Contrary to the common perception that male nurses are a relatively recent phenomenon, men in nursing can be traced to 1600BC. History speaks of military and religious orders such as the Parabalani (“those who disregard their lives”)—a group of men who cared for people with leprosy in Alexandria in AD416, or St Camillus de Lellis, who in AD1535 vowed to care for sick and dying people. The Maltese cross, a symbol of humanitarianism worn by the Knights Hospitaller in 1099, was subsequently adopted by the Nightingale School of Nursing in London.
Brief history of men in nursing
- 250BC:First nursing school in the world started in India. Only men were considered “pure” enough to become nurses
- AD416-18:The Theodosian codes refer to the Parabolani—a group of 500 poor men who cared for the lepers of Alexandria
- 1095:Order of the Brothers of St Anthony founded (merged with the Knights of Malta in 1775) to care for people inflicted with the medieval disease of St Anthony’s fire
- 1099:Knight Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem founded to care for sick and injured pilgrims en route to and from the Holy Land
- 1119:Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem founded
- 1180:Order of the Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit and the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit founded
- 1192:Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, or the Teutonic Knights, founded
- 1334:The Beghards (renamed Alexian Brothers after Saint Alexis in 1469) cared for the poor, the lepers, and the “morons and lunatics” of Europe
- 1535:St John of God began studying under the monks of St Jerome and cared for the ill and mistreated
- 1585:St Camillus de Lellis became a priest and established a religious order, vowing to care for the sick and dying even with danger to his own life
- 1600s–1700s:Protestant reformation led to the closure of monasteries and convents across Europe resulting in a loss of records of organized nursing activity
- 1780s:Nurse James Durham (or Derham) became the first African American in the United States to practise medicine
- 1850–1950s: War began to alter nursing, and the role of men within it
- 1859:Florence Nightingale publishes Notes on Nursing, suggesting “every woman is a nurse”
- 1861–65:American civil war: more women became nurses in civilian life
- 1877:St John Ambulance Association founded (derived from the Knight Hospitallers)
- 1884:The Male Nurses (Temperance) Cooperation founded
- 1892:The Male Nurses Mutual Benefit Association founded
- 1888−1914:Alexian Brothers and other orders built hospitals throughout Chicago, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania. Increasingly, men became nurses at their own social peril, experiencing discrimination, pay inequality, role erosion, and exclusion from formal nurse education
- 1914–18:American men were prohibited from practising in the US Army Nursing Corps
- 1919:The Nurses Act in England barred men from entering the general register. Internationally, men found it difficult to access formal training and where they did, their training was shorter and lacked the curricular content of their female counterparts
- 1937:Society of Registered Male Nurses founded
- 1950s:Men begin to be recognized in nursing in the US, Czechoslovakia, the UK, and towards the 1970s, in Denmark and Sweden
- 1971:American Assembly for Men in Nursing founded
We can help recruit and retain happier, less stressed, more engaged employees, visit SelfCare for HealthCare™. Contact me today to discuss implementing this powerful program at your facility. Interested in LeAnn Thieman’s keynote speaking, training and workshops? Email lthieman@leannthieman.com.
