The gender specific role of male nurses in Dutch asylums: 1890-1910.

In the Netherlands, mental health nursing evolved within the context of the rise of scientific psychiatry, which emphasized organic origins of mental illness. Psychiatrists introduced new somatic treatments and designed a mental nurse training system which was aimed at creating a nursing staff skilled in somatic care. This created new opportunities for women, while at the same time restricting the role of men in nursing. The position of male nurses was marginalized, both in number and status. The introduction of mental nurse training in the Meerenberg asylum near Amsterdam illustrates the point. The career of male nurse PN Bras reflected the ambivalent experience of male nurses, and exemplified the strong reaction of male nurses against the gendered image of the womanly nurse.