認出、認同與應用男性身份：男護士在女人行業中的工作策略

Recognition, Identification, and Manipulation: The Masculine Image as Professional Coping Strategy for Male Nurses in a Predominantly Female Profession

本文以男護士為研究對象，融合符號互動論所主張微觀的工作分析策略，加上女性主義對傳統工作社會學僅以男性的工作為模型、以有酬勞的工作為分析對象的批判，指出男護士藉由與病人及醫護人員互動中，認出、認同與應用男性形象與身份，得以在護理界享優勢。本文是繼徐宗國（2001）應用紮根理論研究法對男護士研究後的進一步探討：我們重新檢視上述二股學術傳統並討論男護士與女同仁有別的醫護關係。
在結論，我們建議護理界可能受限於微觀的工作場景，而忽略了大社會的性別階層如何透過性別刻板印象，造成男、女護士在執行情境管理及與醫師互動上的落差。我們指出，性別因素在兩性工作情境中，運作出對男護士有利的過程與條件。性別在這一個女性行業中是一個隱藏的因素，有待連結到護理界所面對的困境，才有助於我們了解護士的真正工作內容，重新定義什麼是工作。

Through a micro-analysis of the work of male nurses, the present study explores the professional conditions and processes in which male nurses outperform their female counterparts. This study proposes that male nurses recognize, identify with and manipulate their masculine image and identity, and in so doing, find a niche for themselves within a predominantly and stereotypically female profession. We collect and analyze interview data according to the principles of the grounded theory approach with a purpose of seeking previously hidden connections between the obvious and the unacknowledged.
Our research findings suggest that attempts to empower female nurses by enrolling them in self-assertiveness programs in the hopes of balancing out the advantages in nurse-patient and nurse-physician relations that male nurses achieve are ineffective. Gender factors long hidden in the nursing profession indeed play an important role in explaining why the majority of nurses, being female, encounter difficulties and professional predicaments at work. The present study maintains that insights from sociology and feminism can enable nurses to look beyond their day-to-day professional environments and uncover a gender hierarchy that works for the benefit of male nurses at the macro-level of society. Only when and if we come to terms with how these gender factors operate can we solve larger problems inherent in the nursing (and larger medical) professions.