Hunky nurses pose for pin-up calendar
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BY COLLEEN KENNEY / Lincoln Journal Star
Mr. October is one of the hottest guys in the 2005 calendar.
He wears camouflage pants and a black T-shirt, stretched tight over thick biceps.
He holds a bow and arrow. A quiver hangs from a clip on his belt. A turkey decoy rests near his boots.
According to the calendar, Mr. October loves hunting and sports and once played Division I football — only the second guy to play D-1 ball and graduate with the degree he did. According to the calendar, Mr. October is in one of the state's hottest professions.
He's a nurse.
I love nursing for the knowledge that comes with it. I love learning about anything and everything that has to do with the human body. … The greater the knowledge we as nurses possess, the better quality of care we can deliver.
Another photo shows him wearing the black scrubs of Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center's critical care unit.
Mr. October is former Husker linebacker Tim Miller, 6-foot-2, 220 pounds.
"Being a male nurse," he said, "you do get the stereotypes."
Miller and the other 11 calendar guys love being nurses. They posed for the calendar, put out by the Nebraska Hospital Association, to help get more men into nursing and to show it's a job for a regular guy.
Guys who like to ride ATVs and water ski and lift weights and golf and bow hunt.
"You hear, ‘Oh, that's a girl's job,'" Todd Weldon said. "But that doesn't bother me. And then there's always that sexual connotation — ‘You must be this way instead of that way.'
"And I always get — ‘Are you the doctor?'"
Older women seem especially taken aback, he said, and then usually ask whether he's on his way to becoming a doctor.
Weldon, an acute care and emergency nurse at Community Memorial Hospital in Syracuse, signed calendars Thursday afternoon at Lee Booksellers along with three other guys in the calendar.
Even though it's not yet 2005, he said, calendars already are hanging in the office of his director of nursing, in the lounge and in the front office.
His co-workers are getting a kick out of this.
"The majority of the people I work with, they're like, ‘Oh, Mr. January,'" Weldon said, smiling. "But it's all in good fun. We're one big family."
In one photo, Weldon wears his blue scrubs. In the other, he's sitting on an orange saw horse, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and holding a hammer.
According to the calendar, one of his hobbies is remodeling. He is renovating his family's home in Humboldt.
I love my career choice and can't imagine doing anything else. … I really find great satisfaction knowing I've made a difference in someone's life, especially in a time of need. I can't think of a more rewarding profession.
The Nebraska Hospital Association is using the calendars as a recruiting tool and to raise money for nursing scholarships for both sexes. There's a severe shortage of nurses in the state, the association says.
According to the Nebraska Center for Nursing, there are more than 26,000 Nebraska nurses, but only about 1,100 of them are men.
To apply for the "Nebraska Men in Nursing 2005 Calendar," guys sent in snapshots and responded to the questions: What do you find most rewarding about nursing? Why did you become nurse?
About 65 men applied. A committee selected the 12, representing various areas of nursing, such as anesthesia, pediatrics, burn, flight and emergency.
Excerpts of their responses are in the calendar along with two photos: one of them in their work clothes and the other in the regular-guy clothes they wear while doing their hobbies.
Tom Jeffrey is shown sitting on a bench holding free weights.
Where else do you use high technology, biological, psychological, social and physiological sciences on a daily basis while you reap the rewards of public service?
Jeffrey, an intensive-care nurse at BryanLGH Medical Center East, says nursing is physically demanding. On duty, he probably walks 10 miles a day.
"You'll never be bored in this profession," he said. "And being bedside — that's just very rewarding."
Another big benefit, he said, is the flexible schedule. He's been able to work mostly weekends and nights so he and his wife haven't had to pay for child care.
Miller, the ex-football player, thinks more men are considering the profession.
He said there were only two men in his nursing class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln when he graduated last year. But classes now have as many as eight guys out of about 32 nursing students.
His cousin is a male nurse, he said, and so is his older brother, Bryce, who also played football at Nebraska.
He chuckles.
"We don't like the term ‘male nurse.' But I find myself using it a lot, too."
Reach Colleen Kenney at 473-2655 or ckenney@journalstar.com.
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