[anniegetyourgun]

OR and ER are great places for "male nurses" - pretty intense work environment. Aside from the stigma of being a "nurse," these are areas where things can be just as hairy (and more so at times) as being an EMT/Paramedic, which is a predominantly male job category.

But the answer to this problem is simple - change the job title to reflect something other than nurse. (Can't use "tech" because that often suggests lower pay grades within the field of healthcare.) There's just too much history behind nursing tied to women. Even the term "nursing" has an alternate definition - breastfeeding. I believe that both men and women might be more likely to pursue the career if the job title were more gender-neutral.

[pissant]

But then we can't rib the fellers for being male nurses!

[GovernmentShrinker]

Agreed. Why hasn't some male nurse sued over the inherent gender discrimination in the job title? We now have firefighters, letter carriers, flight attendants, chairpersons (or increasingly often, the simpler "chair"), but nurses are still called nurses.