 Making Strides at Shore Health to
Attract Males to Nursing
While Maryland’s most severe nursing shortage since the
1980s continues to be a problem, Shore Health System in Easton, is trying to
recruit not only more female nurses, but working to add to the male nursing
population as well.
Shore Health supports the Mid-Shore Regional Health Career
Club for high school and college students enrolled in health career
prerequisite courses. The club covers a five-county area and meets once a
month, averaging a turnout of about 20 students per month. Every month the club
has a presentation in a different area of health care. For example, one night
might be devoted to surgical services and the next to alternative medicine
techniques. But regardless of what the monthly presentation is, Shore Health
has made it a point to feature nursing every month.
Cynthia Watson, nurse support program specialist at Shore
Health System, says, “We try to keep the students involved by dressing
them up in scrubs and giving them plenty of hands-on activities. We also try to
bring in at least four nurses to club meetings, both male and female, to
attract students of both sexes to the profession.” In addition to this,
Shore Health plans to begin work on a promotional calendar, which could feature
male nurses, to help make role models for future male nurses.
Shore Health also will target paramedics, EMT’s and
volunteer firefighters as a new source of potential nurses. They will emphasize
better pay, job availability, and career mobility as a means to lure them into
the profession, as well as making them feel as if the field will be
strengthened if they are a part of it. Shore Health has two male nurses, both
former paramedics. One works in critical care and the other in the ER.The task
of tapping into this potential pool of future nurses will take collaborative
efforts on everyone’s part, including working with nursing schools to have
creative scheduling to accommodate alternative students.
It is unclear how long it will take before there is a major
increase in both male and female nurses. The percentage of male nurses in
Maryland is very close to the national average, ranging from 2 percent to 5
percent. What is certain is that Shore Health will continue to encourage people
from both genders to enter the nursing profession.
Contact:
Cynthia Watson, RN MSN
Nurse Support
Program Specialist
Shore Health System
219 S. Washington Street
Easton, MD 21601
410-822-1000 ext. 5457
cwatson@shorehealth.org
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