For insights into why men make up only 6% of nurses, researchers conducted an online survey in late 2004. A total of 498 male RNs completed the 34-item questionnaire.
Fifty percent of respondents said they encounter difficulty in the workplace related to nursing being a traditionally female profession. As the graph at right shows, the largest proportion of these respondents (71%) felt their female colleagues view male RNs as "muscle."
Asked what they like best about their workday, respondents answered as follows:
* caring for/helping/patient care (63%)
* variety/challenge (16%)
* making a difference (10%).
Like all nurses, these men cite workload, inadequate staffing, and paperwork as top workday dissatisfactions.
The survey was conducted by the Bernard Hodes Group in partnership with the California Institute for Nursing and Healthcare, the Coalition for Nursing Careers in California, and the American Assembly for Men in Nursing. For a free copy of complete results and verbatim comments, go to http://www.hodes.com/MenInNursingSurvey.