Correspondent
In her nearly three decades as a professor of nursing at the University of South Carolina Aiken, Maggie Dorsey has noticed a trend she sees as alarming.
"I've seen very few African-American males" studying nursing, said Dr. Dorsey, who has written a book in hopes of getting more children, especially boys, interested in the field.
My Hero, My Dad, The Nurse was released last summer. Lorenzo Williams, an art teacher at Butler High School and a USC Aiken graduate, illustrated the book.
For her doctoral dissertation, which she finished in 2005, Dr. Dorsey researched the lack of black men in nursing.
"I wondered, 'Is this just the picture at USC Aiken?' " said the Augusta resident. "Is the number as small as I thought it was? And it was."
My Hero, My Dad, The Nurse is about a boy named Michael David Daniels, the names of Dr. Dorsey's three adult sons. He is excited about an upcoming career day at his elementary school and begins to think of all the careers open to him.
His father became a nurse in the Army, and Michael thinks he might like to do that.
"There is a large percentage of men in nursing in the military, but in the civilian hospitals you don't have the same numbers," Dr. Dorsey said.
When Michael tells his classmates he would like to be a nurse, the boys make fun of him.
"Many think of nursing and think of Florence Nightingale," she said.
The perception still exists that nursing is a woman's career, she said.
Dr. Dorsey said she has received positive feedback from her book.
She is donating a portion of the book sales to the Maggie Thurmond Dorsey Scholarship for Nursing Studies at USC Aiken. She hopes the first scholarship will be awarded in the spring.
Dr. Dorsey, who is writing a sequel, has read her book at many area public libraries and schools. Her next reading is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at Fort Gordon's Woodworth Consolidated Library.
The book is available at the Curiosity Shop, Aiken; Discovery Center, Edgefield; Paper Whites, Edgefield; and University Hospital Gift Shop, Augusta.
For more information, e-mail Dr. Dorsey at maggied@usca.edu.
Reach Charmain Brackett at charmain.brackett@augustachronicle.com.
