Male Nurses

Many men think that nursing is an occupation for females, or they think that others believe that, and this holds them back from what could be a very satisfying career. But the idea that “nursing is for women” is a myth, and it’s time to put that myth to rest once and for all. There are a few nursing specialties that are off limits for men, like labor and delivery, for understandable reasons, but otherwise nursing is a wide open field for males. And more and more men are recognizing that fact all the time, and switching careers to become nurses. Right now, men make up around 9 percent of all nurses, but that’s a huge increase from recent decades. In fact, the percentage of nurses who are men continues to climb every year. By some reports, men now make up nearly 20 percent of all nursing students. There’s no basis in history for believing that nursing is a female profession, either. Yes, we’ve all read about Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale in school, but historically, up until relatively recently, nursing was a very male profession.

Walt Whitman, the famous poet, was a military nurse during the civil war. There have been entire orders of monks who’ve dedicated their lives to the calling of nursing. Even the Knights of Malta started out as a group of nurses, way back in the Middle Ages. So there’s nothing unmasculine about nursing. And nursing is attracting more men these days for the same reason more women are thinking about a nursing career-it’s a highly respected occupation, it’s an opportunity to serve and help others, there are far more job openings than nurses to fill them, the pay and benefits are great, the flexibility and ability to specialize in different areas are far more abundant in nursing than in most other occupations. So if you’re thinking of becoming a nurse, don’t be held back because you don’t think it’s a job for men. You’ll have plenty of other male coworkers in the nursing field. There are even professional associations, magazines and websites just for male nurses. Far from being a misfit, as a male nurse, you’ll be something of a trendsetter.