Men in Nursing

Men in Nursing
Name
Professor
Institutional Affiliation
Course name & number
Due date
Men in nursing
While most of about three million Registered Nurses in the United States are women, men are increasingly penetrating the nursing industry, and the number is steadily rising. Based on the U.S. Bureau of Statistics data, the number of male nurses in 1970 was 2.7 percent of all registered nurses. The number has grown steadily, with the number of male Registered Nurses now at 14 percent and projected to rise in the coming years (2021, Jan 22). Previously, men avoided this career due to stereotypes of it being a women’s career, lack of interest, and low pay. Also, unrelatable job designations such as that of a matron and the opinion that men may not be as productive in the job contributed to their low numbers.
Men have, nevertheless, turned the tide in recent years and joined the profession. Their faces are as diverse as the reasons for them entering the job. These include the need for more nurses, a change in society’s beliefs about male nurses, and numerous benefits such as stability in the career, constant pay, flexibility, and accessibility to scholarships. Also, an increase in their demand helps male patients feel represented and ease their uneasiness when getting sensitive procedures (Ford, 2019).
Historical review of men in nursing
Even though the nursing field has been associated with female nurses for centuries, the idea of male nurses has been in existence way longer. According to history, men were the first nurses around 250 B.C, when the only nursing school opened in India (Michaels, 2019, pp. 1). During this period, women were restricted from working in similar professions as men; thus, the school trained only men, making them the first qualified nurses to work in the world. Since then, men have worked in the nursing field, offering significant services. In the Middle Ages, an organization known as Christian brotherhood opened among the first hospitals in Europe, where male nurses were instrumental in treating people suffering from the Black Plague and the injured during the Crusade of Europe.
In the U. S. according to the American Nursing History, male nursing began during the Civil War, when battlefield nurses served to care for the injured soldiers (Michaels, 2019, pp. 3). Their services to soldiers also extended to armies that fought the Spanish-American war in 1898. The opening of the Mills Training School for Men in New York in 1888 further prepared male nurses in nursing, offering the much-needed training. The 1914 Pennsylvania Hospital that catered for patients with Mental and Nervous conditions also trained and allowed male nurses to gain ex...