More men are entering the nursing field the last decade. I do believe men would have in greater numbers years ago if the wages and benefits had been decent.
Thanks to the nursing shortage employers have been forced to offer things men have taken for granted for decades: health and life insurance, retirement benefits, etc.
If I told you how many years I've worked as a nurse full time and have never had any form of a pension or retirement plan until the last 2 years you would be shocked. Hell I'm still shocked and wonder what the hell is going to happen to me when I hit retirement age, I guess as long as I can walk and talk I won't retire.
I have very few men on my staff maybe 7 total out of 130 or so. That number increases dramatically when my boss is gone and I have to oversee other departments. In general men do not take directions well from females. They will agree mostly to anything you say or want them to do, then damn near every time will go do what they want. Grrrr. Then when I have to call them on it...I'm not exaggerating here, they try to put on the charm. Oh puhleeze. Over the years I've finally decided they don't even realize they are doing this. Maybe it's a knee jerk response to handling females from their personal lifes.
If I'm being honest here, it's my knee jerk response to respond to being charmed. What a word. It used to really catch me off guard, not any more. Also I don't counsel or discipline men alone.
About a year ago I was trying to reach a male nurse by phone to arrange an appointment to fire his ass for gross negligence...failure to feed tube feeders. He knew what was coming and before I reached him by phone he showed up at work. He was drunk, high or both and came into my office and shut the door. Damn...I'm supposed to be between them and the door. He backed me right up against a wall. He was very calm and quiet and reasoning was not working. So I was the one that got loud and belligerant. Go with what works...he backed off, I fired him, and haven't seen him since.
Anyway, I love working with men as co-workers, but damn I hate to supervise their asses. If it ends this nursing shortage then I can do this, just not alone.