The idea that nurses are always female has its origins in Victorian ideas of gender roles, says Martin McNamara, of the Nursing Careers Centre. Florence Nightingale made nursing an acceptable career for middleclass women while the religious orders also made nursing their preserve. But, McNamara, says that if you go back further in time to the 15th and 16th centuries nurses were predominantly men.

At the end of this century, gender is irrelevant when it comes to nursing, he says. Gender stereotypes are outdated and nursing is a career for men and women. However, only 7 per cent of registered nurses in Ireland are male. On the plus side, for men, they are proportionately over-represented at senior level.