[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the United States, jobs in the healthcare industry are almost always in high demand. In 2018, of the 30 fastest-growing occupations, six of them are in the field of healthcare. These jobs include medical assistants, home health aides, and physicians. The other three jobs all encompass nursing and includes registered nurses, licenses practical nurses, and nursing aides. For years, these types of nursing jobs have been predominantly filled by women. In fact, of the four million nurses in the country, only about 333,500 of them are male.
Despite plenty of opportunity, there certainly seems to be a shortage of nurses wearing men’s scrubs in the country. This isn’t the case, however, in some countries, where male nurses are becoming more common. Here are four countries that have the most male nurses.
1. Saudi Arabia
The highest number of male nurses in the world work in Saudi Arabia. According to the most recent statistics, 32% of the nurses in this country are male. The higher number of male nurses in Saudi Arabia is primarily due to social conditions and the fact that women are not encouraged to become employed.
2. Kenya
In Kenya, recent statistics suggest that nearly 25% of all the nurses in the country are male. Between 2003 and 2012, over a quarter of the country’s student nurses were male. Currently, Kenya has over 60,000 nurses and despite the fact there is a shortage, many countries in Africa, such as Madagascar, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Zambia, and Liberia, are all in desperate need of professional nurses.
3. Israel
Just over 20% of all the nurses in Israel are male. The higher number of male nurses in Israel compared to other countries may be due in part to an academic nursing program in Jerusalem that was launched in 2014. This program was established specifically for Orthodox Jewish men as a way to address the nursing shortage problem in the country.
4. Italy
About 21% of the nurses in Italy are male. As was the case in Israel, this is largely due to the country purposely recruiting male nurses as a way to combat the nursing shortage in the country. In 2007, thanks to the recruiting efforts, 60,000 jobs were secured for male nurses in Italy, and ever since then, there have been a higher number of male nurses.
