Men Increasingly Well Represented In Nursing Field
February 3, 2009
By the Online Nursing Career Content Team – Find Top Nursing Programs Online!
Men are becoming increasingly well-represented in the nursing profession, which could help ease an expected worker shortage in the coming years.
This week, Utah's Herald Journal newspaper spoke with some local male nurses about their work and the cultural attitudes that have occasionally made the profession more difficult for men in general to pursue.
The report notes that about five percent of U.S. nurses are men, and that the number tends to be low because of factors like old gender stereotypes and cultural expectations. "There is not a shred of scientific evidence that women are born with a nurturing gene and men are not," Brenda Cooper of Utah State University told the newspaper, which cited a recent Johnson and Johnson campaign that asked, "are you man enough to be a nurse?"
One veteran nurse, Jody Reese, told the newspaper that men bring more diversity to the field and tend to be accepted by patients when they demonstrate their compassion and professionalism.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that along with a great demand for nurses nationwide, there is also a wide range of choices when it comes to areas of expertise. For example, nursing school graduates can end up in settings ranging from trauma and intensive care to mental health settings, radiology, and more.
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