Attitudes of acceptance toward male registered nurses by female registered nurses in rural and urban settings

This quasi experimental study explored attitudes of acceptance as measured by the Attitude Inventory (AI) toward male registered nurses (MRNs) by female registered nurses (FRNs) in rural and urban settings. The literature reports conflicting findings on whether or not males are accepted in the nursing profession. A randomly selected sample of 105 FRNs completed the study tools. Acceptance of male nurses was found to be normally distributed among the participants; no difference in acceptance existed between rural and urban FRNs; years worked with a male nurse accounted for a significant amount of the variance in acceptance scores; city or town of socialization was not related to acceptance scores while number of employees in the participant's institution was related to acceptance scores. Information generated by this study can be used to develop strategies to increase the acceptance of male nurses by female nurses in the nursing profession.