Gender dynamics in the history of nursing education at Ainsworth Dickson Nurse Training School in Swaziland, 1927–2007

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Swaziland the misconception that nursing is a female profession delayed male nurse training at Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital’s Ainsworth Dickson Nurse Training School. Started by the Church of the Nazarene in 1927, nursing training in this school remained exclusively women-centred until 1980, when four male students from the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force enrolled. Since then, male nurse training in Swaziland has continued unabated, although at a very low rate. The trifling numbers of men in nursing training from the 1980s to 2007 indicate that this misconception persists. While scholarly attention has been given to female nurse training in Swaziland, nothing has been written on male nurse training. This article investigates how male nurse training was perceived in Swaziland before the 1980s, why male nurse training started in 1980 and how its commencement impacted existing gender stereotypes. It also explores how male nurses were received, especially by patients.