Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: Nursing schools in the state that were once a bastion of women have seen a steady rise in male students.

Challenging stereotypes, these students are not only opting for nursing as a career option, but also becoming successful at it.

The counselling for nursing schools, organised by the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET) on September 24, saw 615 male students turning up for 150 seats.

The state has 1,500 seats and the government has reserved 10 per cent of them for male candidates in all the nursing schools and colleges.

Reservation was introduced in 2008 to encourage male students to pursue the course.

“The decision was taken after the health sector felt a shortage of professional male staff members. In the past four years, the scene has completely changed.

“Not only are males opting for nursing careers, many of them outsmart their female counterparts in terms of marks scored and placements,” said Shakuntala Sahani, deputy director of nursing, DMET.

“In fact, Odia families were reluctant to send their daughters for the nursing profession until a decade ago. Hospitals used to get nurses from the southern states. But times have changed. Today, we find parents accompanying their boys for nursing counselling,” said Sahani.

Male students, too, feel quite comfortable about the career they have chosen.

“I have always believed that people, who strongly feel about caring for others, should take up nursing as a career. Many patients feel at ease to know that there is someone who cares about them and will be there to help them make it through the hard times they are living with. That is what nursing is all about and the caregiver can very well be a male,” said Ankur, a nursing student.

He added that his family and friends had no problems about him choosing nursing as a career.

“In fact, we should stop using the term ‘male nurse’. Why should that be prevalent when we do not use the term ‘female nurse’. Does it really matter if a person is male or female,” said Shailesh, another student.

With more medical institutions coming up, the demand for male nurses in the health industry has seen a steep rise in the past few years.

While female nurses are exclusively needed at labour room and maternity ward, male nurses are needed everywhere, especially in emergency ward, where speed and stamina are required, orthopaedic ward where patients are required to be lifted and the psychiatric ward, where there is a risk of facing violent patients.

While there are 13 nursing colleges in the state offering BSc, there are 48 schools of nursing offering courses in general nursing.

Data available with the authorities stated as many as 645 male students had applied for 150 reserved seats for males in various nursing schools in the state.