This research study came about as a result of national approaches to enhancing diversity with a focus on nursing as a career for men. It emerged as part of an Equality Challenge Unit national project aiming to develop a contextual understanding of barriers to access for potential students from equality groups and develop deliver and evaluate positive action initiatives to improve participation for target equality groups. The analysis will focus on the gender imbalance in Nursing. Part one of the research employed mixed methods to gain a better understanding of the barriers faced by male student nurses and forms of good practise that could attract more males into nursing. Part two will focus on research in schools with young men aged 14-17 and attracting that age group into nursing as a career. This paper will present the data for part one.
Barriers to entering nursing for men include stereotyping (Yi & Keogh 2016) and lack of gender neutrality in the classroom (Brady & Sherrod 2003). A sense of isolation and exclusion had also been reported by male student nurses (Stott 2007 Whittock & Leonard 2003). The study aimed to examine the attitudes about nursing as a career for men. The overall project also devised a pilot of a new approach to recruiting males into nursing for the University.
