After Connor Ginley underwent major surgery last year, he found himself re-evaluating his future. Rather than continue his pursuits in the environmental science department, Ginley chose to follow in his mother's footsteps.
He is now in his second year in the School of Nursing.
Ginley is part of a trickle of male students that flows through the Nursing School. The school accounts for less than 3 percent of University undergraduates, and within that small group, there are only five male undergraduates in the traditional nursing program and six in the two-year, second degree curriculum.
For Ginley, the experience has been ideal. In fact, being the only guy in his class hasn't fazed him at all.
"I am a white male from Northern Virginia, so it has been really nice to be a minority here," he said. "I'm an anomaly and professors and administrators love it because there is a huge shortage of nurses, males especially."
Although Ginley is content with his career decision, he can see how other men might feel less comfortable with their choice -- some male students said they felt out of place in the program.
One male Nursing student, who asked not to be named, compared his experience in the Nursing School to "being at a sorority party that I wasn't invited to." He said the environment of almost entirely women can at times feel exclusive.
He also complained about the difficulty of telling friends and acquaintances about his future plans.
"One-on-one it's not such a big deal. People chuckle," the student said. "But in a big group of guys, it's hell."
Director of Undergraduate Studies Judith Sands acknowledges that being a Nursing student can be an isolating situation for young men because the number of males at the undergraduate level remains so small. She said that for an 18-year-old male to commit himself to nursing is quite rare, especially at the University, where many people interested in medicine choose to become doctors.
"It is even hard for girls to make that decision here," Sands said. "But it is most unusual for an 18-year-old guy to make that choice. It is still socially difficult."
Sands said males are more likely to enroll in the Nursing School's two-year program to get a second bachelor's degree. Participants in the program already have earned an undergraduate degree in another field and they decided late in their college experience that they want to be nurses.
Joe Kneller is in his final year in the second degree program and, much like Ginley, has found a community and a path that he says will lead to a rewarding career. Kneller said he has never felt out of place in his primarily female classrooms.
Kneller hopes to work at the University hospital one day, and claims he's received consistent, positive reactions when he's told people about his major.
Ginley, on the other hand, has received more varied responses.
"It's weird because a lot of people see me as this big guy with a beard, so when I tell them, they think I'm kidding," he said. "They equate nursing with women."
This association doesn't bother him, however, and he said such personal comfort with his decision has helped him deal with people who consider nursing strictly women's work.
But he does express frustration with a common question he hears -- "Why don't you want to be a doctor?"
"Now I have this whole spiel," Ginley said. "I grew up with [nursing], and my mom is an awesome person who has always been supportive of my decision, but has never pushed me to follow in her footsteps."
Sands, who also teaches, said her male students can provide valuable alternative viewpoints in her classroom. Although she said she does not usually pay special attention to the men, Sands urges them to speak up in her "Current Issues in Nursing" course.
"The viewpoints and opinions of the guys is really important, so I consciously try to get them involved, not just regarding the issue of men in nursing, but on all issues," she said. "They usually bring a different perspective to discussions."
She also noted it was especially interesting to see non-Nursing male students end up in her classes, such as "Pharmacology." Their reaction, she said, usually is a mix of excitement to be in a class full of women and a feeling of being out of place.
"Watching them land in a class of 60 females is always kind of fun," she said.
With men comprising just 5 to 7 percent of all nurses in the country, according to Sands, it seems likely they would be singled out in the crowd sometimes. She said the faculty has tried to make assimilation easy for men, and that the issue is part of the bigger equation of how to integrate anyone who is different from the mainstream.
"This challenges us to change how we see things," she said, "and I think and hope we are open to [men] being here."
Although she said no male students have come to her with complaints, one male student, who asked not to be identified, said he feels that the academic environment can be intimidating. As an example, he mentioned classes in which jokes were told that he believed degraded men.
Nursing Prof. Emily Drake, who teaches "Introduction to Nursing/The Childbearing Family," said she opens each class with a joke that generally has to do with an aspect of the class.
"I do tell some jokes that are feminist in nature, but a lot of them are related to pregnancy and birth," Drake said. "I try to be politically correct."
She said she has never received complaints about the subject matter of her jokes. The only complaints she's gotten are that her jokes aren't funny.
"People have complained that my jokes are bad," she said.
She said that men have special challenges in a class such as obstetrics, which deals largely with giving birth and female anatomy. But she said men's first clinical experience is rewarding when they find patients often are very receptive to them.
Additionally, female nurses have to deal with male patients, too. "Everyone gets a turn," Drake said.
She also said her obstetrics classes have been a positive experience for many of her male students. In fact, she said, one student expressed interest in becoming a midwife after his hands-on clinical, which would have put him in the smallest of minorities.
Although the Nursing School has no specific guidelines for dealing with male discrimination, Sands believes the students have plenty of resources.
"For any concern, the general policy is that the complaint may enter the system at any level and be heard," she said. "But we generally try to work it out at the point of contact."
Other avenues exist for students to voice potential discomfort, including speaking with an advisor. Sands said clinical experiences, in which male students interact with faculty on an intimate basis, provide both parties the opportunity to discuss issues of possible discomfort, such as how to touch people and how a male nurse might approach a female patient.
Nursing Prof. Richard Steeves, one of the few males on the Nursing faculty, said he considers nursing completely gender neutral.
"I don't draw attention to the fact that I am a male or that males in nursing are different," Steeves said. "I'm actually happy to not talk about it because I think it's something we should be blind to."
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