Nurses in Star Trek: The fictional role of the nurse in Star Trek

摘要

Nurses worldwide have striven to establish nursing as a profession, autonomous but complementary to the medical profession. Literature as far back as the Renaissance demonstrates an overall derogatory attitude toward the nurse's role. The modern notion of the nurse working side by side the medical practitioner continues to be overshadowed by the heroic medical doctor. This paper will discuss Christine Chapel and Alyssia Ogawa, who arguably are the only two nurses on board Star Trek's Enterprise, given prominent roles. In various and multiple episodes, their roles reveal a recurrence of the subservient attitude to the medical practitioner. Yet, there seems to be a shift toward a more multi-disciplinarian approach a century later in the ST time-line. The general concept of the nurses' role is similar and parallels real life - a role subsumed by and subservient to the medical doctor.