Nightingale on Male Nurses: Men aren’t fit for Nursing!

Besides nurses being few in any healthcare system around the world, men are significantly scarce in that profession and, surprisingly, this is so around the whole world! Do you believe this? Well, look around yourself; how many male nurses do you know? Of course, you know some but, surely, compared to the number of female nurses, men are a drop in the ocean.

Statistics on male nurses

Just to be sure of these claims, in about 659,000 nurses (2017 figures) employed in United Kingdom, only 75,126 nurses are males. This is exactly 11.4% (2016 figures) of all the nurses. According to the guardian, the 11.4% of males recorded in 2016 was just an increase from 11.0% 5 years before. Can you imagine an increase of just 0.4% in about 5 years? And it is not in UK alone, let us visit America.

According to the economist and fastaff, in about 3.5 million nurses in USA (2011 figures), only 9-11% are or were males! This was about 385,000 nurses only.

In Uganda, first, it is hard to get numbers. According to UNMC’s, August 2017 list of all registered nurses and midwives, Uganda has about 42,349 licensed nurses and midwives, and approximately 14% (6,352) of these are males. Actually, compared to the average percentage of male nurses around the world (5-10%), Uganda is not doing badly. Still, this is scanty compared to the whole 86% females. Men, as documents have revealed have not taken up the profession, thus keeping the total nurses number low despite the tremendously increasing demand all-over the world.

According to many sources, the demand for nurses and midwives (especially in developed western nations) is on a crazy increase and shall double the current demand by 2025 (at least, that is what the Americans say). In other cases, male nurses either drop out of the profession before completing studies or even following employment. Others are still working it out but unhappily.

Actually, both US and United Kingdom report general reduction of both nurses and midwives amidst the increasing demand. In Uganda, these trends are hard to figure out due to inadequate data but I am tempted to think that the trends are the same even here (in other words, most male nurses are dropping out or would do so if they had better options. Others aren’t fully satisfied with being nurses).

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Amidst these shortages and obvious challenges, the obvious solution would be this; enroll more male nurses. And, sadly, it’s not happening; uptake of the profession by males is still disappointing. This begs the questions; why are men few in nursing? Why are some dropping out? And, yes, for those who are still married to the game, why are most of them not satisfied with the profession? And, most importantly, what is the way forward?

Unfortunately, I do not have answers to the above questions (at least not now) but, surely, there must be reasons and unless such reasons or constraints are addressed, we may never experience gender balance and uptake of nursing as a profession.

Some critics cite Nightingale’s attitude towards male nurses as the foundation for the prejudices and stigmas and issues around men in nursing. According to many sources, the economist included, Florence Nightingale is said to have strictly observed and made it clear that men were not fit for nursing. In her words (as cited by economist); men’s “hard and horny” hands are “not fitted to touch, bathe and dress wounded limbs.”

But could Nightingale, the woman (“the lady with a lamp”) behind modern nursing as we know it be the true and only cause for few men in nursing profession? Certainly not. According to nursing times, New York Times, and other sources, men are discouraged by the social and cultural set-ups around the profession, misunderstandings of what nursing is exactly about and if it is men’s work, terrible perceptions and mistreatment by fellow staff that make it (the profession) awkward and unwelcome for men and, of course, the pay that is never enough for men and their ‘manly’ demands in life.

What else do you think is responsible for few men in nursing? Post your comments below or write to us; thecompletey@gmail.com