As I was looking around the emergency hall; I noticed a male nurse…A rarely yet growing number of them in Singapore. One of them came up to me to check if all was o.k. His name was Khairy. He introduced himself as the night ‘medical-asiistant ‘on duty. I guess I was skeptical in believing the ‘male species’ could actually replace the ideal ‘female nurse persona’. I believe in gender equality but hey;-Nurses are suppose to be females!!
Abby was resting, and my hubby at 7-11;I asked this poor boy ;-Is it easy being a ‘male nurse’? Instead of a scowl;Khairy gave a laugh and started to chat.This 5 minutes chat gave me a whole new birdseye view on a male-medical assistant delima.Here is Khairy’s (K) story:
It wasn’t easy to convince K’s traditional parents that he wanted to be a ‘male nurse’(K is all MAN,k!!).He loves helping people but being brilliant to enroll in medicine was way out of his league. So he packed his bags and flew off to US as there were ample of medical assistant schools. There were so many programmes from medical assistant training programs to pharmacy dispensary courses. From all the medical assistant programs; he chose to specialize in emergency protocol and suture.
After graduating ,he returned and it was only after a 6 months that he got a posting. Many administrators were not too keen to hire a male attendant infear of patient claiming sexual harassment and etc…He has qualification and sincerity but alas…and that is why everyday is a challenge to prove others that he is as worthy as other female medical assistant…..
