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It's 2 a.m. in the Emergency Room. A man in scrubs walks up to your teenage daughter's bedside to look at the knee she twisted playing tennis. You immediately think:
a) Good, the doctor's finally here.
b) That man's not touching my daughter.
c) Oh, they must be ready to take her for an X-ray.
If your first reaction was any of the above, you've bought into a common stereotype faced by male nurses like Erich Widemark, Ph.D., FNP-BC, RN.
"I get patients to this day who ask when I'm going to go back to medical school," says Widemark, a nurse practitioner by profession. "Nursing is seen as an intermediary job, not a career choice for men," he says. "This is the job I really want to do."
"It's a good career," echoes Capt. Robert Miller, ANC, BSN, EMT-P. "It pays well and has an infinite number of possibilities." In an economy where job stability is hard to come by, nursing is one of few fields expected to experience tremendous growth. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2010-2011 Occupation Outlook, employment of registered nurses (RNs) is expected to increase 22% from 2008 to 2018.
Men are starting to take notice. Before 1990, only 4% of nurses who completed their initial RN education were male. Since then, the number more than doubled to 10% Initial Findings 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, 2010).
Still, men are by far the minority in nursing, with women outnumbering them nearly 15 to 1 in the United States. Perhaps that's because it's not easy being—or even preparing to be—a male nurse. "In nursing school, I was one of three guys in the program. The biggest issue we had was the instructors. I'm not sure if they thought we wouldn't be as caring," says Miller.
Paul Games, MSN, RN, NP-C, a nurse for 21 years agrees. "I was in my third semester of nursing school before I was allowed to catheterize a female—and she was in a coma." That's because the nurse mentor or instructor would ask the female patient if she really wanted a man doing the procedure.
A potential dilemma for male nurses is how to protect their reputation and livelihood. "I've always taught my students to practice good medical, professional and legal ethics," says Widemark. "When you have a patient of the opposite gender, have a co-worker in the room."
Dealing with predominantly female co-workers can pose a challenge as well. "I think male nurses are under more scrutiny," says Miller. "Are you really good at your job and are you there for the right reasons?"
Despite the apparent perception issues, all three men see definite changes in attitudes toward male nurses. "If I'm with friends or at a social event, I get a lot less questions about being a male nurse than 15 years ago," says Widemark.
"The field is definitely opening up to men. There is a general movement in society with less gender bias," says Games. "Jobs that are stereotypically male dominated are open to women and vice versa."
"I think TV shows have helped break those stereotypes," says Miller. "Look at the '70s show Emergency. The males were all paramedics, firefighters, doctors or cops. The females were either nurses or patients. Now look at E.R., which was a very highly rated show that ran for a long time. It more accurately depicts the mix that happens in real life."
Despite the challenges of being in a predominantly female profession, nursing is a good career choice for men. "Nursing has been great to me. I love what I do and at the end of the day, it beats digging ditches," says Games.
References:
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011 Edition.
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