Nursing: The lesser of two evils

SummaryThe purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and document the motivational factors, supports, and barriers to choosing nursing and to explore the nursing and caring images of male nursing students. The unique context for this study was the merging of the community health officer and nursing curricula, which suddenly brought men enrolled in the former curricula with the all-female nursing student body. The study was carried out with 15 new Turkish male nursing students. Three categories and six themes become apparent. The “choosing” category was expressed in the themes of “guarantee of work” and “nursing: the lesser of two evils”. The “difficulties” category was expressed in the main themes of “bothering” and “teasing and supporting”. The “traditions” category was expressed in the themes of “male nurses: non-traditional”, and “women’s job”. The study sheds light upon the gender-based challenges of socializing these male students into a formerly all-female profession.