The University of Iowa’s College of Nursing is shifting its recruiting efforts to try and attract more men to the field. College Dean Melanie Dreher says the state is facing a potential nursing shortage because only the female half of the population is being recruited.The U-of-I Nursing College has 413 undergraduates — and only 31 are male. Dean Dreher says the image has to be changed to make nursing more “gender neutral,” much as the airline industry has done in changing the title of stewardess to flight attendant.Dreher says Iowa will likely be facing a nursing shortage by 2010. One national study predicts the need for an additional 400-thousand nurses.While the U-of-I’s number of males enrolled in the College of Nursing is a little over seven percent, Dreher says that’s above the national average.
