Nurses are very important in medical care. Whereas according to World Health Organization, the ratio of doctors and nurses in hospitals should be 1:3. Which requires 3 nurses against every doctor. However, the number of nurses in Bangladesh is less than that of doctors. Due to this, patients are deprived of adequate medical care.
Currently there are 1 lakh two thousand 997 doctors in Bangladesh. In contrast, there are only 76 thousand 517 nurses. But there should be 3 lakh eight thousand 991 nurses in ratio of doctors. The shortage of nurses compared to doctors is two lakh 32 thousand 474 people.
Sunday (May 12), International Nurses Day is today. The day is being celebrated in Bangladesh like other countries of the world with the theme ‘our nurses, our future, economic power, foundation of nursing services’.
On the other hand nurses complain that they do not get rank according to their merit. There are thousands of nurses with higher degrees in the country and abroad, including MPH. As per rules, they are supposed to be promoted step by step. But they did not get it. Due to this disparity there is great dissatisfaction among nurses.
In this context, the president of Bangladesh Nurses Association (BNA) Khan Md. Golal Morshed said, the theme of this year’s Nurses Day is our nurses, our future. But the sad fact is that our nurses are not our future. One of the reasons is that all the posts of our Directorate and Council are being forcibly occupied by the administrative cadre officers.
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He said, at the same time, our nurses have not had any promotion for the last 48 years. Entering the senior staff nurse position at the beginning of employment and retiring from the same position at the age of 59 years. Hospital nurses are being attached to all posts in Nursing Departments and Nursing Education Institutions for years without any promotion and posting. Currently, the number of registered nurses and midwives in the country is 95 thousand 168. Among them, 88 thousand nurses and 7 thousand 168 midwives.
He also said that about 44 thousand nurses are working in government service as senior staff nurses. Senior staff nurses of the hospitals in all positions from principals to 70 government nursing institutes are working in the attachment. The Ministry of Public Administration keeps the administrative cadre officers on two to three years attachment to the Nursing Directorate. The most significant aspect is that the nurses are not able to speak about their rights, so some groups are created and divided among the nurses under the leadership of the director general.
After coming to power on December 29, 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina converted eight nursing institutes into nursing colleges to raise the standard of nursing education to international level. Senior Staff Nurses are given second class rank at the entry point. During the 15 years of the current government led by Awami League, 40 thousand nurses have been appointed in hospitals across the country. This initiative is to improve the quality of service in government hospitals.
Nurses complain that a nurse enters the service from the same position and leaves the service. That is, joining the service as a senior staff nurse, most of them have to leave the same position. Although there is good will and sincerity of the state regarding the status of nurses, its implementation is hindered due to various reasons.
AAM/MRM/JIM
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