“You can be any gender and do any job you want. It’s not specific. I didn’t even know how to come at that. At no point did I ever think any nurse had a requirement that you have be female.””

Kiefer Ekvern-Jamme

“You can’t be a nurse when you grow up, that’s only for girls!”

That is what some boys hear when they express a desire to enter the nursing profession. Or if they decide to join ballet, wear a kilt or like unicorns. Kids can be cruel.

Six-year-old Jude Mornson, an Ellsworth Elementary student, came home on Valentine’s Day heartbroken, as did big brother Lennon, 10. Lennon had been teased mercilessly for wearing a kilt to school that day. Jude had warned him not to, as he had been teased before for liking rainbows, unicorns and wearing paint splattered shoes. Lennon didn’t care. He said he’d tell his classmates about his Scottish heritage.

“Our boys are huge fans of history, flags, culture and heritage,” Jessica Mornson said.

On a recent family trip to Mall of America, the boys were excited to visit a store called “Got Kilt!” The two boys and their dad purchased kilts. Lennon wore his proudly around MOA and didn’t get a second look. Then he wore it to school.

“When our boys got home from school, we were so excited to hear about their Valentine’s Day,” Mornson said. “Both boys walked in the door with their heads and shoulders down.”

Lennon had been teased so much for wearing the kilt that he took it off. He was heartbroken. Jude sympathized, as he has been teased for being in dance and wanting to be a nurse.

“Our boys were so sad and our hearts were broken,” Mornson said. “We never thought this would happen in 2023. Our youngest told us about girls picking on him when he wears his paint-splattered shoes that have a shimmer or when he talks about being in ballet or how when he grows up, he wants to be a nurse, just like his mom. He is told by his peers that boys can’t do that … boys can’t dance, boys can’t wear sparkly shoes and boys can’t be a nurse.”

Ellsworth High School Class of 2018 alumnus Kiefer Ekvern-Jamme was told he shouldn’t become a nurse, by classmates and friends, because he’s a man. He ignored them and now has a rewarding career as a nurse at Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire.

“Out of my class of 140, I was the only male who went into nursing,” Ekvern-Jamme said. “A few females did. One went to Rochester and two to Duluth.”

Ekvern-Jamme didn’t grow up wanting to be a nurse. In high school, he worked at Courtesy Auto because he loved wrenching on and tinkering with cars. In his first year of college, he evaluated what he was good at and what he liked.

“I like science, studying the human body, working with people and helping people. That is the one thing I feel like in nursing you can tie everything together,” he said.

He attended Chippewa Valley Technical College as a pre-nursing major, then transitioned to UW-Eau Claire for the Bachelor of Science in nursing program. The more classes he took (anatomy and physiology, microbiology, foundational skills), the more he knew he’d made the right decision.

Jude (left) and Lennon Mornson, students at Ellsworth Elementary School, are joyful kids who enjoy a variety of hobbies. Jude has said he’d like to …

“I had always thought about working in the health-care field,” Ekvern-Jamme said. “My mom always told me I had a knack for this. You should be a doctor, she said. But doctors don’t always get to connect with the patients. The nurses are in the room for hours at a time and really get to have that connection. That’s what I realized in my first year of college. That is what I’m going to have to do if I want to do what I want. That first year, if you want to do what you really like to do, the job is already there.”

Kristen Abbott-Anderson, PhD, Dean of College of Nursing and Health Sciences at UW-Eau Claire, said men comprise 12-13% of nurses nationally. The number is a bit lower at UWEC, at about 10%, but the numbers have been slowly rising the past few years. Historically, the increase is impressive.

“There has been an increase in men in nursing over the past 65 years by 85%,” Abbott-Anderson said. “There are a lot of reasons for that. It’s a growing profession. It’s gaining more and more respect as a discipline. I think men see that as a value, like women do. It’s going to offer a solid career. There’s a wide variety of specialty areas that you could choose to go into.”

Ekvern-Jamme likened nursing to the customer service aspect of a car repair shop.

“Maybe I didn’t like wrenching on the cars as much as I liked talking with the customers and helping them,” he said. “People come in with a problem, they’re usually not happy, you have to help them diagnose and fix the problem, and hopefully they leave happier.

“Working in a repair shop, I’d have to work on cars. I don’t mind it, I just like working on my car. It’s that people aspect that I realized I can combine my enjoyment with the human body and sciences with my love for talking with and communicating with people.”

At CVTC, three other men were in the nursing program with Ekvern-Jamme. At UW-Eau Claire, in a program of 50, he was one of five men.

Abbott-Anderson said in 2018-2019, 8.5% of BSN students at UWEC were men. That number has increased in 2022 by about 2%. In the Doctor or Nursing Practice graduate school program, the number has increased by 3%.

“It’s a little bit of a bump. We hope to see that continue,” she said.

Ekvern-Jamme worked in a patient care assistant role (CNA) at Mayo in Eau Claire, but transitioned to the Navy blue scrubs of an RN on Wednesday, March 1.

“It’s been a long road,” he said. “I got a lot of support from women. From men, they’d ask ‘Why nursing? Isn’t that a predominantly female field?’”

In high school, his female classmates were supportive, but questioned whether it was the right path for him.
“The males were straight up saying ‘Isn’t that mostly for girls? Doctors are supposed to be boys and women are supposed to nurses,’” Ekvern-Jamme recalled. “You can be any gender and do any job you want. It’s not specific. I didn’t even know how to come at that. At no point did I ever think any nurse had a requirement that you have be female.”

Ekvern-Jamme and Abbott-Anderson said diversity in nursing is important because some patients, like men, might prefer to have a male nurse.

“Like some female patients prefer having a female nurse, sometimes out of pure comfort,” Ekvern-Jamme said. “It’s always good to have some males in there for the patients who would feel comfortable having a male nurse.”

Ekvern-Jamme said his parents were supportive of his career path, but his brother gave him a hard time.

“’That’s for girls, what are you doing?’ he’d say,” Ekvern-Jamme said. “But now I’m starting out making more than him (he want to University of Minnesota Duluth for business), I work less days and I really enjoy my job. I can go to any city or town, any clinic or hospital and get a job.”

His advice to the young Jude Mornson’s of the world: “Just do it. Go for it. There’s literally no one stopping you. It’s not about what everyone else wants. It’s about what will make you happy later in life. If nursing is the career you want, it’s a really rewarding career.”

Abbott-Anderson said finding a mentor, even at a young age, is important. It could be someone at school, a nurse in the community, a supportive person in the field.

“Learn about what nurses can do and what opportunities are available and confidently share those,” she said. “I think a lot of people have misconceptions about what nurses do. Many men focus on more high-energy nursing roles, such as in the emergency room, while some are focused on the soft care side of nursing. There are roles that fit all kinds.”

Ekvern-Jamme knows he’s where he’s meant to be. Everything fell into place and he couldn’t be happier.

“There should be more males in nursing. It shouldn’t be a field that people feel is only for females. It should be a field that’s split between males and females and we all have the same goal.”

As for the Mornsons, they will continue to encourage their boys to be whoever they want to be. She encourages other parents to do the same. Children mimic their parents words and actions.

“We never want to see their light put out by their peers or anyone,” Mornson said. “It is sad to know that these opinions still exist. ‘Girls can do anything’ is 100% true and it is 100% true that boys can do anything too! Please teach your kids kindness and remind them that they can do anything, be anything, boy or girl.”