Abstract
For many decades, many people have maintained that nursing is a field designed for female professionals. Unfortunately, this kind of opinion has impacted the profession negatively. The involvement of males in the area is something that can support the development of the field. This essay presents a proposal for a study project to identify new measures that can address the problem of gender inequality in nursing.
Introduction
Gender equality is an idea that is supported by many professionals in different fields (Barrett-Landau & Henle, 2014). When there is parity in a nursing environment, learning and leadership practices are correctly executed. Such practices eventually promote performance and eventually ensure quality nursing services are available to every targeted client.
Thesis
The targeted issue for this research study is how policymakers and leaders in healthcare can identify new measures to attract more male nurses to improve the nature of healthcare delivery (Newman, 2014). The research will go further to examine how the concept of gender equality in the nursing working environment can address the problem of the nursing shortage.
Thesis statement: A powerful initiative aimed at attracting more men into the nursing profession will address the problem of inequality in the workplace and eventually minimize staff shortage.
Background Information and Problem Statement
Pereira (2015) indicates that nursing is a field that has always been targeting women. This is the case because many people still believe “that nursing should be promoted as a natural extension of the woman’s caring nature” (Pereira, 2015, p. 947). The global society has promoted this idea for very many years. More women have been pursuing a career in an attempt to provide evidence-based care to their patients. On the other hand, men have been forced to embrace other scientific fields such as mathematics and engineering. These historical developments have led to numerous problems that make the nursing profession incapable of meeting more patients’ changing needs.
Additionally, the absence of men in the profession has led to the current nursing shortage (Pereira, 2015). The nature of education, practice, healthcare delivery, and administration in nursing has been disoriented by this inequality. The current gender issues in the nursing field have impacted nursing negatively.
Study Approach
A powerful study approach will be used to complete the research successfully. A qualitative study approach will present useful discussions that can be used by healthcare organizations to deal with the current problem of nursing shortage (Barrett-Landau & Henle, 2014). The information will be obtained from peer-reviewed articles from respectable databases such as JUSTOR, Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect. Articles describing gender equality in healthcare practice will be identified and used to develop the topic. Possible solutions that can deal with the issue of disparity in the nursing profession will be presented.
Expected Outcomes
The completed research paper will present evidence-based insights and ideas that can address gender inequality (Newman, 2014). The presented solutions will offer positive results when applied systematically and effectively. Institutions embracing such study outcomes will find it easier to deal with the current problem of gender disparity. The solutions will go further to tackle the problem of the nursing shortage.
Outline
- The notion that a woman has an innate caring nature has led many people to believe that females can succeed in the nursing profession.
- This kind of fallacy discourages men from taking up various nursing roles.
- The issue is believed to have disoriented the nature and effectiveness of nursing.
- The absence of men in the profession contributes a lot to gender inequality and nurse shortage.
- The proposed research study aims to identify new policy measures and evidence-based practices that can overturn the situation (Newman, 2014).
- The second objective is proposing new measures that can eventually demystify the relationship between nursing shortage and gender inequality.
- Healthcare leaders should pioneer and implement a new change that can transform the situation by creating a better environment that attracts both genders (Ebrahimzade, Mooghali, Lankarani, & Sadati, 2015).
- Transformational leadership can encourage more men to take up various roles in nursing and eventually transform the quality of healthcare delivery.
Leadership in Healthcare
Leadership is a powerful practice that can transform the performance of every healthcare or nursing environment. Appropriate leadership is associated with admirable practices such as teamwork, positive decision-making, and problem-solving (Lin, MacLennan, Hunt, & Cox, 2015). The targeted topic for this part is how leadership in tackling the problem of gender disparity in the nursing profession.
Thesis statement: Effective leadership is a powerful practice that can encourage more men to join the nursing profession and promote the delivery of personalized, patient-centered, and evidence-based care to more patients.
Transformational leadership is a powerful style whereby leaders work with their followers “to create visions and implement new changes that can promote performance” (Ebrahimzade et al., 2015, p. 2). A transformational leader understands that the facility should be inspired and guided to implement a new change. The leader liaises with other stakeholders to identify the major areas that must be improved. Specific practices such as collaboration, commitment, and continuous decision-making are encouraged by the leadership style. Such initiatives play a positive role in enhancing the practices undertaken in the department (Lin et al., 2015).
With this kind of leadership, healthcare workers can implement new practices to ensure more men join the profession. By so doing, more men will be encouraged to pursue the nursing career path (Barrett-Landau & Henle, 2014). Men who have decided to pursue other careers in life despite having completed their academic nursing courses should be encouraged by such leaders. Attracted males will eventually support the performance of many healthcare institutions. Consequently, the strategy will tackle the problem of the nursing shortage.
Concluding Remarks
Gender inequality is a complex problem that affects many professional fields and working environments. The most interesting situation is that the nature of inequality in nursing appears to be reversed. Many societies have consistently believed that nursing is a field designed for women. The notion has contributed a lot to the nursing shortage (Zhang & Liu, 2016). A powerful leadership strategy aimed at attracting more men in nursing will transform the situation. More men will be recruited to join the profession and eventually minimize the problem of staff shortage.
References
Barrett-Landau, S., & Henle, S. (2014). Men in nursing: Their influence in a female dominated career. Journal for Leadership and Instruction, 1(1), 10-13.
Ebrahimzade, N., Mooghali, A., Lankarani, K., & Sadati, A. (2015). Relationship between nursing managers’ leadership styles and nurses’ job burnout: A study at Shahid Dr. Faghihi Hospital, Shiraz, Iran. Shiraz E-Medicine Journal, 16(8), 1-5.
Lin, P., MacLennan, S., Hunt, N., & Cox, T. (2015). The influences of nursing transformational leadership style on the quality of nurses’ working lives in Taiwan: A cross-sectional quantitative study. BMC Nursing, 14(33), 1-9.
Newman, C. (2014). Time to address gender discrimination and inequality in the health workforce. Human Resources for Health, 12(25), 1-11.
Pereira, A. (2015). Nurses’ daily life: Gender relations from the time spent in hospital. Rev. Latino-Am. Enfermagen, 23(5), 945-953.
Zhang, W., & Liu, Y. (2016). Demonstration of caring by males in clinical practice: A literature review. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 3(3), 323-327.