Male Nurses
Nursing has been dominated by women for most of its history. The exception to the rule was in the military, where men often worked as nurses. There were male nurses on both sides of the Civil War, for example. But when nurses started to organize between 1894 and 1900, superintendents of Female Nursing Schools, all women, started meeting. Their group became the American Nurses Association in 1917, which is said to have excluded men until 1930.
At the same time, women took over nursing in the military. The United States Army Nurses Corp was formed in 1901 and only allowed women to be nurses. This remained true until after the Korean War. Now the percentage of male nurses in the military is much higher than in the civilian world. Anywhere between 30 to 40% of nurses in the military are men.
Today, somewhere between 5.4 and 6% of registered nurses are men. The shortage of nurses, with good jobs available, makes nursing increasingly attractive to men as well as women.
An increase in men entering the nursing profession started in the 1980's. Between 1983 and 2002, 78% more men became licensed practical nurses, and 71% more men became registered nurses. In absolute numbers, there were 19,000 male LPNs in 2002, and 164,000 male registered nurses.
In 2003, the National League for Nursing and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported that 8.3 percent of students in four-year nursing degree programs were men, and 16.1 percent of students in two-year associate programs were men.
According to the National League for Nursing, in 2005, 14.1% of registered nursing students in the western United States were male.
Nursing schools continue to report increased enrollment of male students. In Oklahoma City University's current bachelor’s-to-BSN program of 45 students, nearly half were men. They have a "Moving and Mentoring Men into Nursing Program" which offered 12 scholarships to men with bachelor's degrees to go into the program.
The American Assembly of Men in Nursing (AAMN) was formed to give male nurses a place to meet and discuss common problems and purposes. They also want to understand what factors influence men to go into nursing, and also encourage men to go into nursing. The group is working in a variety of ways to do just that.
The AAMN released a DVD in 2007 called, "Career Encounters: Men in Nursing." The Assembly estimated that at the time, only 10% of American nurses were male, whereas almost half of the 36,000 nurse anesthetists were men. The DVD takes a look at the diversity of men in nursing, featuring interviews with male nurse educators, students, and registered nurses who talk about the problems they have had working in a mainly female profession. The nurses, who work with veterans, as nurse anesthetists and in other advanced degree fields of nursing talk about their jobs.
The University of Iowa College of Nursing, as well as other schools, is trying to interest more men in nursing. Todd Ingram MA, RN, an assistant professor, received a Catalyst seed grant from the University’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity to set up an affiliate of the national American Assembly for Men in Nursing in 2008. He wants his group to go out and speak to prospective nurses at high schools and other organizations.
Other nurses at other nursing schools are setting up affiliate chapters of the American Assembly of Men in Nursing.
The increase in men attending nursing schools is already translating into more men working as nurses. At Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, California, the percentage of newly hired RNs that were male was 11% in 2005, and 15% in 2006.
There is still a large gap to bridge. Many male nurses feel uncomfortable in certain areas of nursing, like obstetrics. They are hoping for a future in which nurses will be judged by their abilities and not their sex.
Published: 2009-10-14
