Nurse Education in Practice 15 (2015) 409e414

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Nurse Education in Practice

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Masculinity and nursing care: A narrative analysis of male students0

stories about care
Kristin Jordal a, *, Kristin Heggen b, 1
a
Department of Nursing Science, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 235, 3603 Kongsberg, Norway
b
Institute of Health and Society, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1153 Blindern, NO-0318 Oslo, Norway

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Nursing education programmes and the nursing curriculum have been criticised for presenting an
Accepted 6 May 2015 outdated and feminised description of care, which has had the effect of marginalising men, as well as
hindering a more modern outlook for the profession. This article uses interview-based data from a
Keywords: qualitative study on Norwegian students' experiences in the rst year of training. Using a narrative
Nursing education analysis method, the paper explores how male nursing students use stories to describe care and shows
Men
how their storytelling illustrates a way for men to negotiate their role in a feminised profession. The
Nursing care
paper aims to deepen our understanding of the ways in which male students can challenge this his-
Narratives
torically female profession to broaden itself by including male-based caregiving as part of nursing care. In
addition, the paper highlights the potential of stories and storytelling as a teaching and learning strategy
in nursing education.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction today, the public and professional understanding of nursing care is

Professions are knowledge communities in which the partici-
pants develop a common understanding of the key concepts, the-
ories and methodologies that form the basis of the practice of the
profession (Grimen, 2008). Students are initiated into this com-
munity through education, and develop their identity as pro-
fessionals (Heggen, 2008; Wenger, 1998). Care is a key concept in
nursing education, which contributes to a student's sense of iden-
tity and belonging to the profession (AACN, 2008; Brown, 2011;
Clouder, 2005; Gordon and Nelson, 2005; Rhodes et al., 2011).
The concept of care is at the core of nursing education and
practice, but the understanding of care and the meanings given to
the concept can vary over time and between cultural contexts
(Clouder, 2005; England, 2005; Solbrkke et al., 2012). Historically,
the perception of nursing care was based on the role of a nun, a
virtue script, which denes women as good, kind and self-
sacricing. This concept was used to recruit respectable women
to the profession (Brown et al., 2000; Dufwa, 2006; Gordon and
Nelson, 2005; Moseng, 2012; Svare, 2009). In Western society
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 47 31009297.
E-mail addresses: kristin.jordal@hbv.no (K. Jordal), k.m.heggen@medisin.uio.no
(K. Heggen).
1
Tel.: 47 22845376.
still closely associated with a female caregiving role (Abrahamsen,
2004; Brown et al., 2000; Stanley, 2008, 2012; Svare, 2009). This
gendered understanding of nursing care has been exposed to crit-
icism and debate. It is argued that it sends an archaic and sexist
message, which not only stands in the way of a more modern,
contemporary image of the nursing profession, but also margin-
alises men (Bakken, 2001; Christensen and Knight, 2014; Gordon
and Nelson, 2005; Jorfeldt, 2006).
Although the participation of men in nursing varies among
European countries, in general, males nurses play a minority role in
the profession (Bakken, 2001; Jorfeldt, 2006; Solbrkke et al.,
2012; Svare, 2009). This suggests that men who choose nursing
as a career undergo a socialisation process into a female-dominated
occupation where professional identity is based on a feminised
understanding of nursing care (Abrahamsen, 2004; Brady and
Sherrod, 2003; Gordon and Nelson, 2005; Simpson, 2004).
Approximately 4000 nursing students are admitted at bachelor
degree level each year in Norway, but less than ten percent of this
number are men. Statistics show that the drop-out rate among
male nursing students is higher than among female students
(Svare, 2009; Texmon and Stlen, 2009), a fact that is related to the
socialisation process, role strain, and feelings of isolation and
marginalisation as a minority in the training environment (Brady
and Sherrod, 2003; Brandon and All, 2010; Christensen and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2015.05.002
1471-5953/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
410 K. Jordal, K. Heggen / Nurse Education in Practice 15 (2015) 409e414
Knight, 2014; MacWilliams et al., 2013; Paterson et al., 1996; Stott,
2007). Studies in nursing education also reveal that male students
experience the study programme's perception of care as feminine
(Bakken, 2010; Christensen and Knight, 2014; MacWilliams et al.,
2013; Paterson et al., 1995, 1996). It is therefore suggested that
men's encounter with nursing education can represent a dual
challenge because not only must male students learn to think like
nurses, they also often have to learn to think like women to be
successful (Brady and Sherrod, 2003, p. 159).
