{"id":27663,"date":"2025-11-07T12:19:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T12:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/27663\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T12:19:06","slug":"pitt-named-one-of-best-schools-for-male-nurses-for-fifth-consecutive-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/27663\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitt named one of best schools for male nurses for fifth consecutive year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pitt\u2019s School of Nursing earned national recognition<\/a> from the Association of Men in Nursing<\/a> as one of the best schools nationwide for male nurses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Male enrollment in the nursing school makes up 12.9% of undergraduates and nearly 15% of graduate students<\/a>. As overall enrollment rises, male nursing students say the growing program<\/a> creates a tight-knit community among their peers through clubs and patient care.<\/p>\n

Scott Kelnhofer, executive director of the Association of Men in Nursing, said reviewers ranked Pitt due to the University\u2019s programs to attract, engage and train male students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey average 15% male student population across their undergraduate and graduate programs and nearly 100% passing NCLEX<\/a> scores,\u201d Kelnhofer said. \u201cThey engage male students through a Men in Nursing Club<\/a> that is active in recruiting and retention efforts within the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

John O\u2019Donnell, senior associate dean for teaching and learning of the nursing school, said he believes the program is one of the best for male students due to the supportive environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that nurses come in all varieties of types of people, that men are a very important aspect of nursing and that men can do nursing and be successful,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell emphasized the curriculum and faculty focus on the students themselves, not their gender identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, we try to have the same exact program presented to both male and female-identifying students, and we want to make sure everyone\u2019s comfortable,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cBut if someone did express discomfort, we would make sure that we helped them out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bryce Presser, a sophomore nursing major, said he was attracted to the program due to the University\u2019s overall diversity and tight nursing community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program as a whole is great and has created a strong sense of community for every person involved,\u201d Presser said. \u201cAs a guy in nursing, it seems intimidating, but everyone in the school welcomes people from different backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presser described stereotyped perceptions of nurses as a challenge he faces within the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge has been the initial perception \u2014 nursing is still often seen as a female-dominated field, so you sometimes feel like you have to prove that you belong,\u201d Presser said. \u201cBut once you get into it, that goes away pretty fast because everyone\u2019s so collaborative and focused on patient care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Holden Swank, a sophomore nursing major, described his experience with the program and club\u00a0 as full of professional opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as Pitt Nursing focuses on academics and course rigor, they really push students to pursue clinical research and open the door to so many in-hospital opportunities,\u201d Swank said.<\/p>\n

In addition to development programs, there are several nursing-specific clubs at Pitt for underrepresented populations within the school, such as the Men in Nursing Club, Black Student Nurses Association<\/a> and Latinx Student Nurses Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Julius Kitutu, faculty advisor of the Men in Nursing Club<\/a>, the club helps position students well for a career in nursing by developing a supportive community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe frequent meetings and support for one another in mentoring and social gatherings has played a big role in making the preparation towards the nursing profession for the male students in the school,\u201d Kitutu said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quinn Eckert, president of the Men in Nursing Club and a senior nursing major, said the club has provided him networking opportunities as well as personal growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been able to network and form relationships with male nursing students and male registered nurses across the country through these opportunities,\u201d Eckert said. \u201cI am [also] surrounded by like-minded individuals, who have within our club who have grown to be some of my best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pitt\u2019s School of Nursing earned national recognition from the Association of Men in Nursing as one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[18071,18072,18073,73,75,74,18074],"class_list":{"0":"post-27663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-men-in-nursing","9":"tag-nursing","10":"tag-pitts-school-of-nursing","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news","14":"tag-school-of-nursing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}