Career | Male Nurse archive: November 2009

A Person's Realization on Male nurses

Read the article below which had the original title "Male Nurses." Submitted by Madge Saunders for Coshoctontribune.com

Until I was rushed to the local hospital Nov. 5, 2006, with a mild heart attack I did not realize male nurses were a part of the nursing staff.

The first time I rang my bell for help and a male nurse came into the room I wasn't sure how to handle the situation. You see, the nurse was a friend of my son, and I was embarrassed to have him help me with my personal problem.

I asked him if he was sure he wanted to do this and he answered "I do it all the time," and he did so well with lack of embarrassment on his part, but I was still uncomfortable with the situation.

Recently I had to enter our hospital for three days, and again I was cared for by male nurses. When the first one came to help me, I asked if he would please ask one of the female nurses to come to help with a very personal problem. He was very courteous and left the room to send in a female nurse.

When she arrived she was laughing and remarked, "Our male nurse said you ran him off." I do hope I did that with finesse.

Later I had a male nurse in to take my blood pressure, temperature and pulse. No problem for me nor him. He was so young but very capable.

Before leaving my room he asked if there was anything else he could do for me. I remarked, "When will breakfast be here, I am so hungry this morning." He assured me it would be another hour or so before breakfast arrived. He asked if I would like a cup of coffee, I said yes, if I could have a piece of toast to go with my coffee.

In a short time he was back with a cup of coffee and a piece of toast with butter and jam on it. What a kind, thoughtful way to help a hungry patient.

Later I was conversing with my head female nurse and I raised the question, "Why do males get involved in the nursing profession?"

She seemed to think due to the lack of jobs in this current recession enticed men to join the field of nursing. The ones I have met seem well qualified and had a real sense of caring for the welfare of those who were unable to care for themselves.

I wonder if, in time, I will be able to accept their help without feeling embarrassed.

Engendering the Professional Debate: Men and Women in Nursing and Engineering

by Raghu Godavarthi

Think of a nurse and the typical images are of Florence Nightingale and Linda Richards. Think engineer, and the corresponding image would be of a Thomas Edison, or a Robert Fulton. Josephine Cochran, inventor of the mechanical dishwasher, or Walt Whitman, who volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War, are merely historical statistics. Men form a mere 5 percent of the nursing workforce, according to the Wikipedia article on male nurses.

Campus enrollment statistics support this. According to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the national average for men enrolling in undergraduate nursing program is 10.4 percent; for graduate programs, it is 8.9 percent. But UAH has traditionally had numbers higher than the national average. The percentages at UAH are 14.6 percent for undergraduates and 9.8 percent for graduates, and have not fluctuated much over the years.

The engineering side of the story almost flips the numbers. The National Society of Women Engineers counts 17.2 percent in undergraduate programs are women, and 22.3 percent in graduate programs are women. For UAH, the figures are 18.4 percent and 19.7 percent, respectively, again with low deviation.

Given the skewed gender ratio, some prejudices do exist. Charlsie Smith, a senior and civil engineering senior said, “They say and/or show me through actions that I am less of an engineer because I am female.” Lisa Blanchard, a graduate engineering management student, recounts her undergraduate days when being the only woman in the class meant that she was rarely heard. She is glad that male engineers have “greater regard” for their female counterparts today.

Alwin Heuer, a sophomore and nursing student, does not find much difference within the university, but finds a difference in hospitals where women nurses are generally better received. “It takes a lot of encouragement, time and will to become a nurse, whether male or female,” he added. He is appreciative of the support shown by the staff and faculty here toward male students. James Thompson, a nursing senior, agreed,saying there is no “awkwardness” being male.

from: The Exponent

Blog Post Featured in a Cool List

A few months ago, I received an email telling me that one of my blog posts was included in an article entitled 100 Blog Posts You Should Read Before Going to Nursing School. The email was from the author herself. I told her I would write about it here as well so as to direct some interested readers that would want to read more.

