An ethnographical study on the academic experiences of Chinese male nursing students

Because there have been very few recent studies focusing on the nursing studies of Chinese male learners in Hong Kong, this paper reports some findings on the educational experiences of such students from a local university, giving them a chance to voice out their concerns and express their feelings. In this qualitative ethnographical study, 18 second- to fourth-year male nursing students were recruited by purposive snowball sampling and invited to participate in individual semi-structured interviews for the collecting of data. The taped recordings were transcribed and translated. Following this, five themes were identified for content analysis. The findings of this study suggest that people would be more likely to accept male nurses; and male nursing students would be more able see their role as nurses with the acceptance of some feminine subjects in the nursing curriculum. This study provided male nursing students the chance to express their thoughts and experiences on nursing education, which will suggest further modifications to the curriculum design and implementation.