Gender Differences Between Associate And Baccalaureate Degree Levels

According to Susan LaRocco, males felt it was difficult to establish themselves in new jobs, and felt the need to prove themselves (2007). This need to prove ones-self is not true of all males. Some feel that they were immediately valued because of their minority status. Michael Sims feels that male nurses are perceived as more knowledgeable. He feels that they are often treated with more respect because they are perceived as being more serious about their jobs. Tyler Durdan felt that he was welcomed wholeheartedly by the females. He felt that he was valued as a male because of their need for someone who could deal with the more strenuous side of nursing (Personal communication, November 22, 2008). Female nurses like Stacey Robinson agree, “Female nurses enjoy having men in nursing, they give us a new perspective and can help us do some of the jobs that are more physically demanding” (Personal communication, November 24,

New advertisements for the nursing field include posters designed for this campaign aimed to boost the attractiveness of the image of men in nursing by illustrating concepts of brotherhood, belonging, men helping men, and leading the way. One of the recent posters out there shows a student nurse "reverse mentoring" another nurse with technology proving that this is an educational line of work. AAMN, American Assembly for Men in Nursing, hopes that these contemporary images of professional, compassionate, and competent nurses will chip away at stereotypes about men in nursing (Stokowski

“Males make up about 5% of all RNs working in the United States today” (Poliafico). Nursing is a profession in the health care field that concentrates on the nurturing care of individuals. The United States currently lacks testosterone (the male hormone) in the nursing field. The subject is something many people have thought about at least once in their lives. Some may argue nursing is a career meant for a woman, while others may argue it is a non-gender specified career option. Either way, the world has come to accept the lack of men in nursing. The nursing profession should be for both men and women, but society puts a stereotype on the ‘average nurse’ preventing men from being accepted into this career.

To become an RN, one must not only have the compassion and empathy for others but have the skills to care for those in need. To learn those skills, a student can attend a college or university program which can offer an Associate Degree or a Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing. There are also hospital-based nursing programs which offer a Diploma of Nursing. All nurses are required to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), whether they have an AD or BSN. The NCLEX is the national exam required for licensing and practice as a nurse in the United States. For someone to make the right decision on which program to attend it is best to compare and look at their differences, strengths, and weaknesses.

Nurses in the USA make up the biggest workforce of any country in the world. However nurses continue to be in short supply even with an aggressive campaign to attract foreign nurses (Brunetto et al., 2013). It is estimated that “the United States will need to have produced 1.13 million new RN’s to fill the future demand” (MeMenamin, 2014). Of the current-working nurses in the United States, “males represent approximately 7% of the nursing workforce…”(Colby, 2012). The percentage of men in nursing must improve if nursing is to become diversified. Although the number of men in the nursing profession is slowly growing, they will not have an impact on the future nursing shortage. In order for men to choose nursing over other professions, men should be exposed to the historical contributions of men in nursing, as well as changing the perception of male nurses. The lack of male representation in the field of nursing is due to “the feminization of modern day nursing by Florence Nightingale” (Colby, 2013) in the nineteenth century. Nightingale saw all women as nurses and believed that those who entered the nursing field “were doing what came naturally to them as women (Evans, 2003).” According to Evans (2003), “The failure to recognize their contributions leaves male nurses with little information about their professional background and historical position, a situation in which nurse Okrainec (1990) suggests perpetuates the notion that male nurses are anomalies.”

The shortage of nurses has gradually increased throughout the years. This shortage has taken a toll on patients, prospective nursing students, and faculty members. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, “In 2012, United States nursing schools turned away 79,659 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs” (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2014, para. 5). Unfortunately, even though there is a high number of students wanting to enter the nursing field there are not enough instructors to educate and train the students properly due to the low pay incentive for nursing professors. According to Brown (2015), “Clinical settings offer higher salaries than

The first step to gaining an equally represented nursing workforce is to ensure all races receive an opportunity to advance their education and become registered nurses. Many cultural beliefs are obstacles for minorities. Families believe that a woman’s place is just within the household or that college is not an option for their children (Wros, Doutrich, and Ruiz, 2009). The nursing industry must advertise vigilantly to both the children and their families that culture should not hold anyone back from achieving their goals, and a nursing career is a good goal to want to achieve. When asked what could be done to increase the amount of minority nursing students, Yvette

Thus explaining that regardless of one’s skill set they base the choice of career or lack of career on their cultural beliefs and when a male or female steps outside of the boundary that society has placed they are chastised for their decision. For example, in 2013 94% of nurses were females and only 6% were males, Wilson (2013) indicated the primary reason for this being that society views nursing as a care taking role with the best nurses having a maternal instinct (p. 1). Therefore, placing a more family orientated role on the nursing field. Although, Wilson (2013) also established that regardless of nursing being a more female orientated career, males still made approximately $1,100 more than their female counterparts. Leading to the realization that society even in a female oriented career field still places more value on men than women when it comes to a career driven

The shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States has been a cyclical topic dating back to the 1960s. Only recently have employers in certain regions of the nation stated a decline in the demand for RNs. Consequently, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2014) report on 2012-2013 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, American nursing schools denied admission to 79,659 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2012. The reported decrease in job availability and rejected admissions has left many individuals to question if the nursing shortage still exists. On the other hand, some

Up until the 1800’s, the job of a nurse belonged to the male population because of its affiliation with the military and religious orders. Early religious orders such as the Benedictine nursing order and St. Alexis were brotherhoods delegated to holy men. The military utilized male nurses during a time of war in the front lines, while female nurses worked in the hospitals. But because of the shortage of male nurses during the civil war, women were recruited to take the place of the men and the emergence of nursing schools dedicated to women started to flourish while diminishing the male role as a nurse. Unfortunately, in today’s society, the role of a nurse is thought to be that of a females job and men who enter the field are considered

The minimum level of nursing education required for nursing jobs has been a topic of discussion for a several decade now. The Council of State Board of Nursing reported in their most recent statistics that Associate Registered Nurses accounted for 58.4% of the workforce while only 38.4% have a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing in the United States. The issue is that recommendations have been made to shut down the existing pipeline of Associate Nurses (AN) to that of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). The goal of this change is to transition the average 50% of the nurses who have an associate degree to 80% BSN by the next

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

I believe males and females should equal opportunities to pursue a career in nursing. In the latest decades, male attendance in the career of nursing has increased exponentially. According to the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies, data shows that male RNs continue to increase, reaching over 350,000 full-time equivalents in 2016. Although the total number of male RNs have increased all together, male FTE RNs in the the workforce has continued at a constant rate at 11% over the past 5 years, proving that their numbers have been increasing proportional to that of the entire RN workforce. Since the early 1980s, the percent of male RNs working in the hospital environment has been significantly larger than the percent of male

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;