Between 1970 and 2011 the percentage of male registered nurses went from 2.7% to 9.6%. It's not a huge change but enough that we are seeing male nurses commonly now. Similar increases have occurred among licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses. Even in an industry dominated by women, male nurses tend to earn more. Schools are actively working to recruit male students for nursing programs.
During my hospitalization post rTSA there came a day when my nurse de jour was a young man. If you had asked me years before, two months before, even two days prior, I would have declared my neutrality and endorsed the idea of male nurses soundly. But reality is different from theory. I just couldn't see having the same intimate relationship with this young man. I'm not crazy about asking Nurse Mary to help me go to the bathroom or get dressed but it can happen. But get Nurse Gary to take me to the bathroom? I don't think so.
How to explain it? Of course I have had my share of male doctors, even gynecologists. But the patient-doctor relationship is totally different from the patient-nurse situation. The doctor is clinical, detached, authoritative. The nurse is intimate, attentive, personal...the ultimate example of the caregiver. No Nurse Ratchet for me, my nurse is Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton and Mom rolled into one. Perhaps the next generation can see Nurse Gary in that role.
The fact is male enrollment in nursing school is increasing. Just as women are expanding into traditional male dominated careers, so are men looking at fields that used to be female only. Retraining or second career choices are drawing men to nursing in ever greater numbers. Certainly
there is a niche for male nurses to work with male patients. Men have been putting up with the gender awkwardness forever, having only female nurses to rely on historically. It's only fair that we women now face the same sensitive situation.
But having a male nurse definitely encouraged me to figure out how to manage a few personal tasks on my own.
During my hospitalization post rTSA there came a day when my nurse de jour was a young man. If you had asked me years before, two months before, even two days prior, I would have declared my neutrality and endorsed the idea of male nurses soundly. But reality is different from theory. I just couldn't see having the same intimate relationship with this young man. I'm not crazy about asking Nurse Mary to help me go to the bathroom or get dressed but it can happen. But get Nurse Gary to take me to the bathroom? I don't think so.
How to explain it? Of course I have had my share of male doctors, even gynecologists. But the patient-doctor relationship is totally different from the patient-nurse situation. The doctor is clinical, detached, authoritative. The nurse is intimate, attentive, personal...the ultimate example of the caregiver. No Nurse Ratchet for me, my nurse is Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton and Mom rolled into one. Perhaps the next generation can see Nurse Gary in that role.
The fact is male enrollment in nursing school is increasing. Just as women are expanding into traditional male dominated careers, so are men looking at fields that used to be female only. Retraining or second career choices are drawing men to nursing in ever greater numbers. Certainly
there is a niche for male nurses to work with male patients. Men have been putting up with the gender awkwardness forever, having only female nurses to rely on historically. It's only fair that we women now face the same sensitive situation.
But having a male nurse definitely encouraged me to figure out how to manage a few personal tasks on my own.
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