Cheyenne Scruggs
National University
Professor Kala Crobarger
NSG 403
19 October 2015
Gender Diversity in Nursing Nursing has become an immensely sought for occupation within the United States. A population census was conducted, revealing that there are 3.2 million nurses employed within the labor force and only 9.6% of them are male (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). This statistic denotes that there are only 307,200 males that are employed within the nursing field. The wide gap in gender diversity is due to multiple reasons, which would include gender bias, stereotypes and, media depiction of male nurses.
Need for Gender Diversity in Nursing
The shortage of nursing staff within the United States has endured …show more content…
However, there has been a long standing gender bias present within nursing in relation to males. Florence Nightingale did not condone male participation in nursing occupations. Nightingale maintained the notion that men were incapable of maintaining the characteristics necessary for effective and efficient nursing care, stating that men are “hard and horny” (Masters, 2005). Gender bias also maintains prevalence within nursing text and journals, due to the fact that the historical involvement of male nursing contributions has been obscured. This is in arrears to the ubiquitous utilization of feminine pronouns such as "she" and “her” in nursing schools and hospitals (Roth & Coleman, 2008). Nursing is an occupation that was created for women, by …show more content…
This is due to damaging stereotyping that has been generated throughout society. These negative stigmas associated with male nursing must be altered through the compassionate and kindhearted care provided by nurses. Once the adverse stigmas of male nursing have been separated from societal view more males will be employed and retained within the profession of nursing. This action will in turn improve the vast shortage of nursing staff within the United States. The employment of more men will also aid in decreasing the gender diversity gap and will lead to the population of male nurses being justly exemplified in the nursing