For as long as I can remember, “nursing stories” have weaved tales of angelic young females, or a self- sacrificing, old women donning a nun’s habit, working long hours tending to the sick. No matter the version, the story always portrays a woman in the “part” of the nurse; a doctor’s handmaiden, patiently waiting for instruction from the male physician.
As a young girl, I remember reading about suffering Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, fighting for the principles of cleanliness, fresh air and documentation of outcomes in an effort to improve patient mortality. That was my picture of nursing.
Upon entering the nursing profession, I rarely saw a male nurse. Eventually,
I witnessed men entering the nursing profession in the 1980-1990’s. Inflation, a shortage of nurses with the accompanying rise in nurses’ wage, as well as a change in gender attitude,
brought many men into the profession. Many thought it odd for a male to want to become a nurse, “just isn’t natural” they said.
But then, I was living in California. It was the 1980’s.
It was a time of change and a “do your own thing” mentality prevailed. Men in nursing became “cool”
—accepted.
Little did I know the concept of a male nurse was not a new 1980’s trend. I have recently discovered the history of men in nursing goes back centuries.
The first nursing school in the world was started in India, about 250 BC. Only men were considered "pure" enough to become nurses. The Charaka (Vol I, Section XV) states these men should be, "of good behavior, distinguished for purity, possessed of cleverness and skill, imbued with kindness, skilled in every service a patient may require, competent to cook food, skilled in bathing and washing the patient, rubbing and massaging the limbs, lifting and assisting him to walk about, well skilled in making and cleansing of beds, readying the patient and skillful in waiting upon one that is ailing and never unwilling to do anything that may be ordered."
In the New Testament, the Good Samaritan paid the innkeeper to provide care for an injured man. No one thought it odd that a man should by paid to provide nursing care. (Story of the Good Samaritan found at: Luke 10: 35-36).
In every plague that swept Europe, men risked their lives to provide nursing care. A group of men, the Parabolani, in 300 AD started a hospital and provided nursing care during the Black Plague epidemic.(Reference: Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 2, Chapter XX, Part III). Military, religious and lay orders of men continued to provide nursing care throughout the Middle Ages.
In the middle 1800's England became embroiled in the Crimean War, and the U.S. fought the Civil War. During the Civil War both sides had military men serving as nurses although we only hear about the volunteers, who were predominately female. The Confederate Army identified thirty men per regiment to care for the wounded. The Union also had men in the military serving as nurses. Men, including Walt Whitman, served as volunteers. (Reference for confederate nurses - Pokorny, M.E. (1992), An historical perspective of confederate nursing during the Civil War, 1861-1865, Nursing Research 41, 1 , 29.)
Following
tremendous losses in the civil war, the U.S. changed rapidly from being a land of the family farms to being an urban industrial nation. Before mechanization of the farm, it took a large family working full time to earn a living. Without a man to help with the labor, the farm women were unable to continue, so women moved into the city and looked for work. In 1863, women physicians founded
New England for Women and Children to provide medical and nursing education for women. It wasn't until September, 1873 that Linda Richards was the first nurse to be given a diploma from the
New England for Women and Children. She is identified as "the first trained nurse" in the U.S.
On March 10, 1890 the first nursing school in Texas started. It was proclaimed in the Galveston Daily News as "a new field in which educated women may find a means of support." The nursing profession remained a female dominated profession, probably due to economic reasons rather than social reasons. Hospitals and physicians were able to pay females less for their services, while men entered white collar professions allowing them to earn greater salaries.
So, the next time you hear someone talking about it not being “natural” for a man to be a nurse or that men aren’t “natural” in the caretaker role
—remind them of history. Men have much more experience in the role than women.