從性別平權觀點重建台灣護理專業

Abstract

習慣裡，我們通常稱呼護理人員「小姐」，把醫師叫「先生」，不知不覺間，已經透露出一般民眾對醫護職業角色的性別刻板印象。本文以性別平權觀點解構「護理」的父權社會，並分析我國與「護理專業」議題有關之現況與法律問題，進一步提供建言。 追溯護理史，終於瞭解護理工作問題是性別議題，這種隱性的性別歧視被記錄在過去所有的社會制度中，嚴重影響護理人員個人及其職業；護理史，不僅僅是護理專業發展的歷史，其面向還包含女性在歷史當中的地位、醫學及健康照護中的父權主義、護理人員角色扮演是女性、職業與性別角色的緊密關係、醫護關係即性別關係；而社會對護理人員的刻板期待，以及對護理議題的無感態度，正是反映過去大眾普遍對女性存有的刻板印象。 護理人員受輪值三班制箝制，長期在「白色巨塔」裡勞動，卻沒有相對的合理處遇，彷彿出賣青春的苦勞，長久受護理階級觀念束縛，難以體認到護理專業自主，或只能認命的順從，若結構不革新，任何抗爭不會有效。因此，護理專業更需要以工會為後盾，推動屬於護理自己的「積極平權」措施，朝向擁有護理自主權的理想努力。

Usually, we call nurses “Miss” and doctors “Mister”. This in itself is evidence that gender stereotypes for doctors and nurses exist in the minds of the general public. This article will deconstruct the nursing profession’s patriarchal system with an emphasis on gender, analyze the current situation and legal issues surrounding “nursing” as a career in Taiwan, and provide possible suggestions. Examining the roots and history of nursing and gender discrimination, we have found that gender discrimination is evident throughout the social system. Nurses and their careers were seriously affected not just in terms of the history of the developing nursing profession, but which also includes the status of women in history, the patriarchal nature of the medical and health care systems, and the perception that nursing is a female field. Social expectations, gender stereotypes of nursing, and general apathy towards nursing issues reflect the ingrained stereotypes towards women’s status. Bound by the night shift system, nurses worked long-term in the “White Tower” like laborers without relatively reasonable treatment. Constrained by their low rank in the medical and health care systems, there is still no autonomy in professional nursing where nurses have merely accepted their fate. Without structural reforms, striving actions can achieve nothing. As such, in order to pursue nursing autonomy, professional nursing desperately needs to introduce “affirmative actions” on equal rights with the support of unions.