Letters to the Editor

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To the editor:

Developing recruitment and retention strategies is an important issue for many hospitals due to the current nursing shortage and the projection for the shortage to increase in the future. The recent research article “Gender and Students’ Vocational Choices in Entering the Field of Nursing” addressed this topic (Zysberg and Berry, July/August, 2005). This study was a new and interesting approach to recruitment and retention of nurses, both male and female. In a profession of predominantly women, it could be particularly helpful to know what draws men into nursing.

The authors concluded that the results indicate partial support that male and female students enter nursing with different motivations. These results may be accurate but could have been influenced by the disparity in the sample sizes. The female sample (n = 136) was nearly 6 times larger than the male sample (n = 24). Equal samples for each group might have resulted in a more conclusive and accurate reflection of the different motivations for entering nursing. Knowing these differences could provide important insight to increase the recruitment and retention of both male and female nurses.