Cheng Chi, a male nurse talks to a patient. [Photo by Su Jie/for China Daily]

Embarrassment

In 2002, Li Shen was one of the first four male nursing students to enroll at the college in Hefei. Three years later, he became the first male nurse to be employed by the Hefei First Hospital Group.

"Patients who have been here for some days know I'm a nurse, but it's still embarrassing that new patients often think I'm a doctor. Sometimes, they just don't understand how a man can work as a nurse," he said.

In 2004, during their last year at college, Li and his three male classmates were sent to a local hospital as interns. The experience was frustrating because some of the patients refused to allow them to administer injections and demanded female nurses do the job instead.

Yang Bin has experienced similar embarrassment. He worked as a nurse in a hospital in Shanghai from 2007 until 2011, when he moved to work at the Hefei Binhu Hospital, a branch of the Hefei First Hospital Group, in the city's Baohe district.

"After graduating from a vocational college in Anhui, I went to Shanghai, because I thought people in a developed city would be more open to male nurses. That wasn't always the case," said Yang, who hails from a rural county close to Hefei.

He is now one of two head nurses in the hospital's elderly care department, and the only man among 80 nurses.

Last year, a survey conducted by the Chinese Nursing Association showed that 52.45 percent of the 5,939 male nurses who responded didn't think nursing was a reputable job, while 27 percent said they found it unrewarding.