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The Barriers | |
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This section will identify some of the challenges that men in nursing face as well as the barriers that men who seek nursing as a career choice have to face. | |
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"Both men and women need to be more involved in nursing as a way to make health care more appropriate for both genders" -Metro, 2005 | |
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Images of Nursing | |
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The nursing image has always been portrayed as a feminine occupation by excluding men from the nursing lanugage and image (Genua, 2005). | |
The media continues to expose an untrue reality of nurses to the public, further perpetuating the problem. Language and images are dominant forces which may have the effect of marginalizing any group (Meadus, 2000).
The traditional image of the nurse has been the use of symbols such as the angel, battle-ax, sex symbol, or doctor's handmaiden, and nurses as women. Interpersonal and mass communication has further reinforced this stereotypical "Nightingale" image over the years, which is still evident today (Meadus, 2000). Women are portrayed as firefighters, boxers, paramedics, doctors and architects, while men are hardly portrayed as nurses (Genua, 2005). Out of 1,997 nursing journals, inclusive of all articles, advertising, and author photos, only 0.06% included a man (Meadus, 2000). Even in these journals nurses are referred to women only (Genua, 2005). Feminism and Sex Stereotypes
Even the title of men in nursing is sexist. Men in nursing are referred to as “male nurses” but “women in nursing are simply nurses, not female nurses” (Meadus, as cited in Genua, 2005, p.5). Meadus (2000) suggests that maintaining the use of the qualifier “male” implies that they are different and not keeping with the norm in society. Another commonly held stereotype concerning men in nursing is that they are labeled as effeminate or gay (Meadus, 2000). Society has constructed that “in order to be a nurse, female attributes such as a capacity to serve, empathize, and nurture are required. Hence men who nurse must be “feminine” and are regarded as gay” (Meadus, 2000, p.8). Although there are a number of homosexual men are nurses, nursing remains a low occupation choice for men because they do not want to be perceived as “unmanly by their peers or their clients” (Meadus, 2000). As a society that has enforced what determines a “real man”, these stereotypes poses a major threat to this population’s identity and masculinity. Furthermore, Genua (2005) adds that at some point in a male nurses’ career, they will be questioned in regard to their sexual orientation. For example, one of the RN’s in Genua’s survey said that one of the physicians thought he was gay just because he wore an earring and was a nurse. To counter this, some men felt a need to show their wedding ring or to mention they had a girlfriend, wife or children in order to acknowledge their heterosexuality (Meadus, 2000). According to Ekstrom (as cited in Whittock and Leonard, 2003), “those who do enter the profession will have already made a decision ‘to bear the “enormous stigma” associated with entering a woman’s career’” (p.244). The Perception of Male Nurses
Genua (2005) conducted a mini survey in which all six male nurses involved related that patients mistook them for doctors instead of nurses. They also faced female patients who objected to having personal intimate care given by male nurses; female patients preferred female nurses for matters pertaining to sexual health and reproduction issues because they found it embarrassing to be given care by male nurses. Also in a study done by Milligan (2001), one of the male nurses in the study encountered a female patient who wanted a “proper” female nurse to care for her instead. In a study of 5 and 6 year olds in 1979, the tendency to mislabel the male nurse as a physician was incredibly high compared to mislabeling the female’s occupation (Cordua, McGraw, and Drabman, 1979). By now, those subjects would be in their mid-thirty’s. This means anybody from that generation and older (which is a large population of the hospital) may have a higher tendency of viewing male nurses as “weird” as that population were used to seeing that when they were children themselves. On the other hand, a more recent survey has identified that a majority of high school students, “(73%) rejected the idea that only women should be nurses, and 77% [of them] thought that male nurses are not wimps” (Meadus, 2000, p. 7). However, high school students are challenged when choosing nursing as a potential career as it was found that a “majority of young men did not receive information regarding nursing in high school” (CNA, 2004, p.9). CNA (2004) further states that, “the profession was not identified by counsellors as one relevant to young men; counsellors did not know much about it; and if young men raised the profession as an option with counsellors, they were often deterred from pursuing it” (p.9). Further literature has reported that female patients often prefer female nurses especially for matters that concern reproductive and sexual health,and especially for consultations regarding intimate or psychosocial issues. Although male patients also follow this trend, it was found to be a lesser degree in comparison (Chur-Hansen, 2002). Encountering a male nurse in a past experience may also have an important factor of future preferences. |
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ReferencesCanadian Nurses Association. (2004). Country report for the international council of nurses workforce forum. Retrieved on April 1, 2006, from http://www.cna-nurses.ca/CNA/documents/pdf/publications/canada_report_2004_e.pdf
Chur-Hansen, A. (2000). Preferences for female and male nurses: The role of age, gender and previous experience-year 2000 compared with 1984. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 37(2), 192-198. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from Nursing and Allied Health Collection database.
Cordua, G.D., McGraw, K.O. & Drabman R.S. (1979). Doctor or nurse: Children’s perception of sex typed occupations. Child Development, 50(2), 590-593. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from PsycINFO database.
Genua, J.A. (2005). The vision of male nurses: Roles, barriers and stereotypes. InterAction, 23(4), 4-7. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from CINAHL database.
Meadus, R.J. (2000). Men in nursing: Barriers to recruitment. Nursing Forum, 35(3), 5-12. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from CINAHL database.
Metro (2005). Nursing calls for more men. Retrieved on March 26th, 2005 from http://www.metronews.ca/worksmart_news.asp?id=1135
Milligan, F. (2001). The concept of care in male nurse work: an ontological hermeneutic study in acute hospitals. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35(1), 7-16. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from CINAHL database.
Whittock M. & Leonard L. (2003) Stepping outside the stereotype. A pilot study of the motivations and experiences of males in the nursing profession. Journal of Nursing Management, 11(4), 242-249. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from CINAHL database.
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