Experiences of Undergraduate Male Students in Nursing: On the Outside Looking in.

BACKGROUND: Measures to improve gender diversity of the profession have yielded only a modicum of progress. PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between marginalization and gender minorities in baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study compared self-reported marginalization in male and female baccalaureate nursing students. The sample was drawn from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing database of US baccalaureate nursing programs, and the Englund Marginality Index (EMI) was used to measure marginalization, along with a demographic survey. RESULTS: In the study, 6480 full-time baccalaureate students from a traditional face-to-face nursing program in the United States participated. The results show that male participants had higher EMI scores (mean = 40.0, SD = 9.1) compared with female nursing students (mean = 35.1, SD = 9.0); t(6478) = 14.9, P < .001. CONCLUSIONS: Marginalizing behaviors must not be tolerated or promulgated. More needs to be done to better support and integrate men into nursing programs as they bring forth a unique perspective and skill set to the profession.

Hospice and Palliative Care-Men and Gender-Specific Roles.

All people face end of life as the final health outcome. When a person's health focus shifts from quantity to quality of life, palliative care comes into view. Clinicians serving patients across the health care spectrum must be aware of the nature and efficacy of palliative and hospice care, indications for referral to services, and current best practices. Creating an end-of-life trajectory requires an individualized and global personal plan, which palliative and hospice care can provide. Gender-specific care that includes gender minorities provides special and unique challenges to those seeking palliative and hospice care.

Men in Female-Dominated Nursing Specialties.

While numbers of men in the nursing profession have slowly increased, men in female-dominated specialty areas have not changed. Male nurses and nursing students encounter gender bias and discrimination in certain specialty nursing environments. This has implications for the quality of care provided, parental engagement, and job satisfaction. By diversifying the nursing workforce, there is a potential to enhance patient comfort, improve satisfaction, and promote a more inclusive, creative, and patient-focused health care environment.

A Critical Minority: The Marginalization of Male Faculty in Nursing Academia.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between gender and marginalization in nursing academia. BACKGROUND: Men continue to be significantly underrepresented in nursing academia because they experience numerous barriers to their integration and success in the profession. METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional design was implemented in this pilot study to investigate differences in perceived marginalization between male versus female faculty teaching in Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education-accredited colleges. Marginality was measured using the Englund Marginality Index (EMI). RESULTS: Male nursing faculty participants reported higher scores on the EMI ( M = 43.6, SD = 9.9) than female faculty ( M = 37.2, SD = 9.6), t (1428) = 6.0, p < .001. CONCLUSION: As the nursing faculty shortage continues to increase, it is imperative that leaders in nursing education steer their efforts toward attracting a more robust and diverse faculty population.

Male Caregivers: Shifting Roles Among Family Caregivers.

BACKGROUND: More than 16 million men in the United States are acting in the role of family caregiver. Men are usually viewed as not being caring simply because they provide care differently than women. However, this is not the case. OBJECTIVES: This article explores male caregiving from the perspective of family and professional roles. METHODS: A review of the literature related to men in the caregiving role was conducted. This review included only men providing care to a family member and was limited to men caring for an adult. FINDINGS: The main traits of male caregivers were defined as masculinization of caregiving behaviors, social support needs, and caregiver role strain/emotional aspects of caring. Men in the caregiving role must be supported. Education related to how men provide care is needed. Hands-on education should also be provided to men in the family caregiving role.

Becoming Inclusive: A Code of Conduct for Inclusion and Diversity.

There are increasing concerns about exclusionary behaviors and lack of diversity in the nursing profession. Exclusionary behaviors, which may include incivility, bullying, and workplace violence, discriminate and isolate individuals and groups who are different, whereas inclusive behaviors encourage diversity. To address inclusion and diversity in nursing, this article offers a code of conduct. This code of conduct builds on existing nursing codes of ethics and applies to nursing students and nurses in both educational and practice settings. Inclusive behaviors that are demonstrated in nurses' relationships with patients, colleagues, the profession, and society are described. This code of conduct provides a basis for measureable change, empowerment, and unification of the profession. Recommendations, implications, and a pledge to action are discussed.

