When people ask me "So you're a male nurse?" I say "no, I treat females too". But I know what you're saying. I'm the only male at my LTC facility and the only male in my current rotation in school (trying to be an RN), and my instructors say things sometimes like that. I just make it a point never to say that I'm a male nurse. I am a nurse.
I think that a huge reason nursing is facing the big shortage is that they only actively tap half of the population. My college just opened an EMT to RN program, and they're hoping to increase the number of nursing students they can service, and hoping it'll bring more guys into the field. I think they have the right idea, although I have yet to see a male lecture instructor there. There are a couple of male clinical instructors, so I suppose that's a step in the right direction.
Lastly, I think you're right about the language of this whole situation being important. Language provides a framework for thought and perception. It's like that old riddle about the man who brings his son to the surgeon, and the surgeon says "I can't operate on this boy, he's my son!" and nobody gets it (the surgeon is his mom). That's how people think about the word "nurse". I've heard the term "medic" tossed around, but I think that instead of changing the word for what we mean, we must change the meaning behind the word. Nobody will ever insult me by calling me a nurse. I advertise it like crazy.
Thus, I think that as we are able to bring men into the profession, we will necessarily change the perception of the terminology. At the same time, will men consider nursing a viable career option if even the nursing infrastructure uses gender bias language like "...as women bypass the field..." I don't know. I don't think it's helpful. So maybe we men support a two-pronged approach to this one possible solution to the nursing shortage:
1. We encourage use of language that suggests men as part of the nursing collective, using language to influence our reality.
2. We encourage men to join, regardless of the terminology they hear, explaining our acceptance within the nursing collective in spite of what people say, thus using reality to influence our language.