Male Nurses: According to a Child

Abstract

Aim: This descriptive study aims to determine the opinions of hospitalized pediatric patients about males entering the nursing profession. Materials and Methods: The population of this descriptive study consists of 220 pediatric children (aged 7-12 years) receiving inpatient treatment in pediatric services. Data were collected by the researcher using a questionnaire prepared in accordance with the literature. Percentage and chi-square tests were used for statistical evaluation. Results: Of the hospitalized children, 64.5% stated that nursing is only a woman's job whereas 58.2% stated that there should be male nurses in hospitals too. Of the children, 63.6% stated that they had already known that there were male nurses in the hospital and 66.4% stated that they learned about this fact when they were hospitalized. When asked to children why there should be male nurses, 67.3% replied "because they are strong". When they were asked to define the duties of male nurses, 16.4% expressed duties of other healthcare workers such as examining the patients and driving ambulances etc. 22.6% of female and 4.4% of male children stated that male nurses should be employed to provide healthcare for male patients. Statistically significant correlation was observed between children's gender and the necessity for employing male nurses in hospitals (p<0.000). Conclusion: In accordance with the findings obtained from the study, it was seen that the opinions of pediatric patients regarding males entering the nursing profession were quite positive and that they had information about male nurses but they were mistaken about the duties of male nurses (they mistook the duties of male nurses for those of other health care workers). The results also revealed that gender of the children had an influence on the factors affecting the male nurses' work.