Abstract:
For my project, I decided to research the ideas, questions, and perspectives that people have today about male nurses. Many people today associate nurses with women and doctors with men, why is this? Male nursing comes with a lot of stereotyping and criticism. Is this line of work, a gender issue, or is society just closed minded about male nurses? I will be looking at many resources such as; books, journals, websites, conduct a survey and do varies interviews to get a real sense of what people think about men as nurses.
Introduction:
Hospitals, nursing homes, private practice, matter the environment the scenery seems to always look the same, men are working as doctors while women are nurses. This gender role goes all the way back to one's childhood. Girls pretend to wear the little white pure nursing dresses playing the "mother" caring type, while the boys put on the white lab coat with a distinct authority figure. It used to be very rare to see men working as nurses. I would like to explore the mind set men perceive when asked about male nurses. Man shun upon the idea of nursing, and think they have to be doctors. Could this be because of the social class doctors are associated with? Medical occupations seem to be cut and dry, when looked at as a gender role. Coming from a family in medicine, I talked to some of them and they all seem to give me the same answers, it’s a gender role issue. My uncle who is a Radiologist told me, “I don't recall many women in my medical school at Berkley.” My mother a Registered Nurse, “There was one guy in the entire class of 100 women.” This seemed to be the popular answer from all of my aunts who are nurses. Some men won't stoop down to that level even in desperate times, just because of the stereotyping that comes along with it. This topic has many questions up in the air as to why it's such a "bad thing.” Could it be that doctors make more money and men are supposed to be the sole providers for the family, or maybe nurses are supposed to be caring, comforting, and loving, and men can never show this side of their “feelings” without it being considered “gay?”
I will be exploring the way society thinks about male nurses and if it would ever be considered as a career, even if it’s the worse case scenario. I am interested to see how many men would rather have a low income job or none at all than to be a male nurse. I will also take a poll at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown, and compare the different areas, this will help me determine the liberal areas; suburbia’s verse urbaneness. I will also be interviewing people and family members on what made them decide to be a nurse or a doctor, if there was any criticism going through school, was there any career options considered? I am predicting that many men will say nursing is for females, because of the way nurses are; caring and supportive, they are supposed to be comforting after being with the doctor in either surgery of just a check-up, a nurse is there to let you know everything is going to be okay.
After I gather the data, I’m going to compare the statistics over the next 30 years. As I was researching, I found that only 3% of men are nurses in the United States. I am also curious to see qualifications a nurse must have, and does it fit into a masculine role? I personally, thought nursing was considered a women’s job, just because of the way I was brought up.
Review of Literature:
Fieldwork:
I will be conducting interviews with family members in the medical field, as well as employees at the Indiana Hospital. Also, I will be taking a survey from students at IUP and surrounding colleges who are majoring in Nursing, my questions will include: How many men are in your classes? How many do you know are majoring or have majored in Nursing?
Sources on Nursing:
The books I selected give me a wide range of statistics. I also found books that were not fairly new, so I could compare the number of male nurses in 1960 to 2004. Having a mother in nursing, I was able to research in two journals, there were able to give me the latest statistics on what is to become of the field. For this topic of research, I believe that the interviews and surveys will be the best way to obtain real information.
I also used two websites to compare and gather information. I went to sites that have a less bias towards the issue because, they are nursing sites were nurses of both sex are able to post responses to the latest issues.
Search Plan & Project Timeline:
Dates:
-Write out questions
-Organize sources, look back at contacts. Preplan questions
-Visit PSU PITT and IUP students and professors
- Interviews
- Put together quotes and interview sources
-Count data from survey
-Analyze
-Draft
-Revise
-Edit
Working Bibliography:
Interviews:
Mary Jane Vrabel R.N. Indiana Hospital
Roberta Judith R.N.
Cecilia Ringler R.N. Conemaugh Hospital
Hal Ringler M.D. Conemaugh Hospital
Professors and students at:
Penn State University
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
Books:
Feher Waltz, Carolyn. Nursing research: design, Statistics, and computer analysis.
R Barker Bausell. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1981
White, Mary Joe. Career related motivational characteristics: male Nursing.
New York: 1983.
Journals:
Hussar, Daniel A, “Men in Nursing.” Nursing 2003. The Journal of Clinical
Excellence 33 (2002): 52-54.
O’Conner, T, “Men in Nursing—what’s their Rightful place?” AJN American Journal
Of Nursing 4 (2003): 29-30
Websites:
Chung, Vicki. “Men in Nursing”. Oct 20. 2004: On-line. Internet. 2002.
Available WWW: http://www.minoritynurse.com/features.nurse_emp/08-
30-00c.html.
Lucas, Jerry RN. “Men in Nursing Statistical Analysis”.
20 Oct. 2004: On-line Internet. Oct 17. 2004.
Available WWW: http://www.malenursemagazine.com/stats.html.
Movies and T.V Shows:
“Meet the Parents” Director, Roach, Jay. MGP 1992
“E.R” Producer: Chulack, Christopher Creator: Crichton, Michael. NBC Sept. 1994
http://www.nbc.com/ER/credits/index.html.
