'A bunch of Gaylord Fockers': The prejudices failing male nurses

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Men in nursing and other caring industries dominated by women face prejudices and challenges because of their gender, writes Samantha Selinger-Morris. But could the increase in men in nursing be a sign that stubborn stereotypes are beginning to break down?

You know the old saying: bias begins at home.

So it was for Alex Jardine, when he decided to switch from his civil engineering degree to study nursing instead.

"I can tell you that my parents weren't very happy," Mr Jardine, a clinical nurse specialist at Prince of Wales Private Hospital in Sydney, says with a laugh.

"I think it was their initial shock. Your parents really want you to do really well for yourself; they saw me giving up this well-paid job and going to something that wasn't."

That was 12 years ago. Since jettisoning engineering, which, after three years he discovered "just wasn't for me", Mr Jardine, 34, has rocketed up the nursing ladder. He now not only works in the coveted orthopedics, neurosurgery and plastic surgery unit, but is also an education coordinator at the hospital.

"I like the interaction with people, and I like the fact that people are vulnerable, and put their life in your hands, basically, and you can really make an impact on people," he says.

Still, few men share his experience. Only 10 per cent of nurses working in Australia are men. And many of them experience challenges in the industry as a result of their gender.

Why are we wary of men in caring roles?

"Some people I've met have a bit of a closed mindset about being a male in a nursing role; they would think that I'd be using it as a stepping stone to something else, or maybe I'm not smart enough to be a doctor," says John Guevarra, a nurse who has worked in the children's ward at Nepean Hospital for the last seven years.

Some other patients, says Mr Guevarra, "are a bit reluctant" for him to care for their babies: "You know, [they think] how well can I look after [them]?" he says. "But after I've told them my experience, I've interacted with them, they're usually OK."

Men in other "caring" industries traditionally dominated by women have faced similar prejudices.

"I had one sort of issue with a family who didn't want me working with really young infants," says Liam McNicholas, now a senior manager at Northside Community Service, which runs four early childhood centres in Canberra.

This occurred when he was an early childcare educator, in his first job in the sector, when he was 18.

Since becoming a manager, Mr McNicholas has seen another male childcare worker face the same discrimination. "The family told us they didn't want him changing their daughter's nappy," he says.

In both cases, the families were reassured that the men underwent the same criminal and safety checks as all other carers, and the families were subsequently satisfied with the men caring for their children.

And Mr McNicholas notes that these have been rare occurrences in his 13 years in the industry.

Prejudice against men 'damaging' to all

But a recent poll by Reddit suggests the families' concerns are reflective of a wider-held suspicion of male carers in Australia.

The 2014 poll asked Australian parents how they would feel about men taking care of their children in early childcare centres, and many said they would be suspicious.

"Women are more caring than men," said one respondent. Another, noting that they had heard of sexual abuse involving men in two local daycare centres, indicated they "would have concerns".

It is such media reports — not to mention recent headlines about men abusing children in childcare — that are a significant obstacle for many men thinking of entering into a job caring for children.

"Where one unfounded accusation or rumour can destroy your career, you can't blame guys for avoiding it," wrote one man on Reddit. "It's why I didn't."

This undercurrent of prejudice against men in caring jobs has gone unnoticed for too long, and is damaging to all Australians, not just men, says Libby Lyons, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).

"We're seeing an increasing focus on attracting women into traditionally male-dominated industries and roles, but there's been a distinct lack of attention to the absence of men in important industries such as health care and social assistance, and we're seeing growth in that area."

Ms Lyons is referring to Australia's rapidly ageing population. According to a 2013 Australian Government Productivity Commission report, the number of Australians aged over 75 was projected to rise by about 4 million between 2012 and 2060.

As a result, says Ms Lyons, there is a predicted shortfall of 85,000 nurses in Australia by 2025.

'The best talent remains untapped'

But the problem with the absence of men in health and care industries is not just a matter of needing more bodies in the roles to keep up with demand. (Experts in the childcare industry, where 95 per cent of carers are women, also say the industry suffers from chronic staff shortages and turnover.)

Fewer men, says Ms Lyons, also means that some of the best talent remains untapped.

"We know if we have a diverse workplace, we get a broader spectrum of ideas, views, and innovation," she says. "We know that diversity brings newer ideas, better ideas, different ways of problem solving."

It is a point Roy Brown, a nurse of 40 years, agrees with whole-heartedly.

Until recently the head of nursing at The University of Wollongong, Mr Brown started his career as a nurse in 1974, after leaving his job as a miner in a small English coal town — an experience that he says enhanced his ability to empathise, later, with his patients.

"If you've crawled along a coal face only 27 inches high, and repaired a hydraulic kit, nursing's very different, but if you bring that experience of that mining town, what those guys and women's lives are like ... you bring that broader life experience in to your nursing," he says.

And the prejudice that still hovers in the ether about male nurses being somehow goofy — "A bunch of Gaylord Fockers!" a dad at my local pool said, referring to the maligned character in Meet The Parents played by Ben Stiller — belies the reality that, in the field, male nurses are often preferred by patients to female nurses.

"Male patients in ED" — the emergency department — "often preferred a male nurse to assist them with their personal care, or to talk about embarrassing issues or injuries to areas they would prefer a young female nurse not to look at", Cameron Littlewood, a midwife at Sydney's Westmead Hospital, told The Sydney Morning Herald last year.

The advantages of being a male nurse

Nursing also offers men great career opportunities because of their gender, says Julie Williams, District Director of Nursing for the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District.

"The thing that they bring in that's different to females is that they don't get pregnant," says Ms Williams. "I mean that with all due respect, out of that, often I think that they're able to be more risk-taking in career opportunity, because they know that they can commit to something that's full time.

"They tend to be attracted to [surgery] theatres, emergency care, mental health units. Often they'll then go off and do flight nursing, or air ambulance. It can take them so many places, and they can travel with it." (She would know. Both her husband and her 31-year-old son are nurses.)

This might explain the increase in men both studying nursing, and working as nurses.

Last year, the percentage of male nursing students at Sydney Nursing School was 16 per cent, and the percentage of male nursing students at the University of Wollongong was 13 per cent — both significantly above the current percentage of men working as nurses in Australia.

Of the nurses working across the Nepean Blue Mountains health district, about 16 per cent, says Ms Williams, are men.

Or, it could be that parents are more frequently entertaining the idea of their sons becoming nurses.

Mr Brown says that parents of sons who are interested in nursing frequently ask him questions about his career at University of Wollongong open days.

"The key question is, 'Would you do it again?' That's what they always ask. No doubt, I would do it again. It's a great opportunity, and a privilege. I keep saying, 'To share in people's lives, and to help them in the way that you can...'

"That notion, I think [that's] when the penny drops for them."

Or, in the case of Alex Jardine's parents, it drops after they've seen how fulfilled their son is in his chosen career.

"They've changed their attitude," says Mr Jardine. "They're proud of me for having achieved what I have achieved."

Topics: carers, careers, family-and-children, men, work, people, university-and-further-education, child-care, doctors-and-medical-professionals, australia