Men’s Decision to Become Nurses

Our current featured article is titled “Men’s Decision-Making to
Become Nurses: Gendered Influences and Fit With Gender Role Conflict Theory” authored by Chad E. O’Lynn, PhD, RN; Tom O’Connor, EdD, MSc Ad Nursing, BSc, PG Dip Ed, Dip Nur, RGN, RNT; Liliana L. Herakova, PhD; and Peter Kellett, PhD, RN. The article is available to download at no cost while it is featured, and we welcome your feedback and comments here! Dr. O’Lynn sent this message about this work:

Our international research team came together out of our mutual interest in men’s experiences in nursing.  While acknowledging patriarchy as the dominant explanatory paradigm of gendered structures and inequities in healthcare (and in nursing in particular), we were concerned with the lack of literature describing specific gendered constructs and processes based in patriarchy that might account for the lack of gender diversity in the nursing workforce.  In the current study, we used a specific temporal context—the process of deciding to pursue a nursing career—to examine the interplay among gendered constructs and contrasting messages while using Gender Role Conflict (GRC) as a sensitizing framework.  Our findings yielded a decision-making model that extends previous research.  Further, we believe GRC to be a theoretical model well-suited to study phenomena related to men in nursing and support the development of meaningful strategies to improve gender diversity in nursing.