# 'Male Nurses' In Other Countries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2020, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521 "2020-03-15T05:30:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/1 "2020-03-15T05:30:47Z")
Something that has vexed me for some time now. What do they call male nurses in other English-speaking countries? In case you don’t already know, the English word "nurse’ is actually female. Always has been. (Though you have to admit the American English (mis-)usage is more creative.) :):)::):):)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/2 "2020-03-15T05:47:50Z")
In Canada we call them nurses. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/3 "2020-03-15T05:51:03Z")
Krankenbrüder? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/4 "2020-03-15T05:54:21Z")
RN or LPN, or ARNP, MSN, CRNM, etc. if they have an advanced degree. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/5 "2020-03-15T06:46:13Z")
Wiktionary treats neither ‘nurse’ nor its Middle English antecedent as necessarily female. [Middle English borrowed the word ‘norrice/norice’ from Old French](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/norice#Middle_English): [QUOTE=Wiktionary, Middle English] Noun **norice** (plural norices or norice) [ol] [li] A woman employed to take care of one’s children or babies; a nanny.[/li] [ul][li]One employed to breastfeed a child; a wet-nurse.[/li] [li](rare, Christianity) Mary as the caretaker and guardian of Jesus.[/ul][/li] [li]An idea, behaviour or a proponent or proponents of an idea or behaviour that supports something.[/li][li] A man employed to take care of one’s children and educate them.[/li][li] An animal or plant which rears or raises its offspring.[/li][li] (rare) Nourishment, rearing, raising.[/li][li] (rare) One who provides religious sustenance; a proponent of doctrines.[/li][li] (rare) One who is one’s guardianship.[/ol][/li][/QUOTE] > [@Wiktionary](#): > > Noun > **nurse** (plural nurses) > > [ol]li A wet nurse.[/li][li] A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.[/li]They hired a nurse to care for their young boy. > [li] A person trained to provide care for the sick. [/li]The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward. > [li] (figuratively) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.[/li]Eton College has been called “the chief nurse of England’s statesmen”. > [li] (horticulture) A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.[/li][li] (nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.[/li][li] A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.[/li][li] A nurse shark.[/ol][/li]Usage notes > Some speakers consider nurses (medical workers) to be female by default, and thus use “male nurse” to refer to a man doing the same job. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/6 "2020-03-15T06:46:53Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > In case you don’t already know, the English word "nurse’ is actually female. Always has been. The word itself has no gender, like all nouns in English. Traditionally it was customarily assumed that nursing was “women’s work”, hence a hierarchy (in the UK at least) using terminology like “sister” (in charge of nurses on a ward) and “matron” (in charge of all nurses in a hospital). All that in the UK is now, officially at least, replaced by gender-neutral terms. So a nurse is a nurse, whatever may or may not be under their uniform. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/7 "2020-03-15T07:08:28Z")
Hebrew uses the words \*Ach \*and \*Achot \*- literally, “Brother” and “Sister” - for male and female nurses. “Sister” has always been a word for female nurse, probably taken from the Catholic church, nurses being traditionally nuns. “Brother” is obviously a neologism. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/8 "2020-03-15T07:17:13Z")
German’s been trying to de-gender some of the language, which is rather difficult. I have never heard anything other than Krankenschwester, but [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_in_Germany) suggests there is an alternative: > [@](#): > > German-registered nurses are called Gesundheits- und Krankenpfleger (health- and sickness carer). Previously, the official name for a nurse practicing in Germany was Krankenschwester (female) and Krankenpfleger (male). ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/9 "2020-03-15T07:45:15Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > The word itself has no gender, like all nouns in English… This must have come up dozens of times here in the past, but what about widow/widower and actress? The Cambridge Dictionary definitions start with “a man/woman who…” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/10 "2020-03-15T07:48:11Z")