The concept of care has proved to be important for identication
with the nursing profession for both male and female students
(MacWilliams et al., 2013; Sellman, 2011; Tveit, 2008). In their
study on male nursing students, Paterson et al. (1995) emphasise
the importance of storytelling as a central strategy for male stu-
dents to learn about nursing care. Accordingly, in this paper, we
apply a narrative approach that is particularly well-suited for a
grasp of the development of self-understanding through the anal-
ysis of participants' stories and storytelling (Bruner, 2004;
Holloway and Freshwater, 2007; Holstein and Gubrium, 2000).
We direct a particular focus on the narrative dynamics that arise at
the intersection of the male students' stories and the profession's
discourse on care. The aim of the study is to describe how male
nursing students use stories to talk about care, and how their sto-
rytelling can be understood as way for men to negotiate their role in
a feminised profession.
The low rate of male participation in nursing gives cause for
concern in the context of the large and growing nursing shortage in
Western society (AACN, 2014; Roksvaag and Texmon, 2012). This
study presents ndings that help shed light on men's identication
with nursing and their encounters with feminine perceptions of
care in the profession. This is important knowledge both for the
recruitment and retention of men in the profession. The ndings
may also help the development of a more contemporary and
appropriate programme and curriculum for nursing education
(Clouder, 2003, 2005; MacWilliams et al., 2013).
Gender perspectives
Considerable development has taken place in the understanding
of gender since the beginning of the last century and up to today.
Gender was previously dened within a biological perspective,
where being born as a man or a woman was perceived as decisive
for what you were or could be (Bondevik and Rustad, 2006; Jorfeldt,
2006; Svare, 2009). This viewpoint is related to what we currently
call an essentialist understanding of gender, where female and
male elements are regarded as given dimensions that set the terms
for gendered ways of behaving in society (Svare, 2009). In today's
social research, gender is to a great extent understood as being
constructed and linked to specic contexts. Gender is thus
perceived as something that is played out, within and between
human beings, in cultural, historical and social frameworks (West
and Zimmerman, 1987). Within this perspective, the relevant un-
derstanding of masculinity will at any given time be mobile and
relationally formed since it varies between cultures, over time in
the same culture, and throughout a person's lifetime (Lorentzen,
2006, p. 126). When we emphasise today how different forms of
masculinity, and femininity, are played out and formed in interac-
tion with society's structural conditions, gender is woven into
active meaning-making and identity-creating work (Solbrkke and
Aarseth, 2006).
Following this line of thought, the professional discourse on care
can be perceived as a structuring element that acquires importance
for how male nursing students identify themselves, as men, with
the profession (Clouder, 2005; Gubrium and Holstein, 2009;
Simpson, 2004).
Care as a gender-constructing power in nursing
In spite of the fact that Norwegian men have gradually reached a
high level of participation in the home arena and in the care of their
own children, the labour market remains one of the most gender-
segregated in the Western world (Solbrkke, 2006). This is re-
ected in the nursing profession in which it is almost only women
who nurse, who teach nursing and who write the textbooks and the
curriculum (Brady and Sherrod, 2003; Jorfeldt, 2006). When a
profession is culturally or historically linked either to masculinity or
femininity to such a strong degree, the occupation can be dened as
sex-typed (Crompton, 1987).
In addition to the profession's own prioritising of the care
concept and the fact that nursing education was for a considerable
time reserved for women (Moseng, 2012; Vike et al., 2002), a
number of other historical social traits have contributed to the
way that Norwegian nursing, in general, and care, in particular,
have become a female domain. Bakken (2001) shows how nursing
became a specically feminine eld based on a traditional
dichotomy-based mind-set, where the nurse is dened as a
woman and the doctor as a man in mutual and complementary
roles. Based on a model taken from the typical home environment,
the doctor constituted a father gure, the nurse was linked to a
maternal role and the patient was seen as a child who needed
care. The feminine, maternal and caring elements were thus
associated with nursing as a traditional female profession. Ac-
cording to Svare (2009), women also draw on a historical and
cultural heritage in the form of practical housewifely competence
and a monopoly of care and strength in interpersonal relation-
ships. This ideal is characterised by the woman who takes care of
the family with her knowledge of hygiene, nutrition and the
ability to care. The woman was thus understood as naturally
suited to care work e including in the public care arena (Kermode,
2006). As Florence Nightingale maintained: every woman is a
nurse (Svare, 2009, p. 43). The nursing occupation was thus
perceived as the professionalisation of inherent qualities that all
women should possess (Jorfeldt, 2006). Following this line of
thought, men will always start with a handicap in nursing pre-
cisely because they are men. Svare conrms this with reference to
a much-cited 1987 quotation from the President of the Norwegian
Nurses Organisation:
Of course I want to welcome more men into the ranks. Never-
theless, there will always be differences between men and
women. The care professions will always be female-dominated,
regardless of development. Women have innate advantages
here which we can do little about (author's translation) (2009, p.
