Abstract: Drawn from a larger study, this article reports the experiences of a group of male nurses regarding the use of intimate physical touch. Using discourse analysis, interview data from 18 male nurses were analysed and related to existing text on men as nurses. The analysis reveals that although touch is important in nursing care, it is problematic for men because discourses have normalised women's use of touch as a caring behaviour and have sexualised men's touch. Participants described their vulnerability, how they protected themselves from risk, and the resulting stress. The complicity of nurses in sexualising men's touch and the neglect of educators in preparing men for providing intimate care are revealed. A paradox emerged whereby the very measures employed to protect both patients and men as nurses exacerbate the perceived risk posed by men carrying out intimate care. The authors suggest that deconstructing and reframing prevailing discourses around nursing, gender, and caring involving touch can help to legitimise men's involvement in physical caring.

Abstract: This nursing study seeks to understand the experience of one group of people with chronic renal failure using renal replacement therapy, Pakeha men living on home haemodialysis. It is based on the assumptions that people living on dialysis have distinctive experiences that are characterised by common concerns reflecting their shared position as subjects of renal illness and therapy. In order to understand the experience of people living on dialysis, this study develops a critical interpretive approach, seeking the participant's own interpretation of their individual experiences. The experiences are then reinterpreted them from a critical standpoint, recognising that they can only be adequately understood by contextualising them. This enables the researcher to discern the common perspective underlying them in contrast to the dominant professional viewpoint in the renal setting. The concerns identified include symptoms from chronic renal failure and dialysis, limitations resulting from the negotiation of the therapeutic regime into their lifestyle, their sense of ongoingness and uncertainty of living on dialysis, and the altered interrelationship between autonomy and dependence inherent in living on dialysis. The study suggests that the individual accounts can be understood as resulting from the interaction of the various dimensions of their own personal social locations, including their gender and ethnicity, with the concerns of client discourse, reflecting their common position as people living on dialysis. The author concludes that one implication of this understanding is that the role of nursing in the renal setting can be articulated as a response to the experience of the person living on dialysis. The nurse can support the renal client in seeking to integrate the requirements of the therapeutic regime into their personal situation.

Abstract: This dissertation came out of the author's wondering why there are still so few men going into nursing especially when the history of nursing reveals that men have been a part of nursing for a long time. In New Zealand it is only since the mid seventies that men have been able to gain the exact same nursing qualifications as their women colleagues. The author notes that men in nursing are still seen as unusual in that they work in a predominantly female occupation and have had their masculinity questioned by the myth that all men in nursing must be gay. There is also the notion that caring is a difficult task for men and is seen by society as a uniquely feminine ability. Both issues are related to dominant notions of masculinity. In addition to this there is currently a crisis in terms of a nursing shortage and it has been suggested that one way to resolve this crisis is to encourage more men into nursing. Thus this exploration as to why there are so few men in nursing is timely. Men who choose nursing as a career risk challenging the traditional roles of their gender stereotype. A comprehensive search of the literature from different disciplines reveals deeper issues than just the commonly held assumption that nursing is not masculine. Exploring the issues of gender with a particular focus on masculinity has uncovered the concept of hegemonic masculinity. This describes how gender is practiced in a way that legitimises patriarchy, reinforcing the dominant position of men over women as well as over other groups of men. It is these patriarchal attitudes that have seen men marginalised within nursing. On the one hand men in nursing could be seen as challenging the current dominant masculine ideal. However, on the other hand men in nursing may not challenge this hegemonic masculinity; instead often supporting the status quo in an effort to maintain their own masculinity. The author suggests that the implication for nursing, if it is to increase the numbers of men in the profession, is to challenge this notion of hegemonic masculinity. This needs to be done appropriately by critically examining this concept rather than by merely replacing one hegemony with another. He goes on to say that it is now time for nursing education to include a critical exploration of gender issues and how it relates to men as part of undergraduate nursing education for both men and women students.