In Spain there have always been _enfermeras_ and _enfermeros_. Yes, always since we started speaking Spanish: the Brother Nurse in all-male schools and monasteries has traditionally been, you know, a _Brother_. Nurses’ offices in my local healthcare center used to be labelled ENFERMERA. At one point, my mother’s doctor was assigned a nurse called Juan Carlos, 6’2" and bearing a full beard. I happened to be there with her on his first day at work. Protocol calls for the nurses to check periodically that the people for the next few appointments are there and take any relevant paperwork. When he came out and asked for the paperwork, one of the older patients exclaimed “oh no, this is wrong! The sign needs to be changed!” There was general agreement: the sing was wrong and must be changed. Signs say ENFERMERÍA now (nursing). ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/11 "2020-03-15T07:54:02Z")
In Japanese, by a 1948 law, all nurses were called 看護婦 kangofu, where the last kanji 婦 means a woman. In 1968, a new law defined male nurses as 看護師 kangoshi, with the last character having the meaning of “expert.” Female nurses were still called kangofu. The law was revised in 2002 for both genders to called kangoshi. My mother is a retired nurse and I learned Japanese while female nurses were still referred to as kangofu. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/12 "2020-03-15T08:43:44Z")
Just to confuse the issue, we have male midwives here in the UK, although less than ½% of the total. Like ‘nurse’ the title ‘midwife’ is now gender-neutral (in theory at least). ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/13 "2020-03-15T11:40:39Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Something that has vexed me for some time now. > > What do they call male nurses in other English-speaking countries? > > In case you don’t already know, the English word "nurse’ is actually female. Always has been. (Though you have to admit the American English (mis-)usage is more creative.) > > :):)::):):)🙂 The same thing they call them in your country: “nurse”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/14 "2020-03-15T12:15:32Z")
**jerez** , English has plenty of words for gendered things or concepts. But with the exception of a handful of pronouns, the words themselves don’t have gender. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/15 "2020-03-15T14:26:14Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > This must have come up dozens of times here in the past, but what about widow/widower and actress? The Cambridge Dictionary definitions start with “a man/woman who…” Since English generally lacks grammatical gender, many English speakers confuse grammatical gender with biological gender. These are two separate things, although they may overlap. “Widow/widower” and “stallion/mare” may refer to specifically male or female humans or animals. But the articles and adjectives used with them are invariant, unlike in languages with grammatical gender. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/16 "2020-03-15T14:34:35Z")
The OP reminds me of that old “joke:” Q. What do you call a female soldier? A. A soldier. Gah, the fight against sexism gets so tiring. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/17 "2020-03-15T14:44:10Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Krankenbrüder? I’d never thought about what nurses are called in non-English speaking places; but my initial thought upon reading the thread title was, ‘I wonder what they’re called in Germany? They can’t possibly be called _Krankenschwestern_.’ So I tried Google Translate. When I type ‘nurses’ it does indeed return _Kranenschwestern_ – specifying that that’s the word for female nurses. It says the word for male nurses is _Krankenpfleger_. _Pfleger_ isn’t a word I learned in high school or college German, so I tried translating _that_. Typing ‘Pfleger’ into the box returned ‘Pfleger’ in the translation. No help. Let’s take off the ‘er’. That came back as ‘care’. So ‘sick-carer’ seems to be German for a male nurse. . ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/18 "2020-03-15T15:06:09Z")
Just noticed this ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_English) entry): _Another manifestation of grammatical gender that continues to function in English is the use of certain nouns to refer specifically to persons or animals of a particular sex: widow/widower, actor/actress, etc._ ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/19 "2020-03-15T15:33:20Z")
In French, “personne” is feminine, but that does not mean a man is not a personne. In Latin, “poeta” is masculine, but a woman may be a poet. Therefore I mean, even if “nurse” _were_ grammatically feminine, what difference would it make? In English nobody assumes a bitch is not a dog or an actress is not an actor, though on the other hand I haven’t heard Elizabeth Regina referred to as King. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521/20 "2020-03-15T16:08:08Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > The OP reminds me of that old “joke:” > > Q. What do you call a female soldier? > > A. A soldier. > Gah, the fight against sexism gets so tiring. Agreed, but we’re discussion what the words are, not what the words should be. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/male-nurses-in-other-countries/849521.md?page=2)