The nursing profession in the fictional Star Trek future

Abstract

Since time immemorial, nurses worldwide have striven to establish nursing as a profession, autonomous but complementary with the medical profession. Although major strides have been achieved in the last three decades, fiction continues to show that the nurse is still a fiddle in the middle, subsumed by the doctor, blindly obeying orders and serving as liaison between medic and patient. A brief overview of literature across periods as far back as the Renaissance demonstrates an overall derogatory attitude toward the nurse’s role. While the extremist position of the nurse as witch, sorcerer and evil has been abandoned, it has been replaced by the Florence Nightingale image, a primary caregiver to the sick with a predominantly subservient role. The modern notion of the nurse working side by side with the medical practitioner in highly stressful and technical environments, with the ultimate goal to save lives, continues to be overshadowed by the heroic medical doctor. Even in science fiction (SF) literature, a genre considered avant-garde in its line of thought, the role of the nurse has never been given its proper place. Indeed, several SF book series concentrate exclusively on doctors, with the medical practitioner in question carrying out multiple roles of doctor, nurse researcher, engineer and even technician. In the televisions series, Star Trek (ST), the recurrently submissive role of the nurse is also very palpable. An American SF entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry that first debuted in 1966, ST has become a “cult phenomenon”. ST has been acclaimed for prefiguring numerous innovative technological inventions, such as the cell phone. It has also been praised for progressive civil rights attitudes. The original series included a multi-racial cast and was hailed for pioneering and defending feminist rights while promoting equality amongst the mixed gender cast (Italie). However, the sad truth is otherwise for the nursing roles enacted. For example, most of the nursing cast are only mentioned as missing in the Dominion War in Deep Space 9. Others, such as Bandee (Posey), Jabara (Badiyi) and Hortak (Brooks) make fleeting appearances showing in just one episode. These three nurses appeared in Deep Space Nine and served as medical assistants under Dr Julian Bashir (Berman and Piller). Only Christine Chapel and Alyssia Ogawa were given prominence as nurses on board the Enterprise and their role will be examined in more detail.