Interprofessional communication in healthcare: An integrative review.

The link between miscommunication and poor patient outcomes has been well documented. To understand the current state of knowledge regarding interprofessional communication, an integrative review was performed. The review suggested that nurses and physicians are trained differently and they exhibit differences in communication styles. The distinct frustrations that nurses and physicians expressed with each other were discussed. Egos, lack of confidence, lack of organization and structural hierarchies hindered relationships and communications. Research suggested that training programs with the use of standardized tools and simulation are effective in improving interprofessional communication skills. Recommendations include education beyond communication techniques to address the broader related constructs of patient safety, valuing diversity, team science, and cultural humility. Future directions in education are to add courses in patient safety to the curriculum, use handover tools that are interprofessional in nature, practice in simulation hospitals for training, and use virtual simulation to unite the professions.

Evaluating an accelerated nursing program: a dashboard for diversity.

Diversity is a topic of increasing attention in higher education and the nursing workforce. Experts have called for a nursing workforce that mirrors the population it serves. Students in nursing programs in the United States do not reflect our country's diverse population; therefore, much work is needed before that goal can be reached. Diversity cannot be successfully achieved in nursing education without inclusion and attention to quality. The Inclusive Excellence framework can be used by nurse educators to promote inclusion, diversity, and excellence. In this framework, excellence and diversity are linked in an intentional metric-driven process. Accelerated programs offer a possible venue to promote diversity, and one accelerated program is examined using a set of metrics and a dashboard approach commonly used in business settings. Several recommendations were made for future assessment, interventions, and monitoring. Nurse educators are called to examine and adopt a diversity dashboard in all nursing programs.

Advancing diversity through inclusive excellence in nursing education.

Nurse leaders call for a more diverse nursing workforce, but too few address the concept of inclusion as a recruitment and retention strategy or as part of improving the academic learning milieu. This article addresses organizational considerations of diversity and inclusion as part of the agenda established by the Association of American Colleges and Universities for inclusive excellence, building on the idea that academic environments only become excellent when an inclusive climate is reached. Six organizational strategies to inclusion are presented from the authors' experiences, some structural and others behavioral: admissions processes, invisibility, absence of community, promotion and tenure, exclusion, and tokenism. A call for structural and behavioral adaptions within nursing education to advance an inclusive excellence agenda is presented.

A Mixed-Methods, International, Multisite Study to Develop and Validate a Measure of Nurse-to-Physician Communication in Simulation.

AIM: This study examined the reliability and validity of the ISBAR Interprofessional Communication Rubric (IICR). BACKGROUND: Improving education regarding communication in health care is a global priority. Communication is difficult to measure and no evaluation rubrics were located that uniquely focused on nurse-to-physician communication in simulation. METHOD: This study used a mixed-methods design and included five sites. RESULTS: The IICR was determined reliable among nurse educator raters (r = 0.79). The scale was found valid as assessed by nurse and physician experts (content validity index = 0.92). When describing their experience of using the tool, nurse educator raters described three categories: overall acceptability of the tool, ease of use, and perceptions of the importance of communication skills for patient safety. CONCLUSION: Teaching and evaluating communication in simulation with a standardized rubric is a research area in need of further exploration and refinement.

Men in nursing.

This literature review examines the ability of the nursing profession to recruit and retain men in nursing schools and in the nursing workforce. The authors consider such educational barriers as role stress, discrimination, and stereotyping, and explore questions of male touch and the capacity of men to care. In identifying challenges faced by men entering or working in a profession in which women predominate, the authors hope to promote actions on the part of nurse leaders, educators, and researchers that may address issues of sex bias and promote greater sexual diversity within nursing.

Admission criteria for undergraduate nursing programs: a systematic review.

A concise, systematic review of commonly used admission criteria for prelicensure nursing programs is presented in this article. Admission criteria include grades in prenursing college courses, standardized preadmission tests, essays, personal interviews, and volunteerism. Literature is reviewed regarding the relationships between admission criteria and success in undergraduate nursing programs. Gaps in the literature and future research needs are described.