A profession traditionally dominated by women is seeing larger amounts of men penetrate the ranks, according to a published report.
Despite only 7 percent of registered nurses being male, the percentage of men certified to hold nursing jobs has increased 3.4 percent to 9.6 percent since 2000, according to The CW33. Joel Hagenswald began making the switch from a paint company in 2005, inspired by his sister being a nurse and his wife wrapping up nursing school.
"I knew there was a nursing shortage when I got into it," he told the news source. "I had looked and extrapolated that number of shortage over the next few years and it's actually just going to continue to climb. The growth of the field, the strength of the field was definitely a deciding factor for me to go into nursing."
There are a number of other reasons why more men are turning to nursing jobs, including lack of opportunity in other careers, the excitement of working in an emergency room and simply that their old jobs were boring, according to the news provider.
For the 10-year period leading up to 2020, registered nurse employment prospects are forecast to grow 26 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.