There are 5,000 nurses working in hospitals in Foshan City,
Guangdong Province, but only eight are males. Some patients thus
often face embarrassment when they are in hospital.
A
Mr. Zhang, for example, described how he felt quite uneasy when he
was hospitalized with urinary disease and need to use a urethra.
His nurse was a girl of about twenty, and every time she had to
assist him, the man felt bashful. The female nurse also felt
embarrassed. Mr. Zhang asked, "Why don't they offer a male nurse to
do it?"
Not only do the patients feel inconvenient, but nurses also say
it's beyond their power to do the work. Female nurses also recall
how they have to seek the aid of colleagues if a male patient of
heavy build needs to be turned over in the bed, adding: "It would
be very nice if we had a male nurse here."
Though the patients feel it embarrassing and nurses are in dilemma,
it is still difficult for the hospitals in Foshan to find male
nurses. According to officials from the Foshan Sanitary Bureau,
there are only eight males among 5,000 registered nurses. And they
are all working in mental hospitals, while the nurses in other
hospitals are "nurse grandmas" or "nurse aunts".
According to Foshan Medical College, it trained more than 30 male
nurses in the 1980s, but most of them have gone on to management or
other kinds of work and only a few stay in ward nursing. The
college hasn't been able to recruit any potential male nurses this
year because it could not guarantee their future employment. The
college only has 27 current male students.
Is
it because males hold biased views on the occupation, or does
nursing not need men? According to Mrs. Chen, a head nurse in
Foshan City No.1 People's Hospital, it is caused by traditional
bias. People hold that nursing is just to give an injection and
medicines, which needs patience and care. This job belongs to women
by nature, so how can a male do it? Moreover, the hospitals seldom
take in male nurses for various reasons, which impose restrictions
on their employment.
But the fact is that male nurses are greatly wanted in clinical
departments in hospitals. Wu Dequan, vice president of Foshan
Medical College, said that many nurses in clinical departments are
males in overseas hospital besides their male administrative staff.
The operating rooms, plus the orthopedics and urological
departments in hospitals also need male nurses to distinguish
themselves other than in mental hospitals.
(china.org.cn by Shan Xingmei, July 10, 2002)