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Men as nurses? Why not, hospitals ask
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PEOPLE traditionally consider nursing a job for women, but that concept is slowly changing.
Hangzhou hospitals are now actively recruiting male nurses with the same skills and caring concern as female nurses.
The Hangzhou Nursing Association said the city had 116 male nurses at the end of 2014, accounting for 2.4 percent of Hangzhou’s nursing numbers.
Hangzhou No. 1 People’s Hospital was a pioneer in hiring male nurses. It started that policy in 2003 and now has 31 male nurses on staff, the highest of any public health facility in the city.
Still, the men have a way to go in winning the confidence of patients and in achieving advancement in their chosen profession.
“Young people accept us more readily, but in the minds of older people, nursing is a job for women, not for men,” said Gu Junjie, who has been nurse for 10 years at the Hangzhou No. 1 People’s Hospital.
The Hangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital has six male nurses hired since 2012. One of them is Pan Chenghe, 26, who said men entering the profession have to overcome prejudice and frustration.
“One of male nurses in our hospital quit not long ago,” Pan said. “He said he was embarrassed to tell his son what his father did for a job. There is social prejudice against male nurses.”
Some patients confronted with a male nurse ask for a female nurse instead. Some women in hospital beds think male nurses invade their privacy and modesty.
The situation is changing for the better.
“Compared with my first couple of years as a nurse, I feel that public acceptance is improving,” said Gu. “Male nurses are stronger and can handle tasks that require some muscle power. We can move an overweight patient who might require a couple of female nurses to support. Also, we tend to be more unflappable in emergencies.
As a nurse in an emergency department, Gu said he helped handle the 33 people injured in a bus arson attack last year.
“We had only several minutes to prepare when the police called to tell us that a group of injured people was heading for our hospital,” he said. “The emergency room was suddenly filled with people suffering serious burns. It was a chaotic scene, but we kept our cool.”
Male nurses are handy, too, when staff or patients are threatened. The hospital gets patients who are mentally disturber or drunk. Male nurses play a key role in handling situations of abusive behavior.
“Men nurses can bring feeling of security to women nurses and patients,” said Pan, who also works in an emergency room.
Most male nurses mainly work in emergency rooms, intensive care units and operating theaters.
Gu said pay for male nurses is equivalent to local civil servants. However, many don’t stay to advance through pay levels because they get frustrated and quit nursing. It’s a demanding job for any gender.
“In my first year, I was full of energy and enthusiasm,” said Gu. “Starting in my second year, I began to feel tired because of the three-shift working schedule and the huge work pressure. I once considered resigning, but I held on and later became more accustomed to the work.”
Pan, too, said he started to grow weary during his second year of nursing.
“The first flush of freshness was gone, and I was left tired and stressed,” he said.
The uplifting part of the job is helping patients through the trauma or illness or accident.
“Nursing is a noble vocation,” said Gu. “I respect it a lot even though it doesn’t offer much opportunity for advancement.”
At present, male nurses may aspire to the position of head nurse, but there are no channels for them yet to enter more specialized fields of care.
“I hope that one day we will be allowed to sit for professional medical qualification tests, such as respiratory therapist,” said Gu. “That’s what I am most interested in — work in specialized treatment.”
Gu founded the West Lake Male Nursing Nurse Society at his hospital to provide a forum for male nurses to get together, discuss mutual problems and cheer one another on.
Among its many civic activities, the society organizes sessions and workshops to teach people basic first-aid techniques, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, wound dressing and the Heimlich maneuver used to help people who are choking.
“To some degree, we are striving to create for future by ourselves,” said Gu. “Every profession needs both men and women to develop properly.”
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