Nursing Masculinity: Male Nurses' Experiences through a Co-Cultural Lens

Abstract

Based on the lived experiences of male nurses, this article argues for a nuanced, dynamic, and contextualized understanding of co-culture. In applied context, this understanding means that context-specific changes in patterns of interaction can create more welcoming and satisfying work environments, aiding the reduction of retention-related nursing shortages. In-depth interviews indicate that male nurses experience their presence among nurses and among dominant cultures of masculinity as co-cultural, which limits their participation in the profession from 2 directions. Co-cultural experiences are not related simply to men's numerical minority in nursing but are lived as such because male nurses have to negotiate a sense of otherness that limits free expression of cultural values. Through various communication tactics—emphasizing commonalities, censoring self, and overcompensating (M. Orbe, 1998a)—they strive for assimilation at work and socially. Male nurses in this study also used a previously unidentified accommodation-geared communication tactic—regulating interactions—attempting to transform the dominant occupational culture.

KEYTERMS:

• co-cultural theory
• gender norms
• male nurses
• nursing