A record number of men have enrolled in the first year of the UBC School of
Nursing’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program.
The enrolment of 14 men in first year brings the total number of undergraduate
males in the BSN program to 36 out of 532 students. Four of the 132 students
in the master’s program are male.
Barbara Paterson, an assistant professor of Nursing who has done research on
the topic of men in nursing, said changes in society are leading to a gradual
increase in the number of men entering the nursing profession.
“I think there is a societal trend toward recognizing the value of caring
professions,” Paterson said. “And the nursing profession is trying hard to
better inform people about what nurses do.”
The nursing profession has welcomed men into its ranks Paterson said, although
in the 1950s and ’60s there was some concern that men would dominate upper
level or administrative nursing positions.
Mark Zieber, a master’s student in Nursing, said his experience has been a good
one.
“The general attitude among nurses and nursing faculty that I have encountered
has been very positive toward the presence of men in the profession,” he
said.
Paterson said that some television programs such as the popular hospital drama
show ER, which portrays the events in a busy emergency ward, are helping
promote a positive image of nurses as professionals and decision makers. But
negative stereotypes of shallow or seductive female nurses continue to be
reinforced in movies and on television. And, there is a decided absence of male
nurses in movies and television shows about health care, Paterson said.
Other perceptual barriers preventing men from entering nursing exist as well,
Paterson said. In her study of 20 male nursing students enrolled at various
levels in baccalaureate nursing programs, she found that men were concerned
about playing the care-giver role.
“Beyond the bimbo stereotype is the stereotype of the nurse as the female
care-giver, and men don’t automatically associate with that role. They think it
will require things of them that they don’t have,” Paterson said. “The
beginning students in my study were concerned that they would have to be very
emotional and hug people. They didn’t realize that male manifestations of
caring are just fine.”
Raymond Thompson, the only male professor in the School of Nursing, said a
shift in the way society views caring professions, which are often thought of
as being “women’s work,” is needed if men are to stop viewing nursing as a
profession that threatens their masculinity.
Thompson first enrolled in a nursing program that attracted a fair number of
men in Halifax in 1961, and later did graduate work at the University of
Western Ontario where he was the only male in the master’s program.
Zieber has also shared the classroom with only a handful of male students and
agrees that the general perception of what care is has to change. He also
believes men have a very important role to play in nursing.
“The fact that the nursing profession has been predominantly women for many
years has tended to steer the perception of what care is,” he said. “Males in
general do not view their care as being highly emotional, but I have seen many
cases where men have been very emotional in giving care.”
