Men flock to nursing careers for stability, higher salaries

Gender makeup of the nursing field is shifting quickly as men seek stable jobs

What you probably already know: The medical sector has been dealing with severe shortages of nurses, an issue that was already apparent before the pandemic but exacerbated by the stress of millions of Covid patients and pandemic deniers. Now, a group that has traditionally avoided nursing as a career have turned to it in droves: Young men. The number of men in the U.S. who are registered nurses has tripled since the early 2000s, drawn to roles with job security and stability, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Why? Many of the men who have become RNs are coming from roles as firefighters or the military, where they were exposed to other nurses and saw the benefits. There are now about 400,000 male nurses, compared to 140,000 in 2000, and a recent study from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth found that many of them became nurses in their late 20s or 30s, as part of a career shift. The study also cited the rising demand for labor and liberalized gender roles to explain about 50% of the growth.

What it means: “Men have gone from rarities in the nursing field to having a significant, if minority, presence,” the study’s authors Elizabeth Munnich from the University of Louisville and Abigail Wozniak from the University of Norte Dame, wrote. Nursing tends to have lower rates of unemployment than other more traditionally male jobs such as construction and machine work, where jobs can come and go as the economy shifts. While women’s employment as nurses also has increased in the same period, it’s not even close to the same rate as it has been for men.

What happens now? The dynamic could start to change attitudes and assumptions at health facilities across the country. One male nurse told the WSJ that when he walks into a patient’s room with a female physician, he is often assumed to be the doctor. However, as more and more men serve as nurses, these assumptions may change. In 2007, only 28% of doctors were women and in 2022 it was 37%. Average pay for nurses is about $95,000 a year, and male nurses tend to gravitate to nursing jobs at the higher end of the pay scale, including nurse anesthetists, who make about $214,000 a year. About 46% of them are men, while, when you look at nurses assistants, only 10% are men and the average salary is $38,000.