Cargando…

Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa

BACKGROUND: Over the last 20 years, more men have been choosing to pursue a career in nursing. Despite this, men remain a minority in the nursing workforce around the world, including South Africa. Even though there is an increase in the number of male students entering the profession, male students...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ndou, Ntombizodwa P., Moloko-Phiri, Salaminah S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AOSIS 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6191660/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30326705
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v41i1.1932
_version_ 1783363757149257728
author Ndou, Ntombizodwa P.
Moloko-Phiri, Salaminah S.
author_facet Ndou, Ntombizodwa P.
Moloko-Phiri, Salaminah S.
author_sort Ndou, Ntombizodwa P.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Over the last 20 years, more men have been choosing to pursue a career in nursing. Despite this, men remain a minority in the nursing workforce around the world, including South Africa. Even though there is an increase in the number of male students entering the profession, male students remain a minority. Comparatively speaking, there is no balance between the number of female and male students taken in each intake. This is even reflected in the South African Nursing Council statistics. Nursing is traditionally perceived as a distinctly feminine career and the use of the terms ‘angel in a white dress, sister or nurse’ perpetuates this stereotype. This perception may deter some men from choosing a career in nursing and presents challenges for others who are currently in the profession. OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe 4-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain. METHOD: This qualitative study used an explorative and descriptive design. The population comprised African male students in their third and fourth years of study who were registered for the 4-year diploma course at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa. Participants were purposively sampled. Five focus group discussions were conducted, and each comprised six to eight participants. The data were analysed using the Tesch’s open code method. RESULTS: Two themes emerged during data analysis: discrimination in the clinical setting and lack of role models and mentors. CONCLUSION: Unless these challenging experiences are attended to, discrimination on the basis of gender in the clinical settings and lack of mentors may deter some men from choosing and remaining in the nursing profession. The selected public college of nursing and the nursing services need to work towards creating a welcoming environment to all students regardless of gender because some participants indicated that the clinical environment is sometimes not welcoming to them as men.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6191660
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher AOSIS
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-61916602018-10-22 Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa Ndou, Ntombizodwa P. Moloko-Phiri, Salaminah S. Curationis Original Research BACKGROUND: Over the last 20 years, more men have been choosing to pursue a career in nursing. Despite this, men remain a minority in the nursing workforce around the world, including South Africa. Even though there is an increase in the number of male students entering the profession, male students remain a minority. Comparatively speaking, there is no balance between the number of female and male students taken in each intake. This is even reflected in the South African Nursing Council statistics. Nursing is traditionally perceived as a distinctly feminine career and the use of the terms ‘angel in a white dress, sister or nurse’ perpetuates this stereotype. This perception may deter some men from choosing a career in nursing and presents challenges for others who are currently in the profession. OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe 4-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain. METHOD: This qualitative study used an explorative and descriptive design. The population comprised African male students in their third and fourth years of study who were registered for the 4-year diploma course at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa. Participants were purposively sampled. Five focus group discussions were conducted, and each comprised six to eight participants. The data were analysed using the Tesch’s open code method. RESULTS: Two themes emerged during data analysis: discrimination in the clinical setting and lack of role models and mentors. CONCLUSION: Unless these challenging experiences are attended to, discrimination on the basis of gender in the clinical settings and lack of mentors may deter some men from choosing and remaining in the nursing profession. The selected public college of nursing and the nursing services need to work towards creating a welcoming environment to all students regardless of gender because some participants indicated that the clinical environment is sometimes not welcoming to them as men. AOSIS 2018-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6191660/ /pubmed/30326705 http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v41i1.1932 Text en © 2018. The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
spellingShingle Original Research
Ndou, Ntombizodwa P.
Moloko-Phiri, Salaminah S.
Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa
title Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa
title_full Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa
title_fullStr Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa
title_short Four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in Limpopo, South Africa
title_sort four-year diploma male students’ experiences in a profession traditionally perceived as a female domain at a selected public college of nursing in limpopo, south africa
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6191660/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30326705
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v41i1.1932
work_keys_str_mv AT ndountombizodwap fouryeardiplomamalestudentsexperiencesinaprofessiontraditionallyperceivedasafemaledomainataselectedpubliccollegeofnursinginlimpoposouthafrica
AT molokophirisalaminahs fouryeardiplomamalestudentsexperiencesinaprofessiontraditionallyperceivedasafemaledomainataselectedpubliccollegeofnursinginlimpoposouthafrica