Men in Nursing

Male nurses are becoming more prevalent in the nursing community.

With the current nursing shortage and demand for qualified nurses, the health care industry is hiring nurses, and they're not just hiring women. Male nursing is becoming more and more popular and for good reason—there are many opportunities and good pay.

Read the question and answer below to learn more about male nursing and whether it is the right career move for you:

What percentage of American nurses are men?
According to the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, approximately 5.4 percent of American RNs are men. The number of male students in nursing schools is on the rise, however, which should allow greater numbers of men to enter the nursing profession in the future.

Why would I want to be a nurse?
Contrary to what you may think, nurses have unlimited opportunities for career development. Do you want to work in a challenging, fast-paced environment? Critical care nurses and military nurses have some of the most demanding and interesting jobs available. Want to be on the cutting edge of science? Nurse researchers and practitioners often have opportunities to employ the latest medical technologies. Interested in a career in business that incorporates your desire to improve patient quality of life? Consider a joint MSN/MBA. Need to work different shifts to spend time you're your family? Many nurses are not constrained by the 9-to-5 work shift that others must accept.

Many nurses, male and female, enjoy the amount of time that they can spend with patients on a daily basis. Nurses can work with any social group in countless settings, from county general hospitals to private family practices. Nurses become trusted members of their communities and their patients look to them for medical advice. Increasingly, doctors and nurses view each other as peers in the health care field; nurses are respected members of the profession who bring their own unique experiences to the field.

What are schools doing to recruit male nurses?
Schools value a diverse student body that encompasses all cultures and genders; consequently, many work hard to dismantle stereotypes that view nursing as a female profession. Many doctors are women and a growing number of nurses are men, but the acceptance of male nurses has not filtered into mainstream society yet.

As a result, school brochures, textbooks and classroom materials are being updated to appeal to male and female students. Changes may be as simple as changing the photos in an informational brochure to ones that reflect diversity, or they may be more difficult to enact: many male nurses feel that they are less welcome in women's obstetrics clinics and are challenging administrators to give them an equal opportunity.


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