China is facing a chronic shortage of nurses, with poor pay
discouraging women from taking up the profession or sticking to
their jobs, Health Ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an told a press
conference ahead of Saturday's International Nurses Day.
"To redress the situation, the ministry is considering a salary
boost for nurses whose earnings currently fail to match their heavy
workload," Mao said at the conference on Wednesday.
By the end of 2006 China had 1,426,000 nurses, accounting for
almost 31 percent of the nation's medical workers, according to
Ministry statistics.
But despite a substantial increase in the number of nurses in
recent years, nursing services still fall short of surging medical
need, said Mao.
At present the nurse-to-patient ratio is very low compared with
that of western countries. In Beijing one nurse is in charge of at
least four patients even in the best-equipped 3A public hospitals,
according to data from the Beijing Health Bureau.
A Beijing nurse surnamed Xue told China Daily many of her
colleagues had left the profession because they were unhappy with
the poor pay, bad working environment and exhausting work.
The situation is even worse in smaller local hospitals and is
thought to seriously affect the quality of care patients
receive.
Increasing the number of nurses is at the top of the Ministry of
Health's agenda, said Mao.
By the end of 2010, nurses at Beijing's 3A hospitals should only
have to look after a maximum of two patients at a time, he
said.
In addition to raising their pay, providing a positive working
environment will also be an important step, Mao said.
(China Daily May 12, 2007)
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