Is It Possible for a Man to be a Nurse or a Woman Doctor in Nigeria?
This question was first posed to me by my JSS 3 daughter. She was curious if boys could become nurses. She appeared to have known that women are nurses because her mother was and still is one.
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When an admissions applicant asked the same question, “Can males become nurses?” I saw an opportunity to write about the quandary.
Not all male hospital officials are doctors.
If you’re familiar with a typical Nigerian addressing a male hospital attendant, you’re likely to hear the latter referred to as Doctor. This is very common in the area.
Attending men in hospitals are commonly referred to as doctors. This is usually because men are portrayed as doctors in our literature and classes.
Similarly, most people refer to every female official in a hospital as a nurse. This is also incorrect. Not every female patient in a hospital is a nurse.
Both men and women can work as doctors or nurses.
This is a direct answer to your question, “can a male become a nurse?”. Yes, a male, like a female, can apply to any nursing school or university that offers Nursing/Nursing Science. After finishing his course, he becomes a nurse, just like every other female nurse you’ve met.
In the same vein, a female admission seeker can look into any universities that offer Medicine and Surgery in the JAMB UTME if she wants to be a doctor. She eventually graduates and becomes a doctor after years of training.
As previously stated, you may have been attended to by a male Nurse or female doctor in the past, but because you are unaware that not every male attending to you is a doctor or every female attending to you is a nurse, you may have misidentified him or her as a doctor/nurse.
Except for the fact that male nurses do not wear gowns like female nurses, male nurses are the same as female nurses. Female nurses, like male nurses, are permitted to wear uniform shirts and trousers.
Male nurses perform the same activities as their female counterparts in terms of training, posting, assignments, limitations, and expectations.
Conclusion
It is a common misconception that men cannot work as nurses. Males work in our hospitals and healthcare facilities with the same responsibilities as their female colleagues and have undergone the same levels of training and recruitment. The same is true for a female doctor.