The Advantage Of Men In Nursing

Nursing was a challenge to the individual and I had to experience an identity I had never previously thought about which was being a male within a predominantly female career field. As Yang et al. (2004) showed males in their study work towards promotion and strive on a long term goal of personal growth. In previous fields I had always fought for advancement and now I still do and have been equally been treated among my peers and have seen that advancement truly can only come from pursuing an advanced degree.

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

I learned the importance of education for developing nursing practice and respect to nursing job, which originate from and was a women’s important social role.

The image of the nursing profession is on the rise due to development in political, environmental, cultural, and social areas. This involves addition of women into the profession of nursing to instill the needed care to patients. The implementation of technology and education in relation to the nursing profession proves to be effective and efficient in the current health condition, in the nation. Education helps to prepare nurses for their roles and expectations. This allows them to execute their roles and responsibilities perfectly thus the highly trusted health professional group. Extensive research and clinical approaches also act as components to indicate the strides towards development in relation to the nursing profession. Research actions enable nurses to determine the source of their previous problems thus opportunity to revive themselves. This provides appropriate platform for development of the profession (Cherry & Jacob, 2011).

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).

“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.

The nursing field was mostly dominated by males before world war one, but census data from 2011 states that “Women outnumber them 10:1.” in the nursing field (Diamond). What used to be the norm of men being nurses and doctors have now switched. Josh Mitchell from the wall street journal reported that "Women account for a third of the nation's lawyers and doctors, a major shift from a generation ago”

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.”

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

Nurses Facing Oppression What is oppression? Often times, people think of oppression in terms of race, gender, or religious groups. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, oppression is, “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power” (Merriam-Webster.com).

What comes to the mind when we think of nurses - Someone who takes care of sick people. Nursing was introduced by Florence Nightangle in the mid of 1800’s and she took an opportunity to train women to care of wounded and sick army during the war. Back then nurses were trained to perform all the housekeeping skills. In 1900’s, there was no set of formal classes for nursing student as compared to today’s higher education. They were assigned to work for 10-12 hours without pay under the supervision of a physician. There is a huge difference between today’s and 1900’s nursing education. Nurses are more trained and skilled in their profession and today’s nursing considered to be more professional than 1900’s nursing.

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

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;

The evolution of nursing as a profession had showed through time that it is both an art and science. Before the 19th century, the military and religious orders are the ones who perform the duties of how nurses work today. As time went by, different events throughout history such as wars and epidemics had shaped nursing to its present organization. Nowadays, nursing is pushing further towards the future in improving itself as a profession for better care and service to the community. The objective of this paper is to discuss the historical development of