A qualitative study to explore the male nursing student’s coping with experiences in a maternalnewborn nursing course

47^th Global Nursing & Healthcare Conference

March 01-03, 2018 | London, UK

Stella O Akpuaka

University of the District of Columbia, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Nursing today is predominantly a female profession; however men are re-entering the profession in record numbers and challenging the perspective that they are inappropriate in care-giver roles, or incapable of providing compassionate and sensitive care. Because of this, male nursing students face gender based role stress when caring for maternal-newborn clinical patients. This study investigated the perceptions and experiences of male nursing students in a maternal-newborn nursing course and their coping strategies in dealing with the role stress. A purposive sample included 11 male nursing students who completed a survey, and six participated in individual interviews. Written responses and verbatim audio narratives were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to identify themes that described their perceptions and experiences. The results identified seven themes: desire to care for others; female dominance in nursing profession; maternal-newborn nursing course creates anxiety and intimidation; the course is identified as a woman�s domain; individuals leave other careers to pursue nursing; experiences of rejection, acceptance and fear of unknown, and the male nurse�s use of different coping strategies. Despite the significant stress for male nurses in the maternal-newborn environment, they agreed that the profession of nursing should not be gender specific and that men should be encouraged to pursue nursing careers. The results suggested a need for nurse educators to develop theory-guided instructional strategies to support male nursing student�s academic goals which may be at stake because of the maternity learning environment.