Hard-working and vocational, nurses around the world – including India – have been working relentlessly to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 12th of May is celebrated as “International Nurses Day” to honour the birth of Florence Nightingale, the English nurse, social reformer and statistician who is known to have set the key framework of modern nursing. On this day, countries around the world express their gratitude to the nursing staff at hospitals, clinics and homes for their noble work.
Talking to Sputnik, nurses from different parts of India said that they’d rather they were appreciated with financial stability, health insurance and timely remuneration, than “empty wishes” from leaders.
The nursing student, waiting to complete her three-year course that is being extended as are the final exam dates because of the pandemic, also revealed that for nearly two years, she and her classmates have not even been given basic stipends for their duties in the hospitals.
“We had no idea that [the pandemic] was going to last this long. Earlier we had to manage the general wards as there was shortage of staff in the hospitals but after COVID-19 arrived, everyone was allotted shifts in the COVID-19 ward. It has been extremely challenging, managing studies, long hours in heavy PPE kits, as well as the emotional stress of sometimes not being able to save patients from this deadly virus,” Fatima added, saying that the only thing that is keeping her and other nurses in India going – despite financial instability and risks to life – is the thought of being able to save somebody’s life.
In recent months, nurses from different Indian regions have abandoned their duties and taken to the streets to demand punctual salaries from the hospital authorities and the government.
In December 2020, more than 5,000 nursing staff from Delhi’s renowned All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) hospital declared an indefinite strike citing 23 reasons, including “anomalies” in salaries. The healthcare staff were demanding salary rises in line with the Indian government’s 6th Pay Commission that was rolled out in July 2006 and focused on removing ambiguity regarding various pay scales in government jobs while guaranteeing a steady rise at regular intervals. The nurses’ demands were partially met at the time but there has been no follow-up reported since.
Monica D’Sousa (whose name has been changed for fear of reprisals), a nurse in her twenties, has been working at the Jabalpur Medical College in Madhya Pradesh since completing her nursing course. For the past eight months, she has been working 14-day shifts in the heavily staffed COVID-19 ward of the government facility, followed by 14 days of isolation. Talking to Sputnik, she revealed that the hospital is not even making her and other nurses like her permanent.
In the past year, the Indian government announced relief packages worth billions of dollars for migrant labourers and under-privileged members of society – but seemingly missed out on ensuring the financial security for the country’s nursing staff, who keep COVID-19 patients clean, fed and nursed back to health.
In 2020, India’s health ministry announced an incentive of INR 1,000 ($13.50) per month to members of the government programme “Accredited Social Health Activist” for undertaking COVID-19 activities for the time they were engaged in this work – but nurses such as Khan and D’ Sousa raise questions about provisions for nurses like them, working in government hospitals on non-permanent positions, without incentives.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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