A Qualitative Study to Explore the Male Nursing Student's Coping with Experiences in a Maternal-Newborn Nursing Course.

Nursing today is predominantly a female profession; however, men are reentering the profession in record numbers and challenging the perspective that they are inappropriate in caregiver roles, or incapable of providing compassionate and sensitive care. This study investigated the perceptions and experiences of male nursing students in a maternal-newborn nursing course and their coping strategies in dealing with the clinical rotation role stress. A purposive sample included 11 male nursing students who completed a survey, and 6 out of the 11 participated in individual interviews. Written responses and verbatim audio narratives were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to identify themes that described their perceptions and experiences. The results identified 7 themes, suggesting a need for nurse educators to develop theory-guided instructional strategies to support male nursing students' academic goals, which may be at stake because of the maternity learning environment.