At the mention of the word “nurse” in daily life, most of us picture a female. But male nurses also form a significant proportion of the profession in China. Male nurses must live daily with traditional stereotypes that boys are less caring than girls. Asked about the quality of their work, they assert that male nurses can be equally professional, attentive and caring.
Zhang Zhi'en washes his hands before surgery. (Photos: Xinhua)
Nurse Zhang Zhi'en began working in the Second People's Hospital of Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2004. Today Zhang, 39, is head nurse at the hospital in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, East China. In February 2020 he served as a member of an emergency medical team fighting the COVID-19 epidemic in the Hubei Province city of Yichang, about 300 kilometers from Wuhan.
"Whenever I successfully assist an operation, and see the patient leaving the operation room safely, I feel very content." Zhang says.
Liu Xin displays hand-drawn laminated cartoons designed to help ICU patients.
Liu Xin is head nurse of the critical care department of Sichuan Cancer Hospital in Chengdu. On February 2, 2020, Liu, 33, and nine colleagues went to Wuhan to fight the COVID-19 epidemic.
Liu says: "The department of critical care medicine is a well-known ICU [intensive care unit] and we must be extra focused at work."
Li Zuoxiang washes the hair of a newborn.
Li Zhuoxiang, 23, is a nurse in the department of neonatology at the Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Qujing, Yunnan Province. He started working July last year in the hospital and is mainly responsible for assisting doctors in the treatment of newborn babies.
Li says: “Although I am not married yet, I feel like a father-to-be. Children are the bond and future of the family. To save a child is to ignite the hope of a family. To be able to care of these children gives me a special sense of accomplishment.”
Li takes a break in a staff room at the department of neonatology. (Photos: Xinhua)
(Translated by Huo Jiamian, original story from Xinhua)