As a registered nurse for more than 40 years—with experience in pediatrics, public health, and philanthropy—I read a recent article by NPR’s Shankar Vedantam (“Why More Men Don’t Get Into The Field Of Nursing”) with interest. Vedantam essentially argued that more men don’t enter nursing because it’s seen as a “feminine” profession and proposed that we start emphasizing the more “masculine” attributes of the profession.
From youthful contrarianism to a deeper vision of the profession.
When I became a nurse in 1975, my choice was shaped first by my youthful desire to be contrarian: to bend gender norms by being a man in a “woman’s” profession.
When I began practicing nursing, however, I grew in my understanding that a commitment to nursing, particularly in my specialty field of public health, provided me with the means to act every day in concrete ways to further healing and build community. And so I applaud calls like Vedantam’s drawing attention to the need for more men in nursing. The need for diversity (of all kinds) in nursing was highlighted in the 2010 Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report.
The deep-rooted public view of nursing as ‘women’s work.’
It remains true that far more women than men enter the nursing profession. (Only about 10% of nurses in the United States are men.) The reasons for that are, to be sure, complex. However, I believe Vedantam, in his piece, vastly oversimplified this long-standing problem—and its solution.
While I have no doubt that one of the reasons men choose not to enter the field of nursing is because it is viewed as a “feminine profession,” the solution is not, as he says, to emphasize the more “masculine” attributes of the profession. The view of nursing as “feminine” and “women’s work” is deep-rooted, so the solutions need to be equally deep-rooted and strategic.
Nurse stereotypes in popular culture.
Popular culture and the media play a significant role in perpetuating the misperceptions and stereotypes of nurses. For instance, researchers recently revisited the Woodhull study of nurses’ representations in media—and found that nurses are, for a variety of reasons, still rarely used as experts in news stories about health. Popular culture representations of nurses rarely show the depth of breadth of nurses’ expertise; from Nurse Ratched to Nurse Jackie, television and movie nurses are caricatures—the battle axe, the drug addict, the physician’s love interest. Furthermore, network medical dramas frequently focus on physicians as the “heroes”—such as Fox’s The Resident or NBC’s New Amsterdam.
The truth of nursing is a lot more complex and rich.
Here’s the thing: Nursing is not really one of the two extremes Vedantam highlights. It is not only holding someone’s hand at the bedside or “blood and guts.” Certainly, those are a few things nurses do and experience. But nursing requires a great deal of technical expertise, great strength (physical and emotional), resilience, the ability to collaborate with others, and the capacity to think on your feet and apply critical thinking under stressful circumstances—all things that can be appealing to the right type of person, regardless of gender identification.
So rather than recasting nursing as something that can be deemed “macho” or stereotypically “male,” why not, instead, clear up the misperceptions of the nursing profession? Emphasize the variety of careers available in nursing, and the contributions nurses make not just to patient care, but to research, to policy, and to the health of communities?
Articulating a new narrative of nursing.
Shifting this narrative must begin with us—our country’s more than 3 million nurses. We must learn to use our advocacy skills—the ones we use for our patients—to begin shifting what the public thinks they know about nurses—and the way our news and popular media portray them.
Paul Kuehnert. DNP, RN, FAAN, is associate vice president–program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Thank you, Dr. Kuehnert! I taught nursing for 40 years. In my practice in education and in medical-surgical and emergency nursing I have seen a lot of change and progress in nursing. Unfortunately, the lack of understanding by the public of what nurses do and what amazing knowledge and skills they bring to the profession persists. Changing the perception and understanding of what nursing demands of its practitioners and what they have to offer for health and healing will go a long way to improve diversity of all types in the profession. It is incumbent on all nurses to take part in educating the public, and holding the media accountable for accurate portrayal of nurses and the profession.
Barb Allerton
Dr. Kuehnert,
As a nursing student I have been lucky to be in a really multi-cultural and diverse cohort where my rotations and classes have always had a constant male representation, just this fall semester i was the only female in my clinical rotation group comprised of 7 students, same thing can be said for past and present cohorts in our school, still in practice I have not seen many male nurses. I believe perception of male nurses is changing specially in fields like ER and trauma, social media is a great influence in today’s society and male nurses have become a staple with pages dedicated to every topic from career advice to bedside nursing, these male nurses have a great number of followers and show their appreciation for the field every day, this is great way for the society to be exposed to having a male nurse and clear misconceptions about nursing being a “feminine” profession. I believe the public perception of nursing is still prejudiced regarding this topic but male nurses in the field are doing a great job to change this opinion.
Dr. Kuehnert,
Thank you for highlighting this topic.
My father was an ICU nurse for 30+ years. Being of Asian Indian descent, it was very hard for my father’s family and other Asians to understand and accept his decision to enter and stay in the field of nursing in the late 80’s. Many women of south Asian Indian ancestry dominate the field of nursing, so it is with much stigma that a man practices nursing. My father was excellent at his job and revered by doctors and nurses alike. His skill and compassion with patients often had people forgetting that he was a man doing a “woman’s job”. My father had many nursing books and magazines around the house that I was interested in reading. This has inspired my brothers and I to enter the field of health care in various capacities.
Nursing may have started off as a female dominated profession, but the actual practice of health care and healing is not gender driven. I am very happy to know men in nursing in no longer seen as a shocking wonder but as an accepted change. This change is a blessing.
Thank you, once again, for bringing focus to this is pressing matter.
Regards,
Babita
Dear editor,
I found Doctor Kuehnert’s article very encouraging. I am a male nursing student who found his passion in the military service as a combat medic. What is indicated in this article should be shared to reach people like me that grow up with the stereotype of females in the nursing role.
During the service, I was inspired by the professionalism, advocacy, dedication, and the holistic approach nurses displayed toward all patients. Something more surprising, yet, was a 2015 article by Nursing Travel.com, indicating that majority of nurses serving in the U.S. Army were males.
It is understandable that it may take time to change perceptions and incorporate more men into the profession of nursing, but it is worth it. With these small steps, I hope one day we will see male nurses in the obstetrics area (midwife-nurse) which is dominated by female nurses.
Sincerely,
Edgar Valdez
Being the only man with large groups of women has it’s strange moments. In my nursing school class of 76 women, I was the only man. The girls always appointed me as the referee in menstrual cycle arguments because I was the only “disinterested ” party. It paid off; my highest nursing board score was in OB/GYNE. Good luck with recruiting more men for the nursing profession. There has been talk of this for decades.
I appreciate Dr Kuehnart’s reframing of the issues in nursing and our need to change the narrative. Nursing work is challenging work in whatever setting you choose to practice. It is exciting and rewarding to be in a position of helping others, be they individuals, families, health care systems or communities. I hope many of us will accept the challenge of reframing the way others perceive our work. Thank you for this thoughtful blog!