With so much gender gap in the profession, I am against the thought of limiting the clinical practice of male nurses to certain types of nursing or to certain types of patients. Within the years I personally believe we have failed as a society to bring equality in the nursing profession. According to Evans (2004) barriers to gender equality in nursing in Canada, citing legislated discrimination in Quebec as an example where male nurses could not be legally registered. Interestingly, Evans outlines “area of strong opposition to the registration of men was within the Quebec legislature where members were concerned that male nurses would have to work as subordinates to female supervisors, and this might erode masculine status”.( Evans, 2004) This is a clear example of how nursing, as a profession, is affected directly by the society policies within which it exists. Furthermore, men who have decided to become nurses are a gendered minority who already face personal and professional struggles in workplace. …show more content…
The use of humor by male nurses when providing intimate care for female clients might help as well (Grady et al., 2008; Inoue et al., 2006). There is a need to revise nursing educational programs, at least those that seem gender-biased, in order to provide equal training opportunities to all nursing students, develop a climate of acceptance and empower male nursing students both in the nursing school and clinical field, and thus empower the career development of male. The positive empowerment will encourage new males to join the profession, and retain the existing male nurses. Therefore male nurses should not be restricted on doing any kind of clinical practice. There is a mis belief that women can do better bed side care than male nurses. This means that policy makers are creating gender inequalities by rationalizing by encouraging female nurses to do bed side care verses male nurses to the administration. We need to advocate in this issue, nurses should get their job based on their qualification, expertise, and competency not due to the gender.