Author/Editor		Goriup, Jana; Pajnkihar, Majda
Title		The importance of men's role in health care education
Type		članek
Vol. and No.		Letnik 5, št. 2
Publication year		2014
Volume		str. 87-102
Language		eng
Abstract		Changes in social roles and changes in social think ing in the post-modern society have led to changes in g ender structure in certain occupations. Some former exclu sively male occupations have now become also availa ble to women - and vice versa. This state has been observed focusing in the field of health care which until recently, has been specifically understood as a women's professional field, in which more and more men are integrated nowadays. Notably, the share of men in nursing has been incre asing recently, but an increased enrolment of men in nursing studies can be noted as well. By inc reasing the proportion of men in typically female profession, it logically comes to a slowdown of drastic changes and the perception of men in nursing. The issue of men in nursing is associated with stereotypes of nurses an d stereotypes about male nurses. The widespread stereotype of the nurse - an angel of mercy - is de eply present in our society, as a nurse is seen as the one who first or last offers a caring and gentle hand to th e sick, the baby, the injured and the dying. In the history of social relations this role has been understood and practised for a long time as exclusively female. Th e character of a nurse in the contemporary Slovenian post-moder n society no longer coincides with the traditional idea of the roles of men and therefore poses a problem for patients, doctors and even the employees in health care. Patients who are in contact with men employed in he alth care develop a different relationship towards them with a woman who is a nurse. The relationship is mo re imbued with humour, based on camaraderie and the physical contact is reduced to an absolute minimum. Doctors prefer to ask them and do not expect (and require even less!) them to cook coffee or open the door for them. In the nursing team male colleagues are treated differently than female colleagues. Most of the differences are observed in the task distribution and the duties, as men are assigned to work where the need for greater physic al strength and / or greater technical complexity is evident. For all the reasons above, male nursing is distributed at psychiatry, in emergency rooms and emergency services, while it is less noticeable at the pre-natal department of gynecology and paediatr ics. In a study in which we wanted to clarify some misco nceptions rooted in the Slovenian society, especial ly regarding the typical female profession of nursing , we analysed the presence of men in nursing % in the field of health care. The study was based on a quantitati ve methodology from May to the end of June 2012 involving respondents, regular (39%) and part-time (61%) unde rgraduate students of nursing. Based on empirical d ata, we found how the respondents, students of the Faculty of Health Scie nces, University of Maribor, regardless of the study mode, did not detect differences in treat ment of students during the study. Nevertheless, th e respondents highlighted the notion of a typical fem inine trait of nurses% (e.g., kindness, care, tenderness, empathy, warmth) and men's properties (e.g. strengt h, determination and authoritativeness). Although t hey estimated, how the respondents, i.e. the study part-time students expressed more devotion and concern towards more masculine features. Such expectations also ref lect the perceptions of employees in health care based on gender in the Slovenian post - modern soci ety. The respondents also highlighted high requirem ents for a good nurse. Her personal qualities are import ant: highly stressed due diligence, empathy, assert iveness and independence. These properties are the preconditions for the exercising her professional competence. And, last but not least, they are expected- from patients to relatives and m embers of the nursing and medical.
Keywords		education health care men's role nurse stereotypes mass media izobraževanje zdravstvena oskrba moška vloga medicinska sestra predsodki množični mediji