Backbone of healthcare : Nurses want respect, recognition and reward

Say overcoming shortage of nurses requires doing away with negative image of the profession

ISLAMABAD: Nurses play a vital role in the healthcare industry, providing care to patients and filling leadership roles at hospitals and the health system.

But being a nurse is not without challenges.

It is a demanding profession that requires a lot of dedication and commitment.

This dedication and commitment is equally stymied by workplace harassment, inequitable assignments, long working hours, workplace hazards etc associated with the profession, resulting in paucity of nurses at both government and private hospitals.

According to an estimate, there is a shortage of more than 1.5 million nurses in the country.

“The actual number of nurses in Pakistan is unknown, and the current number is far below what should be the ideal strength at hospitals,” Shifa International Hospital (SIH) Acting Chief of Nurses Raisa Kausar said, while talking to The Express Tribune.

According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2015-2016, the number of registered doctors in the country is 175,223 and dentists 15,106, while the number of nurses and qualified health visitors is 90,276 and 15,325 respectively.

This way, one doctor is available for 1,073 patients and one dentist for 12,447, while only one nurse is available for over 1,900 patients.

“We have 615 nursing staff, of them 73 nurses remain on leave due to their specialised degrees, while we need 1,200 nurses at the hospital and the shortage compromises healthcare service,” Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Chief Nursing Superintendent Farzana Islam said.

“Although nurses are paid better than teachers, the profession is considered more challenging and daunting,” Kausar said, adding that Pakistan was one of the very few countries in the world that had 1:67 nurses-to-doctors ratio, which affected the healthcare service.

“The reasons behind extreme shortage of nurses in Pakistan is complex, but the situation cannot improve unless their work is recognised, and they are respected,” the SIH Director Nursing Education Nuzhat Sultan said, adding various socio-cultural taboos including “inauspicious” image associated with the profession were responsible for dearth of nurses in the country as people especially women reluctantly adopt the profession.

“The negative public perception of nurses, mixing of nurses with opposite sex, lack of recognition from health professionals, low salaries, unsafe work environment and negative portrayal of nurses in the media is one of the reasons people in Muslim countries shy away from adopting the profession,” she said.

“Sometime doctors do not consider nurses as their coworkers, and they often shout at them,” Kausar said, adding in Pakistan it was difficult to overcome the vicious cycle of nursing shortage without doing away with the negative image of the profession.

Kausar said that nurses’ harassment at work has considerably been addressed at government hospitals but they still get threats from public and patients’ attendants.

Nurses said that they remain constantly exposed to health hazards, while doing their jobs, work long hours and endure emotional stress, their works hardly gets recognised.

“Nursing in Pakistan comprises three cadres: general nursing, midwifery and public health nursing. The predominant mode of nursing education, whether in the public or the private sector, is characterised by three years of diploma in general nursing, whereas a few schools offer a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree,” Pims Deputy Chief Superintendent Zafar Iqbal Channa, said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2016.