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Essay on Men in Nursing
Nursing continues to be rated too low as an end-point career by some, and most prospective candidates lack exposure to male nurses and nursing in general. Family resistance and salary remain concerns. Considerable barriers to men exist in nursing education and practice, and the language and history of nursing have termed nursing practice itself by labeling it as women's work. The latter pattern has influenced legal decisions affecting the clinical practice of male nurses and has been the cause to perhaps the most major barrier to the recruitment of male candidates: the job title and its associated images.
The following report reviews the national nursing shortage and identifies the recruitment of males as one area for nursing workforce planning. The report reviews relevant literature in addition to developments and issues concerning males in the nursing profession. Reasons for gender incongruity in nursing are studied.
The History of Men in Nursing
Many claim women were the first nurses. However there are sources that see men as the real first nurses. The earliest example can be found in the Roman Empire in 300 A.D., where a society of men cared for the ill and dying during a plague in Alexandria, Egypt.
Until the mid-19th century, nursing was a profession that was male dominated. The first uses of the term “nurse” refer to only male health-care givers. Only about the time of the Civil War did women begin to be active in nursing, in consequence of the shortage of available males.
In 1888, Mills College of Nursing in New York City was established as the first nursing college for men. Until 1901 all military nurses were males. At the same time as nursing in the twentieth century was often considered a woman’s occupation, this outlook is rapidly changing. Nursing can be a great career choice for anyone whose interests, values and skills are in areas related.......
