How male nursing students learn to care

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Qualitative Research
• Phenomenology

Background:

• Current nursing education defines caring as a mutual teacher-student interaction fostering development.
• Caring acquisition in nursing is often described within a female experience context.
• The male student experience of learning to care in nursing remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the lived experiences of male nursing students learning to provide care.
• To understand how male students acquire nursing care competencies.

Main Methods:

• Phenomenological research design.
• In-depth interviews with 20 male nursing students.
• Analysis of participants' experiences in learning to care.

Main Results:

• Male students perceive caring as learnable when 'open to learning', with teachers acting as facilitators.
• Key learning strategies identified: storytelling, modeling, being cared for, 'aha' moments, and observation/practice.
• These interactional strategies are crucial for male nurses' development of caring.

Conclusions:

• Nursing education should acknowledge diverse learning pathways for developing caring skills in male students.
• Facilitating rather than directly teaching caring is essential.
• Further research into gender-specific learning experiences in nursing is warranted.