U of A nursing students use social media to challenge sexism

A group of nursing students at the University of Alberta are using social media to challenge what they call long-standing sexist stereotypes about their chosen profession.

Samantha Jory, Paige Watson and Jocelyne Loiselle are asking their fellow students to share the negative or hurtful experiences they've had by writing about them on a whiteboard and sharing pictures.

• Sexism in Nursing on Twitter

The three started the campaign when they were assigned to create a social media intervention by their women's and gender studies class.

It didn't take them long to come up with their topic, since sexism related to nursing is "something we see quite regularly," Jory said.

Men in the nursing profession are often called "pussies" and "murses" (short for male nurse), said Watson. They are also often referred to as "male nurses" — an additional level of detail that shouldn't be necessary, she said.

And that sexism goes both ways, said Loiselle. Every time someone implies a man who becomes a nurse has somehow settled or perhaps failed out of medical school, that also makes a statement about the substantially many more women who chose the profession.

"Nursing is seen as not good enough (for men). It's just kind of seen as something that is typical for females to do," she said.

"Like 'you're JUST a nurse," Watson agreed. "We're not JUST nurses."

The trio is hoping that sharing their peers' experiences, as well as some of the daily attitudes encountered by male and female nurses alike, will raise awareness and get people talking about the issue.

"Just to be able to address it in a way that's accessible to everybody, to kind of see it from a personal point from a view from peers who are experiencing these things — it's quite powerful," Watson said.

So far, they say most of the feedback they've been receiving is positive — but all had to laugh when asked why there weren't any men working with them on the project.

"We'd love to hear their voices as well but … there weren't too many men in our women's and gender studies course so the three of us decided to stick together."

Jory said men make up only about six per cent of Canada's nursing population.

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