Tsung-Kuo Hsu
Department of Sociology, National Taipei University
Through a micro-analysis of the work of male nurses, the present study explores the professional conditions and processes in which male nurses outperform their female counterparts. This study proposes that male nurses recognize, identify with and manipulate their masculine image and identity, and in so doing, find a niche for themselves within a predominantly and stereotypically female profession. We collect and analyze interview data according to the principles of the grounded theory approach with a purpose of seeking previously hidden connections between the obvious and the unacknowledged.
Our research findings suggest that attempts to empower female nurses by enrolling them in self-assertiveness programs in the hopes of balancing out the advantages in nurse-patient and nurse-physician relations that male nurses achieve are ineffective. Gender factors long hidden in the nursing profession indeed play an important role in explaining why the majority of nurses, being female, encounter difficulties and professional predicaments at work. The present study maintains that insights from sociology and feminism can enable nurses to look beyond their day-to-day professional environments and uncover a gender hierarchy that works for the benefit of male nurses at the macro-level of society. Only when and if we come to terms with how these gender factors operate can we solve larger problems inherent in the nursing (and larger medical) professions.
Keywords: micro-analysis of work, situation management, groundedtheory approach, image, male nurses