With the majority of male nurse seeking career paths in advanced fields of nursing which include nurse anesthetist and nurse practitioner (citation). Men’s representation as a registered nurse was an estimated 2.7 percent in the 1970 and rose slowly to 9 percent in 2011 (citation). Additionally, male licensed practical nurse increased from 3.9 percent in 1970 to 8.1 percent in 2011 (citation). This rise in male nursing could also be related to the overall acceptance from the general population of a male nurse. Society’s tolerance and acceptance changes with time and can have an indirect or direct effect on some occupations. Nursing is a broad field that has several different venues with that come several different pay rates. Male nurses appear to gravitate towards higher paying and specialized fields such as nurse anesthetist (citation). An estimated 41 percent of nurse anesthestists are male and earn nearly twice as much as a traditional registered male nurse

This clip is from a 1999 episode of the popular show Friends. Unfortunately, it exemplifies an opinion still widely held by many today, that nursing is a career for women rather than men. Our cohort is also a reflection of this image, with only two students of 24 being men. It is easy to see that nursing is a field dominated by women. As we have learned in our module 1 readings, professional nursing has its roots in a time of war, when men were injured during battle and female nurses were the ones to care for them. Perhaps this has contributed to the image of a "feminine nurse" and a strong gender gap within the nursing profession. I am concerned that many still believe nursing is natural for women and unnatural for men, as if men are incapable

Recently, it was concluded that the nursing gender bias against men as nurses on labor and delivery floors were started when the male nurse was in nursing school. (Chang et. Al.,2010)

Nursing has had a long history with the women’s movement. It wasn’t affected by the first wave of feminism in the 20th century that granted suffrage to the American women. The issue between nursing and feminism arose with the second wave of the movement. It started with women’s battle to gain access to education and advanced careers. Gender inequality is a major issue that remains within the field of Nursing. Historically and today in the US, females in nursing outnumber males approximately ten to one. For instance, nursing has been perceived as a female profession dominated by women while medicine has been mainly a male’s occupation. Further, Nursing is associated with stereotypically feminine characteristics such as nurturing and caring. Despite these circumstances, male nurses tend to be disproportionately represented in

Among twenty leading female-dominated professions, registered nurses (RN’s) are the second most occupation that employed women in 2006¬. Similar to many traditionally female professions, the percentage of male in nursing is small. In fact, male nurses only comprised eight percent of RN’s in 2008. Although much effort has been made to recruit more men into nursing, many contributing factors have driven them away from this profession. Those factors include poor nursing image, negative public perception, low economic status, and gender stereotypes. One of the most significant factors that deter men from entering the profession is stereotypes. Research shows that men might be more likely to encounter stereotypes than discrimination;