Mid-Career Male Nurses Choose More Options

by Alex A. Kecskes

Of the country's 2.6 million licensed RNs, fewer than 200,000 are men.

Men who go into nursing midway through their careers have varying backgrounds that include social work, emergency medicine, public safety and the military (former corpsmen). The percentage of male RNs averages about 6 percent and those in bachelor's-degree nursing programs hover at about 10 percent, this according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Male mid-career nurses often explore a variety of career paths, more so than their female counterparts. For example, men will move into ICU and ER work. In addition, men who have years of military corpsmen experience or those who have segued from business careers will often shift into the business side of healthcare and seek administration or management posts.

Mid-career male nurses can attend community college or sign up for an accelerated bachelor's degree program. (If you're considering nursing as a mid career move, enroll in an associate's degree program and get your feet wet dealing with patients to see if nursing is for you.)

Gender bias issues persist for male nurses, just as they do for females in other fields. Male nurses are often expected to do the heavy manual jobs that women nurses should be able to do. Things like turning patients in their beds. Conversely, middle-aged male nurses in clinical training will sometimes be given slightly more respect that younger, female nursing students (especially if the male student has served as a corpsman in the military).

For an additional perspective, check out this video:

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