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?

对各国卫生从业人员而言，他们面临的最大也是最普遍的问题就是护士短缺。在老龄化的发达国家，护理服务日益供不应求。譬如，英国国民医疗体系的护士岗位空缺高达4万人。欠发达国家则困扰于大量护士移民外流。最便捷的解决方案就是招募更多的男护士，但是似乎被刻意忽略了。通常而言，一个国家的注册护士当中仅有5～10%是男性。男护士怎么这么少?

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.

首先因为护士是“女人的行当”这一观念根深蒂固。南丁格尔于19世纪60年代创立了现代护理原则规范。她也坚持认为男性“粗砺的”双手不适合接触患者、或是为病员伤残的躯体沐浴、更衣。英国皇家护理学院作为护士的职业联盟，在1960年才承认男性护士成员。美国的一些护理学院直到1982年才迫于最高法院裁决的压力开始招收男性。例如“修女”(“sister”，科护士长旧称)或“女总管”(“matron”，护士长旧称)这样的高级护士职称，对招募男护士更是适得其反。毫不意外的，不少上了年纪的老人家也不认同男人居然可以当护士。男护士也常被患者误认为医师。