Caring knows no gender

Abstract

Men provided much of the nursing care in the 11 th, 12 th and 13 th centuries and thus they are not new to the field of nursing. Nursing became predominantly a female profession in the late 19th century. Though Florence Nightingale made major contributions in the nursing profession, she was greatly involved in excluding men from this profession by affirming that nursing was a discipline for females. She did work hard in establishing nursing as a laudable profession for 'respectable women', ignoring the past indispensable contributions made by men. Today, due to the ageing 'baby boomers,' demand for healthcare professionals become so high that some countries are experiencing nursmg shortage. Despite being a female-dominated profession for a long time, nursing is now seen as a profession for men as well. In relation to this, the aim of this research study was to find out the reasons why men in Malta choose the nursing as a career, and to identify the possible difficulties that male nurses may encounter in a traditionally female profession. In order to understand how do men feel in female dominated profession, a self administered questionnaire was used. A convenient sample of 35 men employed as registered nurses was chosen randomly from five different wards at main hospital in Malta. The response rate was 88.5%. The findings indicated that misconceptions about "male" nurses did not prevent men in Malta from entering in this predominantly female profession. The percentage of men employed as a nurse in Malta is shown at high 28%, compared to the findings in other countries where span is low as 5.6% in Canada to high as 25% in Philippines.