Gender Issues in the Nursing Profession

Nursing as a profession has faced many barriers over the centuries. One of the most defining barriers discussed in regard to the historical experience of nurses is the effects of its being considered, and for the most part being, work done by women. In evaluating nursing history it is necessary therefore to evaluate the ways in which society has evolved over time in terms of its views on the roles of nurses of women within the society and its institutions. In the U.S., the inception of nursing both as an occupation and later as a profession, has strong ties to the challenge of women's perceived role as a wife and mother whose sphere was solely domestic. In many ways, significant progress has been made from that time in what women and

Meadus and J. Creina Twomey. They both have a PhDs, they are also Both RNs. Robert J. Meadus is an associate professor while J. Creina Twomney is an assistant professor. They are both credible sources because they are both Register Nurses and also they both have a PhD. They both work for the School of Nursing, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. They are biased because they are both males who are also nurses. They feel that more males should be accepted into nursing universities. The article informs the reader that in many countries such as the Unites states, Canada, Ireland the percentage of male nurses is relatively small compare to those of female nurses. The article also discusses the research done on males to see their experience as students in a nursing school. The main point of the article is that nursing schools should re-evaluate how they teach and promote the nursing career. They have to do so in a way to provide gender neutrality for both male and female students. “Nursing is predominantly a female-concentrated occupation. Mackintosh (1997) states that despite men being “pioneers” within the profession, they are considered an “anomaly” for choosing a career outside the boundaries for men in non-traditional occupations.” ( Meadus &

profession and should be respected as such. Congruent with nursing stereotypes comes gender roles. Naturally, women are the care-takers thus the profession is predominately female, but it should be noted that this predisposition of women taking on this role has too altered the perception of nursing. “Although the number of men in nursing is growing, campaigns and targeted recruitments should be displayed more often to draw more men into the profession” (Cohen 2007).

The nursing shortage began in the 1940’s during the World War II and has not changed over many decades. Predominantly females staffed the nursing field until the 1980-1990’s era. That is when the nursing profession was regarded as a less attractive career as other professions opened up to women that were once ruled by males. Between the 1990-2000’s, the shortage of nurses happened as a result of the implementation of managed care. The government and private insurer reimbursements declined and health care cost dramatically increased. Since reimbursements were reduced hospitals and health care corporations had to reduce staff in order to manage budgets. The nursing shortage of today is considered plentiful and complex (Huston, 2014).

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.

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.”

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

This report explores the changes in gender roles since the 1980’s and their impact on the nursing profession

There are a number of professions that traditionally have been oriented towards women: teaching, especially younger children; certain carative professions; and, of course, nursing. Of the 2.1 million Registered Nurses in the United States, for instance, less than six per cent are male, and men make up only 13 percent of the new crop of nursing students (Chung).This trend is not just centered in the United States. In much of the developed world, males account for only 1% or less of teachers of early childhood grade levels, down from about 4% in the 1980s. At least one educator noted that this is a clear tragedy for millions of children who can benefit from simply having a male perspective in the classroom. "As a result many children who have no man at home, find no man at preschool and no man at primary school, and never meet a stable, reliable male figure in all their preteen years. Girls never experience nurturing from a trusted older male. Boys, cared for only by women, learn that nurturing is no part of the male job description. And in the absence of reliable men, too many of these boys learn their male role from violent television and music videos, and on the street" (Ballantyne).

Nursing is an esteemed profession that has developed over many years. This paper will explore the factors that influenced the development of the nursing profession, the roles and responsibilities of nurses, the many different career opportunities available to nurses as well as the origins of my passion to pursue nursing.

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

Over the decades, the field of nursing has been facing difficulty with receiving acceptance as a respectable occupation. This is because there were often certain prejudices associated with the profession (which made it hard to attract good candidates). However, in the last several years, nurses have become an integral part of any health care team. To fully understand how this took place requires examining the historical trends. This will be accomplished by focusing on: self-regulatory issues and the way social perceptions impacted career decisions. Once this takes place, is when these elements will show the challenges effecting the development and practices of the discipline. (Kitson, 1996, pp. 1647 1651)

In the United States, according to the latest statistics, male nurses represent just a small fraction of the nursing workforce. The popular believe that nursing is not for men coupled with admission capacity constraints of Nursing Schools seem to be major obstacles towards bringing more men to the nursing profession at large. Many male nurses often face the challenges of gender discrimination in specialties like obstetrics and gynecology, where most women prefer to have female nurses attend to them compared to male nurses. Male nurses are commonly seen working in intensive care units, emergency and operating room.

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;