KARACHI): Pakistan on Thursday celebrated the legacy of Florence Nightingale, founder of the modern nursing profession, amidst a serious shortfall of qualified nurses.
There is one trained nurse for every 4636 patients in the country that is considered to be too few, by international standards.
Ninety five percent of the nurses are diploma holders and very few hold B.Sc Nursing degree or post graduate qualification.
Recently compiled data by Pakistan Medical and Nursing Professionals identified presence of 119 schools of nursing and 144 schools of midwifery, regrettably the standard of education in most of these institutions was found to be depressingly low.
Although situation was much better in 14 institutions offering B.Sc Nursing Programs although these too were facing serious shortage of qualified and experienced teachers.
A senior nurse and a physician told APP that non availability of qualified instructors was not the sole issue as misery of trainees in most of the schools aggravated due to non availability of text books,
teaching aids and resource material etc, Consequently at the time of passing out from these poorly manned and equipped entities the nurses are neither well trained nor do they have sound theoretical knowledge, said Dr. Aziz Khan Tank, President, Pakistan College of Family Physicians.
He said there was not only shortage of qualified instructors but trend to employ nursing teachers without appropriate qualifications has appeared to severely effect the professional capacities of nurses.
"To raise standards of nursing education in the country we have to increase the number of qualified nursing instructors," he said.
The senior physician actively involved in refresher programs for doctors and nurses said health gains could be maximized through effective systems for regulation, education, evidence-based research and performance management.
These are keys to strengthen the contribution of doctors, nurses and midwifery services, he said.
In reply to a question, he said many nurses as well as midwives do not have a formal job description and no clear guidance on tasks and responsibilities.
Nazli Afshan, a former president of Pakistan Nurses Association sought need to modify public mind-set about the nurses themselves as well as the profession and demanded that nursing curriculum in both public and private training institutions must be improved.
Nazli reiterated efforts to ensure dignity of nursing profession in the country.
The senior nurse said a fool-proof policy for regular training of nursing tutors gazetted posts for nurses holding degrees with specialization in different medical disciplines and creation of
managerial posts for nurses were also urgently required. Dr. Khan said.
"We have to remember that nursing provides a platform for scaling up health interventions aimed at tackling poverty-related diseases", adequate investment in the development of quality medical services is required," he said.
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