Her article is about building a career in nursing.

Whether you've decided to go back to school after working in a hospital or are just coming out of high school and ready to start a career in nursing, you should do a little research beforehand so you know just what you're getting into...

The author placed about my blog post under "Finding a Job" category.

Nursing School Grads See Opportunities Shrink. Read this post to learn how many new nursing grads are struggling to find employment after graduation.

I recommend you go through the list at least once and see what you can use. Then, bookmark the post for future reference.
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High dropout rates threaten plans for degree-only nursing

Sam Lister, Health Editor

Plans to make nursing a degree-only profession could be thwarted by the high number of students who drop out before finishing training, the latest figures suggest.

More than half of students on some nursing degree courses do not graduate because of pressures of time, money and the academic standards demanded.

The figures, obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, show wide variations in attrition rates among England’s 10 strategic health authorities.

At one university, in the North West, 51 per cent of students fail to complete its degree programme in adult nursing. The highest attrition rates in London, the South West, West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber show more than a third of students dropping out.

The Department of Health is so concerned about the problem that it ordered an annual report on dropout rates from university nursing courses, Nursing Attrition National Aggregate. However, it has not published the findings.

The figures, obtained by Nursing Standard magazine,dropouts are even more common. One university lost 78 per cent of students on a children’s nursing degree course, and more than 54 per cent of students on a mental health nursing course failed to graduate.

The findings come a week after The Times reported on government plans to require those wishing to become a nurse to have a degree. Supporters claim that the move, which will be enforced from 2013, will improve the quality of patient care and raise the status of nursing.

Critics suggest that the changes will create an elitist profession and scare off recruits with the prospect of a long and expensive period of study. There are also concerns that some nurses would be “too clever to care” and refuse to carry out duties such as washing and feeding patients and helping them to the lavatory.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said that the dropout rates cast degree-only plans into disarray. Concerns have also been raised about the millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, given in bursaries, wasted on courses that were not completed.

“These figures appear to massively undermine the Government’s new plans for nurses,” he said. “Such high dropout rates suggest there is something seriously wrong. Ministers are burying their heads in the sand by refusing to publish their own report into quit rates.”

Nursing education specialists said that financial difficulties and the high number of mature students who juggled families with their studies were among the main reasons for dropping out.

Nurses, who make up the largest part of the NHS workforce, now require the minimum of a diploma — a nursing course lasting two or three years — for trainee nursing positions. Under the new rules, candidates will require a degree in nursing or equivalent international qualification. The courses, lasting up to four years, will meet standards developed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the professional regulator.

Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, which helped to draw up the degree-only plans, said that losing potential nurses was “an entirely unnecessary waste of people who are willing to learn and want to care”.

He added: “Of course, some people will not be suited to the demands of nursing, but with rates as high as 78 per cent, something is seriously wrong with the support offered to the nurses of the future. Financial support is very important but it is not the only kind of support that needs to be on offer.”

A Department of Health official said that an incentive scheme to pay universities with low attrition rates would start next year.

www.timesonline.co.uk

Nursing Degree Requirements

As I read through the recent articles from the UK: "Nurses: if a degree means that much to your self-esteem why not become a doctor?" and "How will a degree help a frightened patient?" these articles point out that the new developments concerning nursing school "improvements" need to be focused on more than just academic training as implied in getting a degree, and nurses need to want to care for the patient above anything else...

However, it did not provide a direct disadvantage of nurses having degrees. Except, maybe, that degrees will cost more money. And that is a common observation that degree holders tend to avoid "getting their hands dirty" and therefore not doing a good job at being a nurse that requires some "dirty work".

My initial opinion was, people who aspire to be nurses should get all the education and training that they can get. But is education the same as training? I realize that the situation is more complicated than that...

Read through the articles here and here. And let me know what you think.

You can also read more about it on these other articles with differing opinions as well:
Move to degrees 'could deter talented would-be nurses
It's about time we gave nurses a degree of respect