45).
The story of nursing as a feminine profession is also sus-
tained and continued today both through public recruitment
campaigns and the portrayal of the profession in lms and the
media (Dahlborg-Lyckhage, 2009; McLaughlin et al., 2010;
Stanley, 2008, 2012). This outlook was clearly revealed in a
recruitment campaign for Swedish nurses: We need more
women. We need more people. We also need men (Dahlborg-
Lyckhage, 2009, p. 167). In addition to society's portrayal of
the profession, the nursing education syllabus also creates a
picture of nursing and care that has strong feminine connota-
tions (Bakken, 2010; Gordon and Nelson, 2005; Jorfeldt, 2006).
Svare (2009) argues that women thus have power as models for
the profession, and have therefore been able to dene what is
right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad in
nursing e a normative and excluding practice where men are at
risk of falling short.
 K. Jordal, K. Heggen / Nurse Education in Practice 15 (2015) 409e414
Method and analysis
This article forms part of a qualitative study of six female and
three male nursing students' experiences in the Norwegian nursing
education programme. The study's overall design included both
individual interviews at the end of the rst year and eld work
conducted in the students' clinical practice in medical and surgical
departments in the second year of the education programme. This
paper is based on data from the interviews and adopts a narrative
perspective both methodologically and analytically. More specif-
ically, this entails gathering and analysing verbal and written
stories (Creswell, 2013; Gubrium and Holstein, 2009; Holloway and
Freshwater, 2007; Riessman, 2008).
The rst author conducted, recorded and transcribed the in-
depths interviews. Each interview lasted about two hours and
focused on topics linked to the students' backgrounds, their interest
in and perception of the profession, and their experiences from
theoretical courses and specic patient situations in the rst year of
clinical practice. In line with a constructivist framework and a
narrative working method, the rst author used explorative and
open questions to activate and facilitate the students' narrative
resources (Creswell, 2013; Gubrium and Holstein, 2003; Holloway
and Freshwater, 2007). For example, when a student talked about
care in a general way, the rst author might ask: Can you tell me
about an episode from your own life, or from clinical practice,
where you experienced that someone got good care? In this way,
the actual narrative production of the interview was a collaboration
between the researcher and the participants directed by the
research agenda of the study (Gubrium and Holstein, 2003;
Holloway and Freshwater, 2007).
Ethical considerations
The students enrolled voluntarily as participants after nding
out about the study through the university college website. The
study was recommended by the Regional Research Committee and,
in line with the application to the committee, the students who
enrolled in the study received written information about the study
objectives. It was made clear that all data from the study would be
made anonymous. Accordingly, the names in this paper are cti-
tious. However, in a paper with a narrative approach, the extended
use of the participants' stories will always reveal part of the stu-
dents' biography and background. This fact led us to invite the
participants to read the paper during the writing process and to
approve the use of their stories in it (Chase, 2013).
Analytical approach
Relating experience in a narrative form appears to be natural for
human beings and is meaningful for the experience of our identity
(Bruner, 2004; Holstein and Gubrium, 2000; McAdams, 1993). At
the same time, an individual's stories are considered to be very
responsive to cultural, discursive, interpersonal and linguistic in-
uence (Gubrium and Holstein, 2009; Holloway and Freshwater,
2007). Professions such as nursing offer signicant narrative envi-
ronments; Gubrium and Holstein (2009, p. 165) emphasise the
need to identify how work-related resources and orientation shape
narrative accounts. In line with this recommendation, the analytical
work in this paper focuses both on how the students tell their
stories and on what meanings they are up against in the nursing
profession, which is understood as such a narrative environment
(Gubrium and Holstein, 2009). Accordingly, the relationship be-
tween the students' stories about care ea narrative structure with a
specic content, and their storytelling e the activity of telling these
stories to others, is viewed in dynamic association with the
411
narrative surroundings in which the stories are shaped (Creswell,
2013; Gubrium and Holstein, 2009).
