These men went to college in search of stable careers. They found it in nursing

Nursing student Amiri Saadiq (left) talks with classmate Ethan Stinson in the simulation suite at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing. Through clinical rotations, Saadiq has found that the work suits his disposition. "I think I'm pretty personable for the most part," he says. Andi Rice for NPR hide caption

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Men are largely missing out on one of the hottest professions in the U.S. right now: nursing.

For registered nurses alone, the Labor Department projects there will be 189,000 job openings each year for the next decade. But only 1 in 8 nurses are men .

There have long been efforts to rewrite the script around nursing — to push back on the idea that it's women's work. Now, the economy is helping, too.

Healthcare

With nursing in high demand, more men look to the field as a stable career option

With diminishing opportunities in male-dominated industries like manufacturing and software engineering, nursing has emerged as a stable alternative and a solid pathway to a middle-class life.

Nursing students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are already experiencing what it's like to be in demand.

Ethan Stinson chose to go into nursing his first year of college, drawn by the job security. He's headed for a job in a hospital psychiatric unit. "I think I'm pretty calm under stress," he says. Andi Rice for NPR hide caption

Ethan Stinson will graduate next month and go straight into a job in the psychiatric unit at the university hospital.

"I feel like it's really easy to get a psych job if you're a nurse," he says. "They're hunting people all the time."

His classmate Hatim Nasser, whose family had wanted him to study computer science, has a job lined up in the university hospital's heart and lung transplant intensive care unit.

At a time when many of their peers are unsure of what's next, the students are happy their skills are in demand.

Hatim Nasser practices putting on a sterile gown for surgery. He started out studying computer science but hated it. He switched to nursing because he wanted to be able to help people. "Just caring for them and helping them feel comfortable," he says. Andi Rice for NPR hide caption

A nursing school in the South leads the way

No doubt, stereotypes about men in nursing still abound. But slowly, they're being eroded.

At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, close to 1 in 6 nursing students are men, outpacing the national average. And nearly 1 in 5 faculty are men. In some specialties within the university hospital, male nurses are nearly as common as female nurses.

"I don't really feel like nursing isn't for men or anything like that. When I go to the hospital, I see guys all the time," says nursing student Amiri Saadiq, who's headed for a job in the bone marrow transplant intensive care unit.

For years, the nursing school has been intentional about creating a welcoming environment for men. It features male students on all its marketing materials. It sends male and female nurses into high schools to recruit students. There's an employee resource group for men in nursing at the university hospital.

Professor Curry Bordelon says all of this makes a difference.

"We're never going to flip the entire iceberg. But I can get one little ice cube at a time out of it," he says. "And when you do that, you're opening up that opportunity for change."

Nursing student Connor Aderholt speaks with professors Curry Bordelon (center) and Gregory Eagerton (right). Bordelon believes increasing the share of male nurses will lead to better health outcomes for men. "Patients respond when they see people caring for them that look like them," he says. Andi Rice//for NPR hide caption

A different landscape in the 1990s

Things were very different three decades ago when Bordelon was getting his start in what he calls "small-town Louisiana."

Men made up only 4% of nurses back then . Bordelon first learned about nursing through his aunt, who was a nurse. He was her practice patient.

Out of high school, he worked as a volunteer firefighter and found himself drawn to the medical calls.

From there, he enrolled in a nursing program at a local community college. He remembers his first day, looking around. There were about 90 students in his first class. Just three of them were men. He recalls the instructor telling the guys that the only reason they were there was to satisfy a quota.

"That, to me, was sort of a wake-up," he says. "It was a — 'I want to find my right fit where I can strive.'"

Getting help from someone who looks like you

Bordelon found a more welcoming environment at a different nursing school. Then, he found his calling: working in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where male nurses are extremely rare.

He says fathers in the NICU would sometimes get defensive when they saw him talking to their wives about breastfeeding. But he made a point to include them, too.

"'I'm here to support the entire family unit,'" he says he would tell them. "'Which means — Dad, would you like to do skin-to-skin?'"

That simple action — holding a baby to one's bare chest — is incredibly important for the baby's long-term success, Bordelon says. Not to mention, it prepares fathers for the transition home.

Bordelon is certain that having more male nurses everywhere could improve health outcomes. Studies have found that patients respond better to healthcare providers who look like them.

Nicholas Seay has found that Black male patients feel more at ease with him than other hospital staff. "It's a cool experience to see how my patient will talk to me differently from the nurse that I'm following," he says. Andi Rice for NPR hide caption

Nursing student Nicholas Seay, who is Black, has already experienced this during his clinical rotations. He finds older Black men often look relieved when he walks into the room. At times, they seem more at ease talking with him than with the nurse he's shadowing.

"I think they're happy to see [a] familiar face," he says.

Seay has also experienced the opposite: female patients who are not comfortable with him at their bedside. In those situations, he steps aside.

"If I was a woman, I don't know if I'd want a male student in the room either, so I really can't be mad," he says.

"Permission" to be in nursing

Even in the cocoon of the university setting, stereotypes persist.

For one, male nurses are often mistaken for doctors. Chris Jones, a graduate student pursuing a dual master's degree in nursing and business administration, says it happens when he enters patients' rooms, as well as elsewhere in the hospital.

"They would give me the resident discount in the cafeteria, and it's a good discount," he says with a laugh. "I've had to correct them."

Graduate student Chris Jones says nursing isn't marketed to men as an option. "They're not shown that it's an opportunity for them," he says. Andi Rice for NPR hide caption

And because nursing requires patience and compassion — traits traditionally seen as feminine — there are people who assume all male nurses are gay.

Bordelon knows persistent stereotyping gives some men pause.

"A lot of times, men need permission to be in the nursing field," he says.

He's happy that popular shows like The Pitt depict men in all kinds of healthcare roles, including nursing. And, he says, the fact that the jobs pay well doesn't hurt. The national median wage for registered nurses tops $90,000 a year.