Due to a serious shortage of nurses after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Taiwan Union of Nurses’ Associations has made nine major demands, including allowing male nurses to work as their alternative military service.
Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said that the issues would be discussed with the Department of Conscription Administration.
There are also councilors asking the Taipei Department of Compulsory Military Service to collaborate with Taipei City Hospital to evaluate the feasibility of nursing work as an alternative military service and to seek the central government’s approval.
In view of the threat from China, the old system of one year of military service is to be restored for male conscripts born in and after 1994, replacing the four-month system, starting from Jan. 1 and applicable to standard and alternative military service. At the same time, eligibility for alternative service would be tightened significantly. Only alternative service for family and religious reasons would be retained, and there will be no more alternative service based on specialties, unless the draftee has nursing expertise on top of the family or religious reasons.
The association hopes that male nursing graduates would be automatically eligible for alternative service to avoid their work being interrupted.
However, further considerations are needed.
First, even though the military service period is being extended, it is only to be one year, compared with a minimum of four months currently. There are even some males born before Jan. 1, 1994, who the regulations say have to enter the one-year service period system, although the actual period would only be 11 months after deducting time they spent in military training in high school or university.
It is debatable whether it is necessary to go to great lengths to amend the law just for draftees who are nurses, as the difference might only be seven months of service.
Second, the reason the government changed the law to restrict the conditions for alternative service was to ensure that as many people as possible serve in the military.
If an exception were made for nurses, doctors and pharmacists are likely to make similar demands, which would only add to the confusion.
Nor is there a disciplinary mechanism for nurses who enter alternative service, but remain employed with pay, then resign after completing their military duties.
If the association is correct in its assessment that 11 months of military service would disrupt nursing resources, the police training system is a model worth considering. The government pays for students at police colleges and provides them a generous monthly stipend. After graduating, police students only need 15 days of training at the Chenggong Ling military training camp before starting work, meaning their careers are almost completely uninterrupted.
Should the graduate serve fewer than the required number of years, they must pay back part of what they were given and complete their military service.
As many experts have said, a shortage of care workers has become a “national security issue,” with only about 100,000 men in the industry last year due to the declining birthrate. Therefore, thought should be given to changing the law to have women enter alternative service in which they receive nursing training.
That would inject an additional 100,000 people into the nursing workforce, and it is also consistent with gender equality, while enhancing Taiwan’s mobilization capabilities.
Chao Hsuey-wen is an assistant professor and holds a doctorate in law from Fu Jen Catholic University.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS