Men in nursing: their fields of employment, preferred fields of practice, and role strain.

A survey of 367 randomly selected male registered nurses (RNs) revealed that (1) they considered certain fields of nursing (e.g., administration, emergency, or intensive care) to be more congruent with the male sex role than other fields (e.g., general medical, outpatient, or obstetrical nursing); (2) they generally preferred work in more congruent fields, except for administration; (3) over time, they were increasingly employed in more congruent fields; and (4) they did not experience significantly less role strain in the more congruent fields of nursing than in the less congruent fields.