The Crime Desk: Today is International Nurses Day. International Nurses Day is celebrated worldwide on May 12 every year to mark the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of the modern nursing profession. Like other countries in the world, the day will be celebrated in Bangladesh through various programs. The theme of this year’s day is ‘Our Nurses, Our Future, Economic Power, and the and the Foundation of Nursing Services’. There is a shortage of more than 2 lakh nurses in the country. According to the World Health Organization, the ratio of hospital beds, doctors, and nurses should be 1:3.
That is, there should be at least three nurses and one doctor. But in Bangladesh, there are only 76 thousand 517 nurses, against 1 lakh 2 thousand 997 doctors. In the context of Bangladesh, there should be a 3 lakh, 8 thousand, and 991 nurse-to-doctor ratio. The shortage of nurses compared to doctors is two lakh, 32 thousand, and 474 people. By doing so, patients are deprived of necessary services. The normal pace of medical care is being disrupted. Not only that, even after 53 years of independence, nurses did not get rank according to merit. There are thousands of nurses with higher degrees in the country and abroad, including MPHs. They are supposed to get promoted step by step, as per the rules. But I didn’t get it. Due to this disparity, there is great dissatisfaction among nurses. They also expressed anger that the white dress given by Florence Nightingale, the shaper of the modern nursing profession, was mistakenly changed by the government. They want it changed.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. She was very beautiful, but also very kind and loving-hearted. He was called a beacon in the darkness of Europe. Nightingale’s father was a wealthy landowner who owned two estates. When Nightingale was just entering adulthood, her rich father took the whole family on a trip to Europe. It was this trip that brought about a drastic change in the young nightingale’s thinking. Nightingale first experienced humanitarian service at the age of 17, while in London.
Later, he called this feeling ‘the call of God’. However, there was a strong objection from his family to taking service as a vow of life. In that society, nursing was the profession of poor, helpless, widowed women. Overcoming strong family objections, she mastered the techniques and knowledge of nursing. By traveling to different countries, he got an idea about the service systems of those countries and received training in relatively advanced systems. In 1853, she took charge of a hospital for girls in London. Nightingale’s greatest contribution was to stand by sick soldiers in the Crimean War. In this war between England and Russia, the condition of the soldiers is endangered. At that time, the Secretary of Defense, Sidney Herbert, wrote to Nightingale,There is not a single person fit to attend to wounded soldiers in this chaotic state of war. If you take up this task, the country will be grateful to you.’
The current government has done a lot to develop the nursing sector. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who came to power after winning the elections on December 29, 2009, converted eight nursing institutes into nursing colleges to raise the standard of nursing education to an international level. Senior staff nurses are given a second-class rank at the entry point. During the 15 years of the current government led by the 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. But from the position in which they are entering the service, they are retiring from the service. That is, after joining the service as a senior staff nurse, most of them have to leave the same position. Although the head of government is sincere in improving the quality of the nursing sector, its implementation is hindered due to the reluctance, corruption, and mismanagement of the administration. Some officers have a negative attitude towards nurses and say, Why should nurses become officers again? But the official said there are more nurses than that who are highly educated. There is no shortage of groupings among nurses. However, Jamaat-Shibir and anti-government groups have more power under the current government. They are also the principals of most nursing colleges. The Department of Nursing is also in their circle. When IPGMR (PG Hospital) was announced as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, an anti-government nurse-staff organization strongly opposed it. Bangabandhu’s photo was also vandalized on that campus. The leader of that organization is currently the head of a higher education nursing institution. At that time, Khan Mohammad Ishaq was the president of the struggle committee for the establishment of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. He expressed regret and said that those who strongly opposed and agitated for a university named after Bangabandhu vandalized Bangabandhu’s photo. The leader of that organization is the head of a nursing institute. It is very painful to see. How is this possible? Maybe die of pain.
Managers and specialist doctors of government hospitals said that the doctors leave patients only with prescriptions. The rest of the time, the patient is under the care of the nurse. He cured the patient by providing treatment and services as per the prescription. There is no room to neglect providing opportunities, including promotion, to nurses in this noble profession. The way the present government has trained the nurses, they are not getting the rank they should get.
20 thousand government nurses are unemployed in the country. Meanwhile, detailed programs have been taken to celebrate International Nurses Day with due dignity. A colorful rally will be taken out by the nurse officers of the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, like the nationwide program.
