Nurse Practitioner Essay

A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse with an advanced degrees in diagnosing and treating illness. I am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the science of nursing, but I hope to continue my education and receive my doctorate in nursing so I can become a pediatric nurse practitioner. I am a firm believer that both men and women make excellent health care professionals and should be compensated equally if they are doing they same work and have the same level of education. Through my research I have found that there is a wage gap in favor of men in the nursing occupation. Though this wage gap is smaller than the average wage gap, it is still unfair and should be remedied. I have always found nursing to be an interesting career. Nurses …show more content…
The difference between the number of men and women in this occupation is staggering. There are almost 8 women to every man employed as a nurse practitioner. Though the wage gap in this particular occupation is smaller than most wage gaps (91% rather than the average 88%), there is about a 9% difference in the median salary of men and women, with men making more than $161 weekly than women annually. If you look at the weekly median difference between men and women it does not seem like there is a definitive issue, but the wage gap is more obvious on the annual scale with men making more the $8,000 per year than women. I understand why to most the median earnings look unfair, especially when 89% of nurse practitioners are women. Most people would think the gender that makes up the majority of the occupation would make more than 91.7% of what men make as nurse practitioner. I believe this may be due to the possibility that, in the field of registered nurses, I believe the salary is used as an incentive to entice men to pursue nursing as a career. Women make up 88% of the field, meaning men make up 12% of nurses. From experience as a nursing assistant I learned that many men would rather be taken care of by another man, especially when they go through a

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