China Focus: Chinese male nurses try to challenge gender stereotypes

Male nurses in China are challenging the misconception that the profession is better suited to women.

When an immobilized 180-pound patient needs to be moved to another room, nurses at People's Hospital in Jilin Province know who on the team can help.

Rao Yanwei, 30, is one of three male nurses in the hospital's intensive care unit, or ICU.

"Male nurses are in demand for their strength and flexibility," he told Xinhua on International Nurses Day, which was on Tuesday.p He is quick to point out that physical strength is not their only advantage. Many, himself included, are also equipment experts.

However, being a male nurse in a female-dominated profession isn't always easy. The first challenge Rao had to conquer was the misconceptions of the job.

Rao joined the nursing program at college after failing to secure a place on a clinical medicine course.

He became a nurse in a provincial hospital after graduation in 2007. He was the first of the hospital's 1,200 nurses to be a man. Now there are 23 male nurses.

"At the beginning, my parents were reticent to tell people I was a nurse and they tried to persuaded me to change jobs," Rao said.

Patients were also wary of male nurses. Some went as far as refusing injections from men because of worries they could not do it properly, said Ran Guo, another nurse at the People's Hospital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Men in nursing are often, wrongly, labeled as incompetent or "unmasculine".

"Over the years, I've tried my best to prove to others that I am as caring and compassionate as my female colleagues, and I can offer critical thinking and clinical skills to the profession," Rao said.

His family began changing their attitude seven years ago, when a magnitude 8 earthquake hit Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12.

Rao went to the region to help as part of the medical team sent by the hospital.

"It may be the first time my parents said they felt proud of me after I became a nurse," he said.

Official data released by the health authority showed there were 45,000 registered male nurses in 2012, an increase from 39,000 in 2009.

We are seeing more and more male nurses, but hospitals are still struggling to recruit and retain them, said Lin Yingzhong, head of the People's Hospital of Guangxi, where 5.3 percent of the nurses are men.

"Society needs to adopt a more objective and reasonable attitude toward nursing," said Lin.

He said gender diversity contributes varying thoughts and perspectives, which are meaningful for patients.

"Women can become taxi drivers, police officers or even pilots, why can men not become nurses?" Rao Yanwei asked. Endi