Nursing in crisis
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As nurses around the world celebrated International Nurses' Day Thursday, many in the profession in China were looking for other employment or planning to head overseas.
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A hundred nurses from 13 hospitals in Yichang, Hubei Province, prepare for a good posture and etiquette contest. |
"I think at least half the nursing staff here would quit if they could," said Nurse Ye, a retired head of nursing at one of Beijing's largest military-sponsored hospitals.
"If I could do it all over again, I would certainly not chose nursing," she said sadly asking that her full name not be used as she still works part time at the hospital where her career began in 1985.
Interviews and research conducted by the Global Times show broad discontent among nurses in China. They say they receive little support, scant recognition and low pay.
Nurses in Western countries earn 10 to 15 times more than their counterparts doing the same job in China.
Nurse Lin Lin, a 28-year-old intensive care nurse, plans to join a growing number of Chinese healthcare providers who are planning to emigrate. "I've been attending English classes so that I can enroll in a nursing program in the West," she said.
Lin Lin is in her prime, working at the height of her profession at a top-tier Beijing hospital. Although she knows her skills are needed by China, job pressures, lack of support and recognition of her contribution are pushing her away from the occupation she loves and has done for almost a decade.
"I've heard that in Western hospitals that along with higher salaries, nurses have a wonderful support system. They work as part of a team," she said.
Retired head nurse, Ye, concurred that both respect and support are in short supply for nurses on the wards. "Nurses are really not treated fairly by doctors and the administration. During International Nurses' Day they might hand out gifts and give out awards for excellences, but it doesn't make up for the rest of it," she said.
Ye said shift work takes its toll on nurses' family life and there's no fair trade-off in compensation. "Night-shift pay is barely enough to buy an ice-cream," she said bitterly.
Although nurses in China work a regular 8-hour day many complain they are required to perform too many tasks and shoulder too much responsibility.
Nurse Lin Lin said the acute intensity of the job gives her panic attacks. "The doctors are not always around," she said. "I have to keep a close watch on the patients and there is no room for error."
She fears one day two patients will suffer emergencies at the same time and she will have to choose between which one to save. "It can happen any day and I'll be held responsible," she said.
