The first-ever male president of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) hopes his presence will help convince more men to consider nursing as a career. “We have to get past our thinking about what's men's work and what's women's work,” says Rob Calnan, a nurse educator and clinician from Victoria.
When he joined the profession 30 years ago, about 2% of Canadian nurses were male. Today men account for about 5% of the total, with Quebec leading the way at 15%.
“We need to make nursing attractive to everyone,” says Calnan, 48. “We never talk about nurse researchers, nurse scientists and so on, and we have to start showing it's a lifelong career with lots of possibilities.”
Calnan, who is married to an emergency care nurse, has recognized those possibilities. After graduating from a hospital-based diploma program, he went on to earn a bachelor's degree in nursing and a master's of education, and focused on critical care nursing in both intensive care and coronary care units. He is now nurse manager for burns, plastic surgery, complex wounds, otolaryngology and urology at the Royal Jubilee Hospital and a teacher at the University of Victoria.
He became the first male president in the 94-year history of the CNA in June. (The CMA has had 3 female presidents in its 135-year history. The first, Dr. Bette Stephenson, was elected in 1974.) During his 2-year tenure, Calnan will focus on the nursing shortage, including the need for increased nursing enrolment. “We are turning down a thousand qualified applicants and then recruiting from other countries,” he says. — Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ
Figure. Rob Calnan: time to make nursing careers more attractive to everyone Photo by: CNA photo