To narrow down on the literature on your research, could you come up with an example of an accidental civililation, first?

Faranack, Alfredo means a Western civilization. Western is Occidental. Examples are British civilization, Iberian civilization, French civilization, German civilization, etc. Alfredo, you can find references to female nurses as far back as the ancient Greeks and Romans: see Euripides' tragedy "Phaedra," later Romanized by Seneca, Frenchified by Racine, and Hispanicized by Unamuno. The nurse became a stock figure in the classical theatre as a confidant of the tragic protagonist. Nurses actually lactated to feed the babes of wealthy noble families. I really know of no Western literature which depicts male nurses.

Thanks a lot, Nelson. You're right, it is difficult to find information about male nurses in western civilizations.

I bet if you looked, though, Alfredo, you could probably find references to male nurses in war fiction.

There is a lot of information in Nursing history, and Nursing in general.  Walt Whitman, the famous American Author, said he worked as a Nurse during the Civil War.

http://www.aahn.org/gravesites/whitman.html. This Wiki piece might open some other doors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_in_nursing 

Some  useful perspectives can be found in Rafferty AM, Robinson J & Elkan R (Eds)(1997) Nursing History and the Politics of Welfare. London: Routledge

Thanks to you all. Robinson's was very useful to me!

Hi Alfredo

You can also try

Brown, B., Nolan, P., & Crawford, P. (2000). Men in nursing: Ambivalence in care, gender and masculinity. International History of Nursing Journal, 5(3), 4-13.

Harding, T. (2003). Male nurses -- the struggle for acceptance. Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, 9(4), 17-19. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Male+nurses--the+struggle+for+acceptance%3a+nursing+in+New+Zealand+has...-a0114701876 

One of the issues with most historically oriented articles on men in nursing is the fact that many of the examples of men's early contributions to caregiving, were not necessarily carried out under the banner of nursing per se. 

Best wishes

Peter

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Male+nurses--the+struggle+for+acceptance%3a+nursing+in+New+Zealand+has...-a0114701876

Interesting book is 'Say Little Do Much' by Prof Siobhan Nelson, a history of Irish nuns in Australian nursing. I know she has also done research in the area of nursing training sent to China.

also I read a paper re history of male nursing in Mauritius - cant recall author sorry

I thank you so much Bridget, Peter and Brenda.

Alfredo, the original nurses were men as they were identified through the religious orders:  you might find this article helpful in researching some of those religious origings

http://allnurses.com/men-in-nursing/men-in-nursing-96326.html

In the first season of Heroes, I was thrilled to find out the Peter Petrelli was a nurse.

In this line, I think in the West or at least in general male nurses are common in Emergency wards, disaster response teams, etc. That is just my personal opinion since when I apssed my RN license, Disaster and Emergency Response was among my first target for employment although I  eventually ended in a research funding agency.

Anyway, here is a link to a Journal article about Men in Nursing in the US. Some of the sources used were from the 1970s to 1980s

https://www.asrn.org/journal-nursing/374-men-in-nursing.html

I think you will find the literature specific to gender in nursing to be scant to say the least.  I would open your search/queries to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and nursing.  Often these topics are discussed in ways which are closely linked with (or inseparable from) gender.  One article that comes to mind is 'The construction of men who are nurses as gay', Harding, T.  This construction, as you might imagine, is based on assumptions/expectations of gender performance.   

Murray Fisher at the university of Sydney has written on the topic of men in nursing. This may be of interest to you: http://sydney.edu.au/nursing/staff/profiles/murray.fisher.php You may be able to request a copy of his work. Jo