Argumentative Essay Example: The Identity of Male Nurses

Over the past decades, there has been heated debate about male nurses. Some believe that nursing is a profession for the female individuals. As such, it becomes a significant stereotype that has impacted in the discussion about the nursing profession. Moreover, men that are seen in this course and job are often disregarded and believed to be of weaker sex and probably misplace in many aspects. Some people even think that for a man to pursue nursing as a long-term career goal, is quite unimpressive and unfulfilling. People have the mentality that men ought to be doctors, and the females are the ones that should be nurses. As such, it is an equivalence that has been in existence for quite a long time. In this regard, many male students disregard nursing profession due to the difficulties they would face despite its lucrative wages and benefits. This paper seeks to examine the negative presumptions that are usually created by people who believe nursing is a career for females and not males. As such it shapes the identity of the male nurses. In addition to that, there are different influential factors that also affect the identity of the male nurses and these too will be looked at in this paper. Although female nurses have predominantly infiltrated nursing, male nurses number has been on the rise, but it is threatened by social and cultural images, gender stereotypes,

Many studies have been done extensively in this regard, and there has been a quite serious concern in the recent past as compared to four decades ago (Hoeve et al., 293). Such an assertion comes from the fact that more people in the contemporary world are of the idea that men ought to avoid the female roles. Moreover, change in the activities, and the manner in which women are represented as compared to men have been questionable since the 1980s (Al-Momani 32). Contrarily, these changes have not been tangible and significant enough to bring about changes in how people had beliefs about the underlying social category of gender. Facts have also been provided to back this assertion up. For instance, in 2014 men and women were more or less the same in their takes and stances on the issues of gender stereotyping. The type of traits that they were seen to be portraying was similar, as such, they had the same takes on the issue of roles that ought to be undertaken by men. Women and men have also been believed to be more engage in financial roles in equal measures. Unlike what most people assume; that men ought to be taking up the financial roles and obligations, the findings provided gave a different picture of everything as it was found that the contemporary world has people taking roles equally.

Previous studies conducted have shown that most of the gender differences are very insignificant and that the rate at which people took up the issue of gender roles and differences was different compared to the modern world. In the contemporary world, people have exaggerated means with which they look up to the matter, and this has seen the ideas of stereotyping escalate to higher levels and as such, people having a negative attitude towards the male nurses (Dayton 72). Furthermore, there have been experienced biases which may distort the manner in which people perceive and thus gender atypical behaviors making it look more stereotypic than it was before. Additionally, both genders that are available may provide room for the curtailing of the cross-gender behavior for fear that it may incur that is typically directed at the atypical men and women.

Researchers as well as stakeholders have established that people responsible for the therapeutic roles ought to be aware of how gender stereotyping can affect the objectives and goals of the person that is being advised (Allison 173). It ought to be understood that despite the ability of men to undertake the job of nursing well, the issue of stereotyping is a factor that cannot be ignored and has influenced their input in this regard. People demerit male nurses and as such, their perception when they take up this career changes, and some of them even lack objectivity in conducting care. In light of this, they can, just like the women that can undertake the financial obligations, can provide for better services in the nursing sector.

The men who successfully pursue enrolled for nursing classes are always at the receiving end from peers whether they can make good nurses. Due to the characteristics possessed by the male gender, nursing as a course is not considered as a males profession. This implies that male has always been socially constructed by many societies to be rough and impatient individuals. But again, some females are nurtured similarly (Le-Hinds 72). The notion is that nursing career requires tender, patient and committed people who not only find a way to connect with the patients emotionally but also spiritually. When one gets to create a rapport with the patient, it becomes easier to offer comprehensive health service.

People have often questioned the increased number of men joining the nursing sector. However, these men that serve as nurses have come out and defended themselves saying that there are ladies who are doctors as well as other technical courses presumed to be male-dominated. There are some factors that have been found to encourage more men into joining the course despite the stereotyping that they ought not to (Dayton 43). First, the course has not been vested into by more men, and this provides a higher chance of having a male nurse higher more than how a female nurse would be hired. Also, the male nurses have been reported to be more performing compared to their female counterparts. This encourages more men to join the course as they find it easier.

Summarily, although female nurses have principally dominated nursing, male nurses number has been on the increase. However, their choice for nursing as a career path has been threatened by the various factors such as stereotypes, social factors, and many other factors as discussed in this paper. In the contemporary world, male identity in the nursing sector needs to be revisited. A lot of research needs to be done to establish the gaps in the literature. As such, most of the men that have been in this course have been disregarded. In as much as the number of men in the course has always been on the increase for the last four decades, men have faced the challenges of gender identity, social problems, and fear in studying nursing.

Works Cited

Allison, Scott T. et al. "Derogatory Stereotypic Beliefs and Evaluations of Male Nurses." Equal Opportunities International, vol. 23, no. 3/4/5, 2004, pp. 162-178.

Al-Momani, Mohammed Mahmoud. "Difficulties Encountered by Final-Year Male Nursing Students in Their Internship Programmes." Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences, vol. 24, no. 4, 2017, pp. 30-38.

Dayton, Nancy A. "NURSES AND PHYSICIANS: ATTITUDINAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF COMMUNICATIVE STYLE." Memphis State University, 1992.

Hoeve, Yvonne ten, Gerard Jansen, and Petrie Roodbol. "The Nursing Profession: Public Image, SelfConcept and Professional Identity. A Discussion Papers." Journal of advanced nursing 70.2 (2014): 295-309.

Le-Hinds, Nho. "MALE NURSES: GENDER-BASED BARRIERS IN NURSING SCHOOL." Benerd School of Education, 2010.