Perception of Female Nurses Regarding Re-entry of Males in Nursing Profession: A study from Pokhara, Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: The number of male nurses in the world is very low. Within the nursing profession men remain a minority. Women have been entering male-dominated fields for decades, but it’s less common for a predominantly female occupation to have a substantial increase in its share of men. On 19th of June 2018 the Nepal Nursing Council has issued a notice making it mandatory for all nursing institutions across the country to allocate 15% seats for male students in nursing courses. Hence this study aims to identify the perception regarding re-entry of males in nursing profession among female nurses of Pokhara. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using purposive sampling technique among 219 Registered Nurses (RN) working in hospital and academic institutions of Pokhara. Structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Chi-square test was used to assess the association between perception of female nurses regarding re-entry of male in nursing profession and selected variable. Results: Maximum (70.3%) of participants were in the age group of 19-29 years, about half of the participants (49.8%) educational level were certificate level, nine out of ten (90.0%) of the participants were from clinical site. More than half of the participant (51.6%) had negative perception regarding entry of males in nursing profession whereas (48.4%) participants had positive perception regarding re-entry of males in nursing profession. Total work experience was associated with the level of perception as its p value is <0.05 i.e. 0.02. Conclusion: More than half of the participants had negative perception regarding re–entry of males in nursing profession. Total work experience of the participants is associated with perception of female nurses regarding re-entry of males in nursing profession.