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The Oregon center has been deluged with calls from guidance counselors, young men and their parents and older men who are looking for a second career, she said. Guidance counselors who have the poster on their wall tell Burton it still generates more interest and discussion among students than any other promotional material they have received.

Besides the poster and school visits from the nine featured nurses, the Oregon center also has organized a Saturday class for high school boys called "Men in Scrubs," taught by male nurses and nursing students. "We fill every class and there's always a waiting list," Burton said.

The University of Iowa College of Nursing publishes a 10-page booklet, also available online [www.nursing.uiowa.edu], aimed at potential male students. It includes a timeline of the history of men in nursing, testimonials from male nurses and answers to questions like: Will I have to take orders from physicians? What kind of income can I expect as a nurse?

The school also has created a Men in Nursing Mentoring Task Force that plans to use male alumni to promote its programs and to create a support group for male students.

The publication and other promotional materials are aimed at parents as well as potential students, said Kennith Culp, Ph.D., RN, associate professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing in Iowa City, and a member of the task force.

"Parents often actively discourage their sons from going into nursing," Culp said. "I still hear it from my mother and I've been practicing for 20 years."

Samuel Clemmons, RN, diversity coordinator for Caldwell Memorial Hospital in Lenoir, N.C., is working with church leaders in his community to convince African-American parents that nursing is a good career for their sons as well as their daughters.

African-American men are one of the most underrepresented groups in nursing in his rural community, Clemmons said, and the most difficult to recruit.

"They say that they do not see themselves doing this kind of work," Clemmons said. But many in the community are looking for jobs. "We want to be there for them, to make them the offer of a possibility for them to consider."

Many nursing schools are using male students and alumni as recruiters in high schools and middle schools. "The males have always been my best recruiters," said Dani Eveloff, MS, RN, recruitment coordinator for the College of Nursing, University of Nebraska Medical Center. "They're a minority in nursing, and they know it helps if a male talks to another male."

When they talk to potential male nursing students or nurses, many recruiters emphasize career flexibility, technology, excitement and money, as well as the satisfaction of caring for people. "We never used to talk about money in nursing, but that's what interests many men and boys," Eveloff said. She recently amazed her 8- and 10-year-old nephews by telling them that advanced degree nurses could make up to $150,000 a year. "They seemed interested and I know it was because of the money."

Between one-quarter and one-third of nursing students at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center are men, well above the national average of 8.3 percent of nursing school students reported in 2002 by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The university eliminated its pastel-colored recruiting materials and began including photos of male nurses a few years ago, said Renae Schumann, Ph.D., RN, coordinator and assistant professor of acute and continuing care at the university.

"We don't have quotas," she said. "We just have a program that's appealing to men." Many have a degree in another field, she said, and have researched nursing schools extensively. Many told her they were attracted by the university's access to nationally known clinical facilities. Last year, she said, the school had 900 applications for 100 spots.

"The people at UT make men feel very welcome here," said Ruben Herrera, a senior nursing student at the university who has a degree in health care administration and worked as a manager for six years before deciding to become a nurse. "Even in the clinical setting, I haven't felt anything that would make me think twice about my career choice."

Mixed message

Not everyone agrees with all aspects of the new recruitment campaigns. Some find the macho approach a little over the top. Others worry that by emphasizing money, excitement and technology, nursing will attract those who aren't interested in caring for people.

"I personally prefer the Johnson & Johnson approach," said Bruce Wilson, Ph.D., RN, a professor in the department of nursing at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, who has written extensively about the history of men in nursing. The J&J campaign, launched last year, includes profiles of male nurses explaining why they decided to enter the field and why nursing is a great career. "It portrays men in a wide variety of nursing roles," Wilson said. "It doesn't matter whether or not you scuba dive."