Nursing a female bias

By the BBC's Christine McCarthy

Asked to think of a famous nurse, there are few of us outside the medical world who would not come up with the name Florence Nightingale.

The "Lady with the Lamp" so epitomised the caring profession that 180 years after her birth, we still think of her as a nursing icon. And very much a female one.

Florence Nightingale's lamp casts a long shadow

This long-skirted Victorian gave birth to a stereotype, which still prevails, that to be a nurse you must be female.

But Florence Nightingale was no shrinking violet. Famed for tending the sick and dying in the Crimean War, she was a formidable woman.

The qualities she possessed, common to many nurses today, were not those regarded as strictly female.

Indeed, the issue of men and nursing is taxing the Health Service - only 10% of the nursing population is male.

In a recent report, the Royal College of Physicians suggested introducing a new genre of staff called health practitioners - falling somewhere between doctors and nurses.

Today's NHS lacks male nurses

The report said this would address the lack of men and ethnic minorities in nursing, and provide new support roles.

Men get turned off by the term "nurse" and feel there is a stigma attached to it.

Odd, when today few would raise an eyebrow at meeting a woman doctor or dentist.

The Royal College of Nursing is addressing the men's role in the profession.

"We recognise that, traditionally, nursing is a female-dominated profession but we are keen to see the best people from both genders and all walks of life come into nursing," says an RCN spokesperson.

Female nurses are regarded as the norm

Sixteen-year-old Scott King, a would-be nurse from Cornwall, came face to face with traditional perceptions of nurses during his work experience at a community hospital in Newquay.

"As a man, when you say you're going to be a nurse, you get a different reaction to a woman. People are surprised, it's not what they expect," he says.

"I understand the stereotype - even myself, I think of a nurse as female, wearing a skirt, because it's just an image we have grown up with. But it is changing.

"I would much rather be a nurse than a doctor. I like the patient contact. It doesn't put me off being in a profession where you are out-numbered by females - in fact, I quite like it."

Scott believes empathy, commitment and the ever-essential sense of humour all go towards making a good nurse. He does not think men should shy away from revealing their caring side.

Casualty's Charlie Fairhead challenges stereotypes

"Men have a habit of being aware of what others think, which is not so apparent in women. It's a status thing," he says.

"I had to do a bed bath for a patient the other day for the first time and that was daunting. One of the things that got me through was thinking that, if it was hard for me, it was probably much harder for the patient. You have to think how you preserve their dignity through it all."

The popular image of the male nurse is changing. Witness Charlie Fairhead in Casualty, a far cry from the stereotypical Carry Ons.

In real life too, male nurse are usually very much appreciated by their female colleagues.

Diana O'Grady is a theatre sister at St Bartholomew's & Royal London Trust, in central London.

Carry on into a new image of nursing

"Where I work, a nurse is a nurse. I work with some excellent male nurses and they are just as valued as the female ones," she says.

"All the male nurses I have met go out of their way to say they are a nurse - they don't want to emulate doctors. And it's not true that they are mainly gay, either, that's another myth."

With her zeal for improving medical care, were Florence Nightingale to join the debate she would surely judge nurses on their professional skills, not their sex.