Conclusion-The proportion of men among those in the nursing profession working at hospitals and other medical facilities, not including retirement homes, has, for the most part, remained the same over the past thirty years.
Premise-This is partly shown by the fact that in 1969, 5 percent of the men working at all hospitals and other medical facilities were in the nursing profession, while in 2001 only 5.3 percent of the men working at medical institutions were in the nursing profession.

Please note that the conclusion is about proportion of men among those in the nursing profession working at hospitals and other medical facilities, not including retirement homes

ALWAYS COMPARE APPLES WITH APPLES !!!!!


To evaluate the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1969 and 2001 with regard to which of the following characteristics?


a) The percentage of men working in hospitals and other medical facilities who were not in the nursing profession.-Irrelevant

b) The percentage of men working in hospitals and other medical facilities, including retirement homes, who were in the nursing profession.

Interesting , but we are interested in a DATA POINT relevant to proportion of men among those in the nursing profession working at hospitals and other medical facilities, not including retirement homes

c) The percentage of men who, after passing the licensing examinations required for a nurse practitioner or registered nurse, found employment in the nursing profession.-Irrelevant

d) The percentage of women among those working in hospitals and other medical facilities who were in the nursing profession.

People in nursing profession are either MEN or WOMEN .So, if we know one , we know the proportion of the other.
In other words this option can be stated as The percentage of MEN among those working in hospitals and other medical facilities who were in the nursing profession.

Also, this DATA POINT is relevant to the argument because now we have a common CATEGORY for comparison. The original argument compares percent of the men working at all hospitals and other medical facilities were in the nursing profession, while in 2001 only 5.3 percent of the men working at medical institutions were in the nursing profession.

e) The percentage of women who successfully completed nursing-degree programs.-Irrelevant.

I hope the above helps!!!

I DONOT MIND KUDOS.
_________________

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Key to this is not medical institution etc. Thats just misdirection. Its mainly testing statistics.

Just because %age in two year is same doesnt mean that proportion is same.

For eg: if men are 5% in both year but women are 5% in one year and 50% in other. So proportion of men : women is not same.

if you understood this, you got this question. Kudos if it helped.