By Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
Rohan Lyons, right, Oneil Dennis, centre, and Michael Evans, left, pose for the camera. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer
IN THE film, 'Meet the Parents', actor Ben Stiller's character Gaylord Fokker is a male nurse who becomes an object of ridicule by his father-in-law because of his profession.
The father-in-law's reaction underlined the bias of a society which is still struggling to understand the motivations of a man who wants to become a member of the female-dominated nursing profession.
However, three male students at the Exced Community College in Kingston are blazing a bright path to inspire males to join the profession. Meet Rohan Lyons, Oneil Dennis and Michael Evans.
"One of the main reasons I got involved in nursing is that while I was at Charlemont High school one of my friends got injured, and we couldn't do anything to help him. We had to stand there until the school nurse came. What happened next was like a scene from ER, and I said 'wow, this is what I need to do," said Roan Lyons, a second year student in the nursing department of Exced.
"When I told my friends, they were surprised and amused at first, and dem gimme a second look, but they were supportive when they realized how serious I was. I would much rather be a nurse than a doctor, but I am not ruling anything out. I like the patient contact. It doesn't put me off being in a profession where you are out-numbered by females -- in fact, I quite like it."
Oneil Dennis is a third year student at the same institution. He decided to pursue a career in nursing at the suggestion of a friend.
"I had been trying to get into teacher's college but each time something happened to foil that attempt, so a friend said try nursing. At first, I was a bit hesitant to get involved in nursing, but the teachers were always there for me, I was welcomed," he said.
Mr. Dennis also believes "empathy, commitment and the ever essential sense of humour" go toward making a good nurse. He does not think men should shy away from revealing their caring side.
"We should not shirk our duty. No profession should remain male- or female-dominated. Gender should not matter, it is the type of care that is important. Plus, it is a potentially lucrative profession with several opportunities overseas."
FEAR OF BEING RIDICULED
Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp, so epitomised the caring profession that 180 years after her birth, society still perceives her as a nursing icon -- and the profession as almost exclusively female. In the local parlance, nursing is a woman 'ting', full stop.
Female student nurses interviewed by Flair, reckoned that few men enter the profession, not because of poor pay, limited opportunities for advancement, or shift work, but because they fear ridicule by their peers and families who might brand them as effeminate or gay.
Patricia Ivers, General Secretary of the Nursing Association of Jamaica (NAJ), agreed that nursing is a 'dangerous' career choice for men because it threatens their masculinity. Gender, she added, was only a problem of perception outside the profession.
"Nursing does not make a man less macho even though over the years it has been seen as a female-dominated profession. And I don't buy the association between male nurses and homosexuality. In fact, there are more homosexuals in high ranking business and among the so-called 'big boys' than in nursing," she said.
Among nurses themselves, all that matters is whether a fellow nurse is a good person to work with and is a good practitioner, she reasoned.
"I don't see the stigma as a serious deterrent to them entering. I just feel that men are lazy, there are a lot of unemployed men out there but they'd rather the women work and mind them, or wait for something to drop out of the sky rather than engage themselves in a lifelong, worthwhile profession like nursing," Mrs. Ivers concluded.
BEING SURROUNDED BY WOMEN
NO HEAVEN FOR RANDY MALES
According to figures from the Ministry of Health, there are 62 registered and enrolled assistant male nurses in the health care system, only 28 of whom are Jamaicans.
Meanwhile, there are only 13 males in training in the island's six nursing schools. There are two in the Kingston School of Nursing; seven at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville; none at Brown's Town Community College in Brown's Town, St. Ann; none at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay; three at Exced; and one at the University of the West Indies nursing school.
"Years ago, Bellevue had a training school for mental health practitioners and a number of men entered the system because they said they felt more secure attending a school where the majority were men rather than a situation where the majority were women. At that time, there was an increase in the number of men in the profession, and we even published a tract targetting men in the profession. That training school, however, is now closed," said Thelma Deer-Anderson, registrar of the Nursing Council of Jamaica.
