| Abstract | An interpretative phenomenological pilot study: The male nurse perception of career development. (words-12)
Background: A national shortage of nurses is affecting the patient care delivery throughout the United Kingdom (UK) (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2014). Following the Mid-Staffordshire inquiry into the failings in patient care the resulting Francis Report (2013) recommends growth is needed in the nursing workforce, especially with regard to skilled nurses providing the holistic care of specific patients. Arguably, to echo the diversity of the population, there needs to be larger numbers of minority groups within the nursing profession including male nurses. Male Nurses continue to represent a substantially small number of the full nursing workforce across the UK (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2011 and this pilot study intended to look at the experience of male nurses regarding their career development.
To Investigate the male perspective of being a nurse. An interpretive phenomenological method was used to elicit the experience and examine the presented truths (Streubert and Carpenter, 2011), rather than a third-party perception, of the experience that six male nurses have had in nursing. The study design was qualitative in nature in order to meet the methodological gap identified from a previous literature review. It drew out the lived experience from the male nurses using an ‘emic’ position in that only the male nurse can understand what being a male nurse is like (McIntosh-Scott, Mason-Whitefield and Coyle, 2014). Face to face semi structured interviews were utilised in order to extrapolate the male nurse perception of nursing within a female dominant nursing profession. The data collected has been transcribed and checked for clarity by the individual participants prior to data analysis taking place. The transcribed interviews are being read and reread, over and over, in order to undertake analysis of the content and identify emerging themes for discussion (Padgett 2012). Six themes have emerged to date: Promotion not necessarily quicker for male nurse, patients offered an option of carer from a male nurse, clients did not raise issues with men being nurses, 5/6 initially discussed intimate care in terms of physical needs, significant number from the same discipline chose not to participate, none of the participants heard about nursing as a career option for men while in school education. This pilot study explored the lived experience of six male Nurses using Interpretative Phenomenology. There are key differences for men practicing as Nurses within a traditionally female role noted through narratives of career progression. The six emerging themes exposed factors that could enable future recruitment and retention toward rebuilding a depleted Nurse workforce. To echo the diversity of the population, there needs to be larger numbers of minority groups within Health and Social care workforce including male Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors. Key recommendations: • Careers advice within schools should include advice on gender neutral career opportunities within the caring professions. • A wider study of the career development of men who are nurses is required to take all disciples into account. • Research should be carried out on students entering the nursing profession in the United Kingdom now as cultural and traditional beliefs held with regard to sexual stereotypes may have changed over recent years. |
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