A whole gender waits to be targeted
A good nurse is a good nurse is a good nurse, regardless of race, place of origin, or gender. Right? That makes targeting a particular segment of the population a little distasteful to some. But with research showing that male nurses work more hours per year and don’t take time off mid-career to raise children, there is a growing sentiment that getting men into the profession and onto your staff could only be a good thing, particularly in times of shortage.
"As a man in nursing and in leadership in nursing, I am of the opinion that we should concentrate on finding good nurses and on attracting more good people into nursing," says Tom Smith, RN, MS, senior vice president of nursing and patient care services at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. "The reason to look to men, in addition to women, is that they are undertapped as a resource."
In some areas of nursing — such as nurse anesthetists, flight nursing, critical care, psychiatric nursing, and perioperative settings — men are represented in greater numbers. Indeed, it is estimated that men make up a quarter to a third of nurse anesthetists. "Maybe it’s the faster pace of some of those areas of nursing," says Smith. Or as with the nurse anesthetists, men choose areas that are more highly remunerative. But in general, men still are vastly underrepresented at the bedside.
Since the Johnson & Johnson "Dare To Care" ads that ran as part of the Discover Nursing program, there has been an increase in the number of people going to nursing school, and an increase in the number of men, among them, says Daniel J. Pesut, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, president elect of the Sigma Theta Tau honor society of nursing and the department chairman for Environments for Health at the Indiana University School of Nursing in Indianapolis.
"I think men are becoming more open to the option, and people are more accepting of men in nursing," he says. "But being a man in nursing isn’t something you do on a whim. Usually, there is a lot of soul searching involved. You have to be clear that it’s part of who you are and part of your contribution to the world."
"If you talk to a man in nursing, chances are no one said to him, Gee, Tom, I think you should be a nurse,’" Smith says. "It’s usually serendipitous." In his own case, he was a transporter in a hospital as a teenager, became intrigued, and went on to become a nursing assistant and then an RN. So perhaps advertising to change the way people think about men in nursing is a good thing. "It’s great if you get police officers or EMTs [emergency medical technicians] interested in nursing as a second career," he says. "But what we really need to do is interest the kid in high school."
Part of that involves framing the message differently. An ad at the Indiana University’s School of Nursing features kids on skateboards. "It’s still a message about nursing as a career, but it’s couched in boy-friendly terms," Pesut says.
There are plenty of good reasons to get men involved in nursing. "They have a more stable employment pattern through time," Pesut says. But more importantly, they are "the other 50% of the population, and it makes sense to have them represented in your nursing staff since half your patients are likely male."
Pesut contends, too, that men bring a different way of thinking and relating to people to the workplace. "They have a different focus in terms of some of their ideas and approach." At the risk of sounding sexist, Pesut says, he thinks that women are more about the process issues, while men are more attentive to structural issues and creating systems.
How do you feel about male nurses?
The problem is that for many, seeing people cross traditional gender identity roles can cause aggression, Pesut says — and he’s not talking about the patient population. "The public doesn’t care about the identity of the professional," he says. "What they care about is someone being there when they are in need."
However, in organizational settings, there may be more negative feelings. Pesut created a scale of reactions from a positive advocate to a negative hostility (see box). "I think that hospitals need to examine where they are on this scale, and if they are on the negative side, they need to make some changes." Why? Because there is a group of people out there who can not only help hospitals through times of nurse shortages, but can be fabulous caregivers as well, he says.
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Smith has a certain discomfort at singling out men for special recruitment programs. At Mount Sinai, Smith says he focuses on recruiting "great nurses committed to great patient care, and we do that in a gender-blind way." Looking at a campaign such as the Oregon Center for Nursing’s "Are you Man Enough to Be a Nurse?" makes Smith say, "The real question is: Are you person enough to be a nurse?"
Even Pesut, who agrees with the notion of singling men out for nursing campaigns, says the ideal would be to move away from gender. "Caring knows no gender," he says. "The bottom line is that nurses protect people and help them navigate the complexity of the health care system."
That said, there is a strong rationale for targeting men both as a group to entice into nursing, and once a nurse, to your facility. Men, as a group, haven’t been very interested in nursing. The stereotype is that they are gay, effeminate, and not quite good enough to be a doctor. Targeting young men in a way that engages them and eliminates those stereotypes only can be a good thing, Smith says.
In the end, it is critical for nursing to become more diverse. "White women have been the norm until now," says Ed Salsberg, director of the Center of Work force Studies at the University at Albany in Rensselaer, NY. "The profession and industry has to broaden the base, and that means minorities, older people, and men. Getting a more diverse population in nursing, including men, makes for better nursing. Hospitals have to be concerned about more than just getting another body to fill an open RN position. Work force issues are as important as financing. Just as you can’t run a hospital if you don’t control your finances, so you cannot have quality care without a quality workforce that is as diverse as the community you serve."
Sources
Daniel J. Pesut, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, Professor and Department Chairman, Environments for Health, Indiana University School of Nursing, 1111 Middle Drive NU485, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5107. Telephone: (317) 278-2524.
Ed Salsberg, Director, Center of Workforce Studies, University at Albany, State University of New York, School of Public Health, One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456. Telephone: (518) 402-0250.
Tom Smith, RN, MS, Senior Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Box 1051, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029. Telephone: (212) 241-8946.
With research showing that male nurses work more hours per year and dont take time off mid-career to raise children, there is a growing sentiment that getting men into the profession and onto your staff could only be a good thing, particularly in times of shortage.
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