According to the MoH, the Bellevue facility was closed because mental health training was incorporated into the general curriculum of other nursing schools because nurses often had to deal with patients suffering from acute psychiatric illnesses on the wards of all the major hospitals.
At Exced, for every 40 female students in the nursing department, there is one male dream odds for your typical teenage male.
Not so, the students say.
The nursing curriculum is quite challenging so if you're a randy male who thinks that you can reprise a fox in the hen house role, forget about it. Goofing off is not allowed here.
"I am here to achieve something, I don't let that get in the way, it is just great being around these women, you develop a brother-sister bond with them after a while. This is a place of work and study; it is not a pushover so you have no time for idle diversions," Mr. Lyons said.
Forty-three-year-old Michael Evansis a man on a mission. A casualty of the bloody downsizing and redundancy exercises of the turbulent 90s, he sees nursing as an important skill, a hedge against future lay-offs because of the shortage of warm bodies male and female in the profession.
And what's more, he loves it.
"I wanted to acquire a skill because I figured it is the only way to survive in Jamaica by being multi-skilled. When I first got here, the teacher told the class that men were an endangered species and that they should take care of me...meaning that they should be supportive," Mr. Evans quickly added.
"I don't get any preferential treatment here, but I somehow feel special, like if I were to try to quit, they would not allow it, and I like that sort of feeling, that I can serve, and people depend on me," he said.
However, statements like "Why are you only a nurse?" or "You're too smart to be a nurse" continue to haunt male RNs. Yet most chose nursing school over medical school for the same reasons female nurses say they made that career decision.
"Being a nurse offers one more of an opportunity to serve. A man once told me that a job that you would do without getting paid for it is the job you were born to do. That's what nursing is to me, it is something I would do, taking care of others no matter what," Mr. Turner said.
Interestingly, public acceptance of male nurses may be growing. "I am heartened by the whole experience. Just a few months ago, I worked in a clinic as part of my training, and another man came over to me and shook my hand and gave me encouraging words, adding that he thought more males should come into the profession," Mr. Turner said.
Was he trying to be sarcastic?
"No, he was serious. I was bowled over," Mr. Turner added, laughing.
Sandra Graham, a classmate of Mr. Evans, and a first year nursing student believes that compassionate, caring men who would make excellent nurses are turning away because of the "negative social consequences" of entering a profession which is perceived as feminine.
"That's why I admire Evans. We pick on him all the time, but he doesn't feel inferior to be a thorn among the roses. We don't often see males in female-dominated circles, but men who become nurses will become exposed to things that will make them more well-rounded men," Ms. Graham said.
CALL MALE NURSES BY ANOTHER NAME
The image of masculinity can change and stereotypes can be broken down, but maybe not quickly enough.
According to 32-year-old computer analyst, Peter Grant: "They should consider a name change for male nurses, I don't think men in particular enjoy being called nurses. It carries a very strong gender stereotype in our society. Perhaps nurses should be called 'medics' instead."
The male students don't agree.
"A nurse is a nurse is a nurse. This is what we do. I am not ashamed to be called a nurse. If women can do it, so can we. Nurses play a vital role in a medical team, we are a critical part of the health care system, there is no need to change the name," Mr. Dennis said.
For your information, a male nurse who is in charge of a ward is not called a sister as his female counterpart, but is referred to as a nurse manager, or a nurse superintendent, in other countries.
The exuberant Mr. Lyons remains adamant that there is not enough advertising done to project the image of men in nursing in Jamaica.
"If you look at any picture, you'll always see the comforting caregiver as typically being the woman. The patient is the man and he is awfully sickly looking. It's a selling point for getting more women in the profession, why not the men? There needs to be more public education about this option, my friends didn't even know there was such a thing as a male nurse." Mr. Lyons said.
"What about promoting the challenging aspects of nursing: working in the emergency department or in a trauma unit, with high technology? Not enough men know about nursing's career potential. No matter where you go, I think you can make a living today as a man in nursing. Men need to know that."
Not his real name
