Male Nurses Gaining Ground in Advanced Nursing Practice

In the modern era, the nursing profession has become closely associated with and almost entirely comprised of women caretakers — an idea that gained traction in the 1800s as iconic nurses like Florence Nightingale rose to the top of the field. Despite this gendered perception of the profession, male nurses — a fixture in patient care for centuries — are now finding increased acceptance and opportunity in today’s health care landscape.

Men’s role in health care can be traced as far back as 275 BC with the establishment of the first-known nursing school in India, where men served as surgeon’s assistants and provided 24-hour patient care. During the Middle Ages, military nursing orders cared for knights injured in the Crusades and helped establish centers for care in Jerusalem, Germany, Grenada, and locations across Europe.

Today’s male nurses have worked to overcome barriers including false beliefs that men lack the ability to “care” the same way as women. There have even been legal movements to ban them from practice in specific areas of nursing. However, research shows that more men are entering the nursing profession than ever. The number of male nurses more than doubled from 3.9 to 8.1 percent between 1970 and 2011. Overall demand for RNs and advanced practice nurses is expected to increase significantly over the next several years to meet the looming influx of new patients from the Affordable Care Act and to replace retired nurses.

Of the 3.5 million employed nurses in the United States in 2011, 3.2 million were female, and men comprised just 330,000 of that total number. Advanced degrees are popular among male nursing students, the majority of whom enter nurse anesthetist training, followed by nurse practitioner programs; however, very little data has been collected regarding the total number of men who hold NP degrees. The Census Bureau only began differentiating between levels of nursing preparation in 2010, and there are an estimated 140,000 male and female nurse practitioners practicing in the United States today.

Just a few years ago, the increasing presence of male nurses sparked concern for some patients, but that bias is shifting. Nursing@Simmons’ first NP student, Jason Boyd, reflected on his own nursing experience: “Ten years ago I was not accepted by all of my female patients, particularly the younger females,” he said. “The older ladies thought I was a doctor so anything I said or needed to do was okay with them. I’ve noticed that the gender of the nurse is not as big of an issue for most patients anymore. I have even been offered a job on a mother/baby floor recently. For males entering nursing, the field is wide open. Decide what you want to do as a nurse and go for it.”

Nurse practitioner programs, including Nursing@Simmons, welcome men into the program without the stigma once associated with male nurses. Across the country, schools have launched promotional campaigns that encourage male applicants to apply, and professional organizations like the American Assembly of Men in Nursing (AAMN) strive to raise enrollment rates even further. The days of the “male nurse” stereotype are fading as patients embrace better care and improved access from nurse practitioners of all genders. The professors, administrators, and students of the Nursing@Simmons program are proud to be part of this movement.