CHILL 28_ March_2024

RESEARCH & INNOVATION

In his research presented during the 60 th Anniversary Graduate Research Symposium hosted by the School for Graduate Studies and Research in March last year, Worrell offered insights into challenges facing male nurses. His topic was “Using Participant Sketches to Explore the Experience of Professional Socialization”. He said although there had been a significant increase in the number of men pursuing careers in nursing over the decades, they remained underrepresented. Using biographical data, participants’ diaries, and interviews, he analysed the work experiences of ten male nursing students operating at the Psychiatric Hospital in Barbados. Many admitted nursing was a last option. Some

Deep-seated sociocultural beliefs and practices appear to be a major stumbling block to Barbados fully utilising a segment of its population that could help address the brain drain of its nurses.

were influenced by family members in the profession who had travelled overseas and were successful. For those nurses, he said, they viewed the profession as a stepping stone to working abroad. He said some participants recalled being ridiculed and being thought of as ‘soft’ for their choice: “Some of the cultural views were, ‘My friends laughed at me.’; ‘We’re only going to last a week.’; ‘Are you actually doing this?’; ‘Can’t you find another job to do?’” They also recounted stereotypical views, disillusionment, dissatisfaction with pay and barriers to further training: “They believe that people still saw nursing as a woman’s job, and they had to navigate that. Sometimes, men in practice were not allowed to go to specialty areas such as neonatal. They were denied certain clinical

Nursing Stigma, Diabetes & Hypertension Feature in Student Research

Wasim Worrell PhD candidate

R esearch has

found that males who enter the profession continue to face societal

stigma and are often ridiculed. The findings of a study by PhD candidate Wasim Worrell of the Cave Hill campus’s Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology have implications for other Caribbean countries that face similar shortages of nurses, like Barbados. The World Bank has estimated that three times the number of English-speaking CARICOM nurses were working abroad than in the region — mostly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

by Carol Williams

In its 2009 report entitled The Nurse Labor and Education Markets in the English-Speaking CARICOM: Issues and Options for Reform , the institution suggested that the gap between demand and supply of nurses will widen by over 7,000 by 2025.

experiences. I also found that even in the terminology, you’d find notes signed by the ward sister and even books referring to nurses as females.” He said the participants’ sketches also provided valuable information about perceptions of the nurses and made it

CHILL NEWS 56

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