DECIDING ON THE AREAS TO EXPLORE

A number of factors informed the areas to explore for the thesis and were both subjective and objective. From a subjective perspective, (Refer 1.3) my own experience at all levels of nursing throughout many countries, had left me wondering why so few men went into general nursing and of the small percentage who did enter, why so many of them gravitated towards management or lecturing or the trauma or high-tech clinical areas. These thoughts informed the basis for my OWE assignment (1.4). The study participants in my OWE assignment were all male and included both

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lecturers and student nurses. The findings further reinforced what I had experienced throughout my own career. The support for second-level school-boys to consider nursing as a career was sparse and when they did express an interest in nursing, they were often laughed at or equated with being gay. The nature of the work as perceived by their school friends was also considered to be gendered with the perception that the traditional Irish man must be manly and be seen to do manly things and this did not include being a nurse. Both groups interviewed in the OWE assignment, the registered general nurses and the general student nurses, stated that their gender had played a significant part in their work-lives, both as general student nurses and as registered general nurses. There was also a belief that salary and conditions were poor in nursing. The participants in the OWE assignment also considered that there were advantages and disadvantages in being a minority male among the majority females. The other area explored was career and promotion opportunities and the participants strongly believed that these were especially good for the male nurses.

The literature reviewed in chapter 2 reinforced the outcomes from my OWE assignment and indeed my own experiences. The literature showed that from the male nurses’ perspective, nursing can bring with it challenges and more especially so for the male nurse, whose sexuality may be in question. The literature reinforced the notion that male nurses often use their physical power or their technical knowledge to their advantage. It has showed that there were both advantages and disadvantages in being a male in nursing. I wanted to explore more the overall concepts regarding gender bias that had begun to emerge as part of my OWE assignment and from the literature. Chapter 3 considered theorising gendered identities. It looked at how the male nurse engages in different practices that express or suppress their masculine identity in order to maintain the appearance of a hegemonic masculinity. The feminisation of nursing has resulted in nursing being perceived as including such traits as caring and nurturing, traditionally being viewed as that of the

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female. The world of general nursing was certainly not perceived as the domain of the male. However, men continue to enter general nursing and could therefore be seen to be exerting their agency. My research was interested in looking at the outcomes or the reactions to exercising such agency and in exploring the concept of hegemony and the perception of male nurses as being homosexual. Part of my research was about finding out about the resources or the forms of masculinities that men draw on in a field that is feminized. It was concerned with the strategies, with a possible masculine performance or hegemonic masculinity, that they use as they inhabit the feminized world that is general nursing.

Based on my own life-journey and the findings of my OWE assignment, coupled with the literature review and the exploration of gendered identities, a number of broad areas began to emerge that would inform the basis of my research as follows:

1. Influences on the participants on their decision to do nursing 2. Reactions of others when they made that decision

3. Images of nursing that the participants consider to be prevalent in the Republic of Ireland 4. Roles and activities that the participants consider underpin general nursing

5. Masculinities and Identities considered by the participants on entry to the nursing programme and if any change occurred since starting nursing

6. Strategies used by the participants when working with a female-dominant group of registered general nurses

55 4.3. AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

4.3.1. Aims

My research aimed to find out what it was like for a man to inhabit a traditional female space. The participants shared distinct common features. They were all men and student nurses in their final year in general nursing in the Republic of Ireland. It can be assumed therefore that they identified with a masculine gender in a context that can be assumed to be one of femininity.

I was interested in finding out whether gender was significant when they first made the decision to enter general nursing. I wanted to find out how the image of general nursing in the Republic of Ireland is shaped or influenced by society’s view of gender in nursing. Since starting general nursing almost four years ago, the male general student nurses would have had encountered reactions from others by virtue of them being male. Such reactions would have occurred in both their work and social lives and I was interested in learning about such reactions.

My research was concerned with exploring the male general student nurses’ perceptions of

themselves, both as men and as male student nurses. The interviews explored the impact of gender on the participants’ sense of self/identity and their work. Men (and women) enter into the profession of nursing with an identity, with a masculinity or a femininity. I explored the participants’

understanding of their masculine identity and if having spent almost four years in the feminized world of general nursing, this identity has changed.

The theories of gender were also considered when carrying out the interviews including the role of the biological, of the male muscle mass as a factor; the place of performativity; the place of hegemony; and the use of compensatory measures carried out by the male student nurses

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including measures taken to assert their sexuality. I looked at ways by which the male student nurses considered they were either advantaged or disadvantages by virtue of being male.

My research was interested in finding out about the coping strategies used by the participants to assist with integration into this other-gender world. It considered the male student nurses’ perceived career paths overall for men in general nursing coupled with their own ambitions in nursing.

4.3.2. Research Questions

Based on the above aims, the research questions were as follows.

1. In what ways do male general student nurses perceive their gender to be an influence on their professional and social experiences?

2. How do the male general student nurses understand their gendered identities?

3. In what ways do the male general student nurses feel that their masculinities have been reinforced and/or challenged by their professional identity?

4. What strategies do the male general student nurses use to integrate themselves into the nursing profession?