The actual analytical work took shape by a repeated reading of
the interview data. This reading focused on the specic ways in
which the men structured and arranged their experiences of good
caregiving into narrative format. The stories of John and Christian
were chosen because of their thematic content and the way they
are structured as fully-formed narratives (Creswell, 2013; Labov,
1997; Riessman, 2008). Their stories have several common traits
in terms of topics discussed and structural features. They reveal
Aha! moments of insight and change and seemingly broaden the
men's understanding of care (Paterson et al., 1995). The narratives
in this paper therefore serve as optimised examples from the
material on the male participants' narration of what they
perceived as good caregiving (Holloway and Freshwater, 2007).
First, we conducted an internal structural analysis focused on the
characters, on what's at stake for whom in the stories, and the
outcome. The initial exploration of the stories also focused on the
developmental structure in the stories, identied as a fully-formed
narrative in six stages: an abstract, orientation with regard to time,
place and characters, a presentation of the story's problem or
crisis, an evaluation, the outcome of the story, and a nal coda
(Labov, 1997).
After this initial analysis, we directed the analytical focus to the
nursing profession as a cultural and discursive context (Gubrium
and Holstein, 2009). The traditional and feminised discourse on
care, as outlined in the introduction, was understood as structuring
narrative circumstances that create specic conditions for how
these nursing students described their masculinity. Qualifying for
any form of professional practice is about identifying oneself with a
particular occupational eld and profession. At the same time,
telling others about oneself as a professional in a particular occu-
pation is closely linked to self-understanding (Gubrium and
Holstein, 2009; Heggen, 2008). Accordingly, the male students'
storytelling is analysed as masculine identication with e and
narrative meaning-making of e nursing as a gendered profession
(Gubrium and Holstein, 2009; Paterson et al., 1995).
Findings
John's story
John is in his early forties, is married and has children who live
at home. After many years as a salesman and in a leadership po-
sition, John went through a crisis that ended with his taking a
severance package and leaving his job. John had to make up his
mind about what he wanted to do in the future and he therefore
reviewed his previous jobs. He found that being with other people
was a common denominator. For a while, John considered
becoming a prison ofcer and worked shifts in psychiatry to accrue
enough credits for admission to the prison ofcer training pro-
gramme. One day, when he was working in a psychiatric institution,
he witnessed an incident that made him change his mind.
I hadn't thought about the professional background of nursing
until I once saw a psychiatric nurse calming down a psychotic
patient. The patient looked completely wild, and several people
were involved. Then along came this nurse called David. He
went up to the patient and held him like this round his shoul-
ders [John demonstrates by holding me round my shoulders]
since that's an action that disarms people. Then he said There's
nothing to worry about and Just calm down. So instead of
being frightened of the patient he managed to turn the whole
situation around. He knew that this psychotic patient was afraid
412 K. Jordal, K. Heggen / Nurse Education in Practice 15 (2015) 409e414
of us all. He quite simply demonstrated care for the patient. So
this was one of the situations that made me want to be a nurse.
Christian's story
Christian is a married man in his late forties. His children had
grown up and Christian had therefore reached a point where he
needed to think carefully about how he wanted to spend the rest of
his working life. He decided that he wanted to work with people in
order to get more in line with his personal values. He is very
motivated for this occupational change and says: It's about having
the drive, the curiosity e like, I'll x this. To put it a bit ippantly: I'll
make a damn good nurse. He then explores what being a damn
good nurse really means by talking about the male contact nurse
he had for his practice period in a nursing home in the rst year of
his training:
He put things right for all kinds of patients e dementia patients
and somatic patients. The approach he had towards them. [He
had] a calming effect on the aggressive patients. He was what I
would call an incredibly good all-round nurse, while at the same
time he was professionally competent medically. Once there
was a female patient who had very bad dementia, she started to
get very aggressive, shouting abuse at the staff and the relatives.
Some of them tried to restrain her, but she hit them and was
absolutely desperate. He [Christian's contact nurse] came to the
rescue and calmed her down. She was crying and she was so
distressed e she saw the devil in she was very ill. He really
took his time, even though he was up to his neck in work. He
gave the situation priority. He calmed things down. He crouched
in front of her, held her hands e the closeness, met her gaze, she
realised who he was. So he made her feel that There's nothing to
worry about, this is quite OK without telling her off, but quite
simply: You can be angry. It's OK. He appealed to her healthy
side. He got her out of a difcult situation, pampered her a bit
with blankets and he made her warm tea. It was great to
watch him; it was really touching to see how he brought her
back to normal. It was wonderful e in my eyes he was a damn
good nurse.
