Male nurses remain underserved minority

Beijing (CNS) -- Nurses are traditionally and predominantly female; of the 2.18 million registered nurses in China, only 21,000 are men, accounting for a miniscule one percent of caregivers. What roles men are playing and should play in the nursing profession were discussed at the First Session of Male Nurses Development Forum in Beijing on Thursday.

Some 300 senior male nurses and freshmen from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan attended the forum and shared their experiences and feelings. They talked about the multiple pressures exerted by society, family and personal standards, as well as the public's poor recognition and misunderstanding of the male nursing job.

Despite growth in the number of male nurses, a large portion of them quit during the clinical work phase, observed Zhang Yue, president of a Tianjin nursing school. His stance is that vocational education should highlight the strengths of male nurses, so as to enhance these men's self-esteem.

Xu Xiaohua, an expert from Peking Union Medical College, said a concrete plan is needed to solve a series of problems; one is the wording of educational materials, which now mainly targets female candidates.