Attracting Men to the Nursing Profession: Tackling an Inequality

For years, the proportion of men in nursing has been found to be just around ten percent. What it clearly shows is that there is an absolute gender inequality in the field of nursing. But, the sad thing is that there is no outcry at this imbalance, and there are few campaigns to reach out to male recruits. So, how to go about this? The following article will speak all about the nursing profession and gender bias in the field.

A Look at the Gender Gap in Medicine and Nursing

One report from the “Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)” has shown that at least 20,000 men will be required to the redress the gender bias among the nursing students. Within a decade, the nation is likely to see that the gap between the number of men and women in nursing education eclipsing the gap between the number of students rich and poor backgrounds. Thus, there will be a sociological shift that might be difficult to manage in the future.

Of all, the particular concern is the gender bias in nursing faculty. It has been continuously argued by the nursing educators that more male teachers in the nursing schools could help address this problem. However, the main problem lies in the fact that nursing is viewed as a female subject right from the traditional times. Thus, an overall female dominance is found in the nursing schools.

Lack of Campaigns to Invite Men

Back in the days where there was a lack of women selecting to study science subjects in universities, the common things noticed among people were anger and action. Some three decades ago, a campaign in the name, “The Wise Campaign” was created to invite more women to pursue the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). As a result of such campaigns, more than half of all the higher education schools of current time are able to tackle the gender bias when it comes to science in the universities. Despite this improvement, the government is continuously repeating its commitment to invite more and more women into the field of science.

But, sadly, no campaigns for inviting males into the nursing schools are found as it is found for inviting women into computer science and STEM subjects. As said by the senior policy adviser on gender equality at “Equality Challenge Unit”, there is some kind of nervousness noticed about focusing on male students in the field of nursing. This has been noticed in spite of seeing that males are doing a better job in the workplace when compared to females.

Some good news for everyone will be that the ECU is in the process of experimenting a gender equality charter to recognize the institutions that are committing themselves to cover the under-representation of men in the academic disciplines like nursing.

What Law Says About Favoring a Gender

By law, favoring a particular gender is against the law. In general, there are lots of institutions out there that are supporting male students via men’s groups and giving male educators. But, when it comes to employment, the law prevents any favoring there. If this is the case, the real concern will be that there will be gender imbalance that could get worse as the economy selects males. How it will be if males tend to be more influenced than females by the state of the economy in choosing to go into teaching.

But, experts think that this is not going to happen ever because men are coming into the primary education in numbers in the same way as women.

Male Nurses are Teased

It has been widely noted that male nurses are getting teased by their friends. While this is not to be taken as the major stopping factor when it comes to job and profession, it has been taken seriously by lots of males. When the male nurses are asked the same question, some of them said that they could not understand why more men are not doing the same as them. However, they still feel comfortable working in the job settings where women outnumber men.

On the other hand, some men who are just into the field said that studying female-dominated subjects will be difficult for them. It has been told by some first-year male nursing students that they are teased by his friends for being a male nurse. This can turn out to be one of the most serious issues that could deter men from coming into the field.

This will continue in the workplace too. Sometimes, a particular male nurse will be the only male member of staff in the health care organization he is going to work. This will worsen the situation. What matters here is that there are not enough men in the field. The condition will get smoother when more and more males are brought into the field.

Positive Sides of Males in Nursing

It’s true that nursing is traditionally seen as a female-dominated field. While women are viewed as an ideal fit for performing the duties and roles as a nurse, it is to be understood that there is a massive need for male nurses in the field. It can’t be accepted blindly that all the male patients are feeling comfortable with the female nurses. Although the world is used to it, still male patients are not ready to go comfortably with the female nurses. The entry of male nurses into the field will be a great relaxation for the male patients. This way, the male patients can be themselves.

The Opinion of Female Nurses About the Male Entry

It could be surprising for the people to know that the female nurses have a common positive thinking about the entry of men into the field. They think that a huge bolus of testosterone (men) in the field would actually improve the nursing field. They think that more male nurses would take their group to new heights that otherwise cannot be achieved by women alone. Thus, everyone’s careers can be improved. Some women even feel that men would bring professionalism to the profession. Some female nurses feel that their profession requires a number of smart and dedicated nurses.

At the same time, they also feel that there is no group been active in advocating for more number of males in the field.

Good to go Move by a University

As mentioned earlier, the proportion of males in nursing has been remaining at around ten percent for a long time now. There is one university, which came forward with the good to go move to attract more men to the field. With the funding from the “National Express Foundation”, the university is planning to give the male entrants to the course in nursing, midwifery, and other related healthcare professions, a great sum of money towards their living expenses. It’s none other than the Coventry University of UK. Similar initiatives are needed in the U.S. too to bring more men to the profession. If that has been done, then that will be a great step towards tackling the gender bias in the nursing field.