John and Christian's stories start with an introduction that links
them to the specic interview situation. They then develop their
stories by introducing the main characters and the situation in
which they nd themselves. A male nurse is the main character in
both stories. In narrative theory, this character is the protagonist
(Frank, 2010). The main character of each story nds himself in an
unstable and chaotic situation where the other staff have not
managed to resolve the problems that have arisen. These male
nurses are thus recognised by the students as having the particular
skills of involvement and strength to calm and contain the situa-
tion. In our narrative perspective, they can be understood as sav-
iours and heroes in the story, literary-inspired characters who are
come to the rescue where others fall short (Frank, 2010). The pa-
tients in each story, the stories' antagonists, are described respec-
tively as completely wild, psychotic, so distressed and
absolutely desperate, which make us understand that these situ-
ations are very demanding. The patient is thus a challenger who
through his or her way of behaving pushes the incident in the story
to a decisive point e a climax where it can swing either one way or
the other for the male nurses. The suspense is linked to whether
they will manage to do what is necessary to save the situation and
the patient (Frank, 2010). We note that both nurses are efcient and
establish contact with the uncontrolled patients by holding them e
holding their hands or putting their arms round their shoulders e
showing connection and engagement skills. The male nurses
contain the situation almost as if they are absorbing the patients'
chaos and loss of control, while at the same time they make the
stories' only statement: There's nothing to worry about. In this
way, these male nurses grasp the difcult situation while they also
dene it. The two stories have a common basic theme and a line of
development that can be summarised as follows. A helpless or sick
person needs help. Those present are not able to help. An effective
male nurse understands the situation, takes action and does what is
required to resolve the problem. In narrative analysis, this type of
pattern is called the story's plot and it is in the plot that we discover
what the story is fundamentally about and what is at stake in the
situation (Frank, 2010; Gubrium and Holstein, 2009). In these
stories, the inherent risks are fear, helplessness and loss of control,
provided by a strong other who is able to convey concern and
connection. The stories of John and Christian emphasise how the
male nurse understands the actual situation, grasps the problem
and nds a solution. The result can be success or asco. In these
stories the situation is resolved. In a sense we can view them as
success stories that the two male students use to underline what
good nursing care actually is.
When we turn the analytic focus to nursing as the narrative
environment in which John and Christian tell their stories about
care, we enter a specic, professional and discursive arena where
care is portrayed as feminised, physical, all-encompassing and
emotional, based on altruism, compassion and inherent female
qualities (Gordon and Nelson, 2005; Svare, 2009; Vike et al., 2002,
p. 119). These stereotyped, heartfelt and feminine bodily percep-
tions of care are what John and Christian are up against as male
nursing students.
According to Connell (1995), hegemonic masculinity is the
dominant and culturally-accepted way of being male in a society.
This expression of masculinity is understood as hierarchically su-
perior and directly opposed to femininity and homosexuality
(Lorentzen, 2006).
Svare (2009) describes how the masculine element in society is
also linked to exceeding limits and to the ability to change and
develop, along with archetypal portrayals of man as a hero who is
willing to take risks in the battle against all types of enemies.
Following this line of thought, we can see how the main characters
in the men's stories, with their resolute and rm intervention in a
difcult situation, create alternative descriptions of care. This be-
comes clear when all-round nurses give priority to the situation,
come to the rescue, understand and put things right for all kinds
of patients. They disarm conicts and thereby get the patients out
of a difcult situation. In this way, the male nurses in the stories
intervene, dene and resolve a challenging situation that nobody
else appears to be able to cope with. They thus act out a culturally
accepted and hegemonic masculinity that is associated with
strength, power and dominance in the situation (Connell, 1995).
When care is linked to this type of vigorous action, these male
students do what we regard as practice-related and active mascu-
linisation work, which also negotiates and stretches the under-
standing and perspectives of nursing care to include male
caregiving. When their stories e the way in which they structure
the plot and present the characters e are analysed in relationship to
their narrative circumstances, we nd that the storytelling can be
interpreted as giving them space as men in a gendered profession
such as nursing. Nonetheless, we also recognise the traditional
discourse on care when the story's male nurses create closeness
and pamper patients. Care is thus interpreted by John and Christian
as not only associated with hegemonic masculine features such as
capacity, insight, decisiveness and action, but also with empathy
and closeness. These men thus narrate their stories about care as a
negotiation, both within and outside traditional masculine roles
 K. Jordal, K. Heggen / Nurse Education in Practice 15 (2015) 409e414
and the prevailing nursing discourse on care. As we see it, the
story's content and structure, as well as the work the story does for
them, can be linked to the strategies that men, according to
Simpson, use to bring the job more in line with dominant notions
of masculinity (Simpson, 2004, p. 359). At the same time, the
stories serve as part of their identication with the profession. The
two men's stories about care, perceived as masculinity at work
(Simpson, 2004), can thus contribute to highlighting and directing
focus towards how men experience, talk about, learn and perform
nursing care.
