The nursing industry has always been dominated by females, in fact women make up about 90 percent of the industry’s workforce. This is all while the healthcare industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. It seems that in the other sectors of healthcare men seem to dominate, such as doctors, surgeons and physicians. The question is, why is this the case and is there anything happening to help promote men in nursing? What’s even more interesting, is that an average male nurse makes about $10,000 more annually than a female nurse, making their average salary about $60,000 a year. In the current economy, that seems to be a very nice salary, yet men are not pursuing it. Perhaps it is less desirable work or nurses are struggling to find placements, even nursing agency work is not seeing vast employment rates.
Being a nurse is not easy in fact the average work shift is 12 hours. In most industries, jobs that the work is straining such as mechanics, plumbers, warehouse workers are usually filed with men. In nursing even though the long hours and sometimes physical work is still mostly female. Research shows the reason being that females are more calm and collective in times of crisis. They are also more soothing at times when patients need that extra help and smile. Hospitals and nursing homes for this reason look for female nurses to fill their staff. When filling beds in these facilities have become so competitive having that warm personality for patients is what marketers are doing to get patients into their doors.
There is however a big stigma on the male nursing industry which seems to keep lots of men from becoming a nurse. This can potentially be a problem, simply because sometimes it can be easier to have a male nurse, such as having to lift a heavy patient. Male nurses are occasionally called names and even looked down at. However, it’s important to know and understand that the industry needs both females and males. There are some non for profit agencies that help with promoting the idea and also have support groups and meetings. There is however one company that only sells men scrubs, Murse World. This creates a warm and inviting environment for the male healthcare professional. Besides for them only selling men scrubs they also have a platform where they help promote the idea of being a male nurse. Through constant emails, posting positive ideas on their social media accounts they hope to be able to rid the stigma that the industry so badly suffers from.
A recent study done, shows that the overwhelming reason why men stay away from nursing is because of the stigma. When a man walks into the room they think he’s the doctor, only to learn that he is a nurse and is than treated differently. The same study shows that statistics have slowly improved over the last few years and that more and more men are in fact going to nursing school and pursuing this career choice. The nursing industry has so much more to offer than just being a nurse. In the nursing home and hospital industry where understanding the reimbursement process is critical, being a nurse and having the clinical experience can really help. There are also lots of interesting jobs such as being a military nurse or different opportunities in the medical technology sector.