Brief History Of Men In Nursing In North Carolina

Before the 1950s, professional nursing was not welcoming to men. The American Nurses Association did not allow male membership for its first 40 years and the US Army Nurse Corps only began employing male nurses in 1955. Very few men were taught or practiced nursing in the United States or North Carolina before the 1970s. A 1906 report records one male student enrolled at the Fowle Hospital School of Nursing (HSON) in Washington and two at the Wilson Sanitarium SON in Wilson. Mountain Sanitarium SON in Fletcher also accepted male applicants in the early 1900s. Benn Harrison, a graduate of the Angel Brothers HSON in Franklin, was on the nursing registry in Macon County before 1929. The number of men perusing nursing careers increased when nursing education became available in community college and university settings in the 1960s.