Discussion
All professional elds mediate a value perception of what is
right, appropriate and desirable in contrast to what is perceived as
wrong, inappropriate and immoral (Jensen and Tveit, 2005). Hence,
when care e as a key value of the nursing profession e is closely
linked to an outdated perception of women's nature, while also
being communicated in stereotyped ways, it is problematic for
several reasons.
First, the traditional discourse on care has been shown to
exclude men and to push them out of the education programme
and the profession (MacWilliams et al., 2013; Paterson et al., 1996;
Stott, 2004, 2007). This is particularly worrying in the light of the
huge recruitment challenges that the entire nursing profession
faces in its encounter with a large and rapidly-growing need for
labour in the health sector (AACN, 2014; Roksvaag and Texmon,
2012). Studies show that male students experience alienation in
their encounters with a professional eld described as no man's
land (Bakken, 2001; Christensen and Knight, 2014; MacWilliams
et al., 2013). John and Christian's stories are examples of how
such stories can serve as carriers of men's experience. As we see it,
these stories have the potential to give male students space as men
in the nursing education programme. Men, as a minority, lack such
masculine narratives to help them identify with the profession as
well as to recognise and learn about nursing care (MacWilliams
et al., 2013). Paterson et al. (1995) found that storytelling was a
key learning strategy among male students who actively sought
narratives to determine the meaning of what it is to care as a nurse.
The stories told by John and Christian are therefore in no way
unique: these stories exist as part of men's tellable material
(Gubrium and Holstein, 2009, p. 42). However, they are stories that
do not often come to the surface in the nursing education pro-
gramme, in the curriculum or the proling of the nursing
profession.
Secondly, the normative and traditional portrayal of nursing
care can be said to trivialise and sentimentalise the profession. It
stands in the way of updated and empirical descriptions of care
understood as a complex nursing skill (Gordon and Nelson, 2005;
Rhodes et al., 2011). We are of the view that stories such as those
told by John and Christian stretch the understanding of nursing
care and give it new perspectives. This is a useful contribution
when seen in relation to the ongoing debate on how nursing ed-
ucation programmes and the curriculum should be renewed
(Benner, 2010; Frenk et al., 2010). These stories can therefore be
understood both as a masculine contribution to a feminised pro-
fession and as an example that highlights the need for a much
greater variety and diversity in the way nursing care is conveyed in
the curriculum.
Finally, we are of the view that the nursing education pro-
gramme needs to take into account, to a much greater extent, the
complex and diverse meaning-making and identication processes
that all students go through when choosing the profession and
undertaking their professional education (Heggen, 2008; Sandvik
et al., 2014; Wenger, 1998). As we have discussed in this paper,
413
stories have the capacity to link the students' own experiences with
the theoretical content of the programme and are thereby key to
critical reection on nursing theory and practice (Gubrium and
Holstein, 2009; Hunter, 2008; Paterson et al., 1995). This is
emphasised by Hunter, who argues:
For nurses, telling and listening to stories related to health and
illness provide a vital means through which human experiences
can be honored, as well as facilitate the integration of the
essential patterns of knowing that are crucial to understanding
the whole of nursing care (2008, p. 1).
As a result, we believe helping students to share their own
stories e as well as to read, interpret and discuss a variety of
updated curriculum stories e has huge potential for nursing edu-
cation (Benner, 2010; Holloway and Freshwater, 2007; Hunter,
2008; Paterson et al., 1995).
Conclusion
In this study, we analysed two male nursing students' stories
about care in light of the profession's feminised and stereotyped
discourse of care. We analysed the stories as a masculinisation of
the care concept that gave the students space as men. The stories
also serve as examples that highlight the need for updating the
nursing curriculum. In summary, we are of the opinion that the
renewal of the nursing programme must involve a teaching strat-
egy that involves students telling their own stories, as well as
developing a contemporary curriculum that offers diverse,
experience-based stories about care to which today's youth can
relate. The overall objective must be for nursing to become a story
that young people can identify with and want to be part of e
regardless of class, ethnicity, religion or gender.
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