Part of having pride in our profession should be knowing its history.
Read a little and you will find that nursing was not invented by Nightingale—it was reinvented by her. In actuality, both genders were involved in nursing since before it was even called “nursing.”
Caring for wounded soldiers wasn’t a new thing that suddenly occurred in the Crimean war…. Guess who provided care to the wounded soldiers at the time of the crusades and even earlier treating sick pilgrims? Monks and knights who were—gasp!—MEN.
Let’s put this whole “woman’s profession” argument to bed. If anyone needs further convincing, allow me to point you to the orders of the Knights Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights (circa way the heck before certain gender-biased people were born, got jaded and decided that nursing only has room for one gender).
—NursingWhileMale on 3 Male Nurse Myths