譯/李京倫
Jake Creviston, a nurse practitioner, has been repeatedly mistaken for a doctor.
Adam White says the veterans he cares for as a student nurse at the VA hospital feel comfortable around him because "I'm a big burly guy with a beard."
執業護理師克雷維斯登常被誤認為醫生。
懷特說,他在退伍軍人醫院擔任實習護理師,他照顧的老兵看到他都覺得很自在,因為「我高大魁梧,還有鬍子」。
Glenn Fletcher, after being laid off from a lumber mill during the financial crisis, found a new career in nursing. And with it, "a really good feeling putting your head on the pillow realizing you've helped other people."
The experiences of male nurses offer lessons that could help address a problem of our time: how to prepare workers for the fastest-growing jobs, at a time when more than a quarter of men are not in the labor force.
弗萊徹在金融危機時期被鋸木廠裁員,後來在護理業覓得職涯第二春,而他說,從事這一行,「你會體認到你幫到了人,帶著很棒的心情入睡」。
男護理師的經驗給我們上了一課,或許有助於因應我們這個時代的一個問題:在超過25%男性待業的此際,如何培訓勞工從事這需求成長最快速的工作。
Only 13 percent of nurses in the United States are men, but that share has grown steadily since 1960, when the number was 2 percent, according to a working paper published in October by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
"It's not a flood, but it's a change," said Abigail Wozniak, an economist at the University of Notre Dame, who wrote the paper with Elizabeth Munnich, an economist at the University of Louisville. The biggest drivers, they found, were the changing economy and expanding gender roles.
美國僅13%護理師是男性,不過,智庫「華盛頓公平成長中心」去年10月發布的工作報告顯示,1960年這個比率是2%,此後即穩定成長。
美國聖母大學經濟學者沃茲尼亞克說:「這不是像洪水一樣的劇變,但確實有改變。」他與路易斯維爾大學經濟學者伊麗莎白.穆尼克合寫這份報告。他們發現,最大的原因是經濟改變和性別角色擴展。
We talked to a dozen male nurses, with various career paths and specialties, working in the Pacific Northwest, where recruitment efforts have focused on bringing men into nursing. Some were drawn to the caregiving, others to the adrenaline of the work. It's a reliable, well-paying job at a time when that's hard to come by, they said, but also one they feel proud of.
Women have been entering male-dominated fields for decades, but it's less common for a predominantly female occupation to have a substantial increase in its share of men. Yet the jobs that are shrinking tend to be male ones, and those that are growing are mostly female.
我們訪問了12名男護理師,每個人的職業道路和專長各不相同,但都在美國西北部工作,這個區域致力於招募男性從事護理業。有些人因為喜歡護理工作而走上此途,另一些人則是看上這份工作夠刺激。他們說,護理這一行工作穩定薪酬又高 ,現在這種工作可不好找,不過他們同時也以當護理師為榮。
女性進入男性主宰的工作領域已有數十年之久,但在女性主宰的領域,男性占比顯著增加則較不常見。不過,數量萎縮的通常是男性的職缺,成長的則大多是女性的職缺。
Nursing is no paragon of gender equality: Even though men are a minority in the field, they are paid more than women. The stigma against men still runs deep, particularly among older patients and in parts of the country with more traditional gender roles, nurses said. (Several said the movie "Meet the Parents," in which Ben Stiller played a nurse whose girlfriend's father wasn't thrilled about his career, didn't help.)
But for some men, the notion that caregiving jobs are women's work is outdated. Progressive attitudes about gender roles, as measured by the General Social Survey, were associated with more men who entered nursing, the new paper found.
護理這一行並不是性別平等的典範:雖然男性在這領域占少數,薪水卻仍高於女性。護理師們說,對於男護理師的汙名化仍然很嚴重,尤其在年紀較大的病患間和在美國部分較執著於傳統性別角色的地區。(其中有些人說,在電影「門當父不對」中,班史提勒飾演男護理師,女友的父親對他的職業不滿意,這部電影也沒幫上忙。)
不過,對一些男性而言,護理工作是女性專利的想法已經過時了。美國最新的「社會概況調查」顯示,對性別角色態度的進步,與更多男性從事護理工作有關。
說文解字看新聞
文/李京倫
本文談的是美國對男護理師的需求成長迅速。在台灣,護士和護理師都是經過國家考試取得證照的專業人士,差別只在學歷,護士(licensed practical nurse)是高職畢業,護理師(registered nurse)為大專畢業。
立法院1月通過勞動基準法(the Labor Standards Act)修正案,規定在特殊情況下,輪班間隔(rest time between shifts)可從至少11小時縮短為8小時,引發護理基層反彈,十多個護理師產業工會到衛福部抗議,要衛福部別當「血汗幫凶」(an accomplice of blood-and-sweat working conditions)。衛福部則表示,護理人員仍以維持11小時輪班間隔為主,只有在發生重大災害、突發事故及嚴重疫情時,才可透過勞資協商(labor-management negotiations)將輪班間隔縮短為8小時。
美國護理師的「薪情」有多好?
根據凱澤健康新聞網2016年的報導,美國護理師平均年薪為7萬1000美元(約台幣207萬元),加州最高,平均10萬美元(約台幣291萬元),生活費高昂、對護理師需求大和工會強而有力是主因。1999年,加州立法規定醫院的護病比(nurse-to-patient ratio),也就是平均每個護理人員照顧病人的數量,就算車禍或嚴重疫情導致病患暴增,醫院仍須遵守法定的護病比,大大推升了對護理師的需求。