男護士去哪里了？

ASK health professionals in any country what the biggest problem in their health-care system is and one of the most common answers is the shortage of nurses. In ageing rich countries demand for nursing care is becoming increasingly insatiable. Britain’s National Health Service, for example, has 40,000-odd nurse vacancies. Poor countries struggle with the emigration of nurses for greener pastures. One obvious solution seems neglected: recruit more men. Typically, just 5-10% of nurses registered in a given country are men. Why so few?

對各國衛(wèi)生從業(yè)人員而言，他們面臨的最大也是最普遍的問題就是護士短缺。在老齡化的發(fā)達國家，護理服務日益供不應求。譬如，英國國民醫(yī)療體系的護士崗位空缺高達4萬人。欠發(fā)達國家則困擾于大量護士移民外流。最便捷的解決方案就是招募更多的男護士，但是似乎被刻意忽略了。通常而言，一個國家的注冊護士當中僅有5～10%是男性。男護士怎么這么少?

Views of nursing as a “woman’s job” have deep roots. Florence Nightingale, who established the principles of modern nursing in the 1860s, insisted that men’s “hard and horny” hands were “not fitted to touch, bathe and dress wounded limbs”. In Britain the Royal College of Nursing, the profession’s union, did not even admit men as members until 1960. Some nursing schools in America started admitting men only in 1982, after a Supreme Court ruling forced them to. Senior nurse titles such as “sister” (a ward manager) and “matron” (which in some countries is used for men as well) do not help matters. Unsurprisingly, some older people do not even know that men can be nurses too. Male nurses often encounter patients who assume they are doctors.

首先因為護士是“女人的行當”這一觀念根深蒂固。南丁格爾于19世紀60年代創(chuàng)立了現(xiàn)代護理原則規(guī)范。她也堅持認為男性“粗礪的”雙手不適合接觸患者、或是為病員傷殘的軀體沐浴、更衣。英國皇家護理學院作為護士的職業(yè)聯(lián)盟，在1960年才承認男性護士成員。美國的一些護理學院直到1982年才迫于最高法院裁決的壓力開始招收男性。例如“修女”(“sister”，科護士長舊稱)或“女總管”(“matron”，護士長舊稱)這樣的高級護士職稱，對招募男護士更是適得其反。毫不意外的，不少上了年紀的老人家也不認同男人居然可以當護士。男護士也常被患者誤認為醫(yī)師。