(BPT) - If you had told me at 16 years old, a recent high school drop-out, that I would one day have a successful career with a C-suite title, I wouldn't have believed you. I spent years struggling to figure out my path - completing my GED, serving in the Army and working as a police officer - until tragedy struck. Following the sudden death of my sister, I knew I wanted to do more with my life and needed a career that provided more opportunity, which is when I turned to nursing.
Despite my previous academic difficulties, I passed the nursing school entrance exam and gained admission, using the $10,000 from my sister's life insurance to earn my associate degree. While becoming a registered nurse might have seemed like an unconventional pivot at the time, given that as recently as 2023 only 12% of registered nurses were male, I absolutely loved it. In my role today as the Chief Nursing Officer at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center in North Houston, I hope to serve as a role model to others, especially men, considering becoming nurses.
Careers in nursing are on the rise, and it remains a very stable and desirable profession, especially in states like Texas that are facing severe nursing shortages. Besides the flexibility and competitive pay, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for registered nurses in the U.S. will grow 6% between 2023 and 2033, faster than the average of other professions.
But we don't just need more nurses; we need a more diverse nursing workforce. Because nurses have more touchpoints with patients than other caregivers, research shows how important it is to have nurses of all ages and identities, as it can narrow disparities and improve patient satisfaction and outcomes. Male nurses play a pivotal role in that diversification, as the gender of a healthcare provider can make a difference. For example, male patients may prefer a male nurse to perform more sensitive procedures or feel more comfortable disclosing personal information to them.
Although the number of male nurses is ten times what it was in the 1970s, the percentage of male nurses and the number of male nursing students have remained stagnant over the past few years. When I speak to high school-age men about nursing, which Nursing.org says is one of the best ways to attract men to the field, I tell them nursing is not just a caring profession. Now, it's a very technical job, particularly in specialties like emergency medicine and surgery.
There seems to be a common misconception that, as a nurse, your track is limited to the traditional clinical setting. While nurses can start practicing with an associate or bachelor's degree, there are paths to go on to a career in education, leadership or advanced clinical practice. For example, I started in infectious diseases before I moved to emergency medicine, and now I'm a chief nursing officer at a Level II Trauma Center. It's up to you to decide how far you want to go, and you can chart your own course. You can benefit from whatever pathway you choose whether you are already a registered nurse looking to move up the professional ladder or considering nursing as a second career.
However, going back to school can understandably seem scary or nearly impossible. I was sure that earning my associate degree would be the end of my formal education, but after managing two emergency departments, I realized creating budgets and hiring staff was difficult to learn on the fly. That led me to Walden University, a top conferrer of nursing master's degrees in the U.S. The online curriculum made it easy to balance my studies with an already full schedule, and allowed me to gain valuable, real-life experience that immediately translated into my work.
Earning my degrees while juggling a full-time job certainly hasn't been easy, but I'm so glad I did. I'm living proof that it's never too late to pursue your passion and successfully make a difference, but I'm certainly not the only person to do so. In fact, the average American will change careers three to seven times over their lifetime. You can achieve great things once you take the first step, and I hope more people, especially men, will take that first step towards a rewarding career in nursing.
John Voight, MSN, RN, NEA-BC is Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center, where he leads a staff of 1,200 nurses. Previously, he served as CNO at HCA Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. He is a graduate of Walden University's College of Nursing.