Helping a patient or family member during a difficult time is the primary satisfaction of being a nurse, according to male nursing students at JCCC.

There are also practical reasons for being a nurse - the potential for good wages, plentiful jobs and career diversity.

Yet males comprise only 5.8 percent of U.S. registered nurses, 7 percent of the nurses in Kansas.

JCCC, in conjunction with the Kansas Board of Regents, is trying to change that with two new Men in Nurses Training programs aimed at male high school students. The first is a nursing orientation summer camp for ninth and 10^th-grade students June 8-11 on the JCCC campus, offered at no charge through grant funding. The second is a males-only certified nurse aide course for young men entering 11^th and 12^th grades June 1-July 20 at JCCC's King's Cove campus. Students who are employed as CNAs by a nursing facility within 12 months of the program can have their tuition reimbursed by their employer.

With CNA certification, students can earn a good salary and find a job right away, according to Jane Zaccardi, director, practical nursing and health occupations, or use the credentials to continue their education as a practical nurse, then as a registered nurse.

"We flat out don't have enough nurses, and we need to have men interested in the profession," said Zaccardi, whose statement is supported by a 2004 report on the American Nursing Association web site predicting 1.1 million job openings in the year 2020. "We are hoping through the Men in Nurses Training program that men will select nursing as their first choice, not as a career change in their 30s or 40s."

John McNally, assistant professor, nursing, took exactly that career path. At age 16, he got a job in his hometown hospital as what was then called an "orderly" and worked part time at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center, Topeka, while earning his bachelor's degree in nursing from Pittsburg State University.

"The orderly positions, now called CNA, were a convenient avenue to earn a paycheck while I was going to school," McNally said.

As an RN, McNally worked at Stormont-Vail and North Kansas City Hospital, earning a master's degree in nursing from the University of Kansas School of Nursing in 1996. In 2000, he decided to add computer skills to his resume and enrolled at JCCC, where he moonlighted in the academic computer lab 30 hours a week. When a nursing faculty position opened at JCCC, he knew it was a good fit for him, especially as health care technology increases.

"In the hospitals where I've worked, there seem to be more males each year," McNally said. "While still a minority on the hospital floors, men are likely to migrate to surgery, radiology and technical areas. My impression is that men in nursing don't face any discrimination."