Picture a registered nurse (RN) in your head! No doubt she is personable, professional, and detail-oriented – all the qualities you would want for a healthcare professional taking care of you. But can you envision this nurse as a man? Can you overcome your preconceptions of the stereotype female nurse? Shall the twain between men and nursing ever meet?

A growing shortage of registered nurses (RN) is being recorded in all parts of the country in settings inside hospitals and beyond. The underlying concern is that an insufficient supply of nurses will limit the public’s access to health care. Nursing school leaders, federal and state legislators, health care administrators, and consumer advocacy groups are working together to find solutions to the nursing shortage to ensure that health care delivery is not compromised over the next two decades.