It was bound to happen .. especially keeping in mind of the acute shortage of Nurses in the world over ... we have no real institute which is mass producing nurses (sort of a taboo trade in our society), although an institute was created by Dr. Atta-urRehman but we have to utilize this trade and mass produce nurses as not only in Pakistan but there is a huge demand for it.

In Philippines all doctors who acquire MBBS are actually getting the degree after acquiring their nursing training .. i.e; any person who first becomes elligible for nurse can carry on & become doctor .. In case of drop out .. at least you have the nursing profession + of course local very difficult examination ..

Why can't arrange a system ! Our medical syllabus is really excellent & at par with international standards .. why than such laziness on nursing staff !

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=127691

Acute shortage of nurses and midwives resulting in casualties
Saturday, August 02, 2008
By Imtiaz Ali

Karachi

One child dies due to ‘EPI (epidemiology) disease’, diarrhoea and infections each minute and around 0.4 million infants die within a year of birth. About 30,000 women die in pregnancy related complications per year as 80 per cent of the pregnancies take place at homes by trained or untrained birth attendants.

According to the prescribed standards, there should be 15 nurses for assisting a single doctor. In contrast to it, there is only one nurse for eight doctors in Pakistan. Around 12,000 doctors are jobless while 2,400 basic or rural health centres are non-functional or closed. There is an acute shortage of nurses and paramedical staff and there is no proper planning for them.

These statistics have been presented in two books (in Urdu): ‘Best ways of training for nursing and midwifery’ written by Dr Sher Shah Syed and ‘Practical ways for training of nurses’ jointly compiled by Syed and Tazeen Saeed Ali, launched recently.

According to the medical papers, one of the reasons behind the terrible health condition was that the colonial rulers introduced a curative based health delivery system. Another major reason was that the health infrastructure had deteriorated because of lack of judicious distribution of health resources and conflict among federal, provincial and local governments over achieving power. Third reason is the lack of trained staff especially nurses and paramedical staff.

Education and training of nurses and midwives is not up to the mark because the policy makers are not serious despite the fact that there is an acute shortage of workers, nurses and midwives. They do not realise that the health system cannot function properly without competent and professional nurses and paramedical staff.

At present, there is a focus on opening more and more medical and dental colleges both in private and public sectors whose fees are increasing, which only a few can afford.

Because of perceived myopic approach, there is a shortage of training institutes for nurses, midwives and health workers, due to which the health sector does not produce desirable results. Nurses are not given due respect and their work and status is not recognised at the official and societal level. There are no training courses available in Urdu and other languages, which reflect negligence on the part of the officials concerned.

The Pakistan National Forum on Women Health had published six books during the last five years in Urdu, out of which two books have been translated in Sindhi. According to the books, the doctors are of the view that the standard of the existing training institutes is not satisfactory. There is a shortage of trained faculty as there are no programmes available for continued training. This enhanced the importance of setting up training institutes for teachers to keep them updated about new techniques. The federal, provincial and local governments can improve the situation, it suggested.

The books also mention the problems being faced by nurses and midwives. Most of the nurses belong to under privileged families. They take admission in schools in order to gain expertise in nursing and midwifery, enhance their academic qualifications, play their role in the society, gain jobs after the training or work in the community and assist their families by earning.

However, they face several hurdles as nursing is not considered a proper profession by the family and community members. The writers were of the opinion that if the nurses and midwives are given due respect and reasonable salaries and fringe benefits, the health status of people especially mothers and child can improve.

yes u are right...this was bound to happen...the most noble of the professions is exploited like nothing else..
God forbid, a very high percentage of nurses is misused,.. exploited!! to b precise.
I wonder where it all started from....but! a nurse is not seen as a pious,good charactered lady generally...

one of my close friend went to see some lady..and she was a nurse in a hospital..wen he came back he told me that, all of her [nurse's] room mates were out with someone...they were having a party time..

The doctors use them..the attendants take them for granted..

Also another alrming issue is that of Doctors...sooner or later there will be a shortage of doctors as well..

Female students are to be blamed for it to some extent...4-5 of my class fellows got admission in medical colleges...they qualified MBBS and are now housewives...sorry to say, but they did it to get proposals from high class families...
Arent they to be blamed for the number of doctors they have wasted? had the seats gone to some guys they would have stayed in country most probably...

sooner or later this problem will raise its ugly head as well...

The number of doctors that qaulify is not the same as the number of doctors that are practicing...hence we find overcrowded hospitals...doctor/patient ratio is deteriorating significantly because of this..

There should be a required amount of hours every qualified doctor/nurse has to work per week. Women who get their degree, but choose to stay home as housewives should be required to work for a certain amount of time, not working hurts the system (since there is only a limited amount of MBBS spots within the country).

salaam

well first of all that article is filled with errors showing a that someone is trying to sound smarter than he/she actually is. EPI is not epidemiology, its the extended program of immunization. Agreed though that things arent going that great but nursing isnt really a taboo at all and they are being produced in large number. The problem is simple, whether you talk of nurses or doctors, its not the lac of personnel, its the lack of will of the governments behalf to PAY these people. all the best nurses run off to uk, the others who stay are not really paid much honestly, and in addition to that they are not supplied with materials. Eventually if nurses arent around it is the doctors who do all the handy work. As for the first study to become a nurse then become a doctor system, its one of the most ludicrous proposals ever, there is a WORLD of a difference between what doctors and nurses study.

Some recent statistics are here:

The health care facilities include 946 hospitals, 4554 dispensaries, 5290 Basic Health Units and sub health
centers, 907 Mother and Child Health Centers, 552 Rural Health Centers and 289 TB Centers
primarily run by provincial governments. There are 100131 doctors registered with the Medical
Council and 18029 specialists. There is output of around 5000 medical graduates from both
public and private medical colleges.

(Manora Island Project: a model primary care project in Pakistan
Dr. Amin A. Muhammad Gadit, Discipline of Psychiatry, Memorial University of Newfoundland,)


if your going to pay a doctor whos studied like a dog for 6 years a paltry 10,000 rupees a month and then even cut down the number of doctors yourself what do you expect? same goes for nurses who are paid even lesser.

the facts are simple, stop squandering your money on the army and start spending it on instituions like h ealth and education. The army wastes a hell lot of money on luxuries. you jus thave to take one peek at their mess halls clubs etc to realize that. That money whould go towards equipping hospitals and schools.

Female students are to be blamed for it to some extent...4-5 of my class fellows got admission in medical colleges...they qualified MBBS and are now housewives...sorry to say, but they did it to get proposals from high class families...
Arent they to be blamed for the number of doctors they have wasted? had the seats gone to some guys they would have stayed in country most probably...

I think it was the removal of quota system of guys that allowed extra females (since they are better in studies in Pakistan) to acquire admissions in subsidized medical institutes.

In Pakistan families are open arms to getting Doctor Bahou but they are not very supportive for them practicing their profession !

The problem is simple, whether you talk of nurses or doctors, its not the lac of personnel, its the lack of will of the governments behalf to PAY these people. all the best nurses run off to uk, the others who stay are not really paid much honestly, and in addition to that they are not supplied with materials. Eventually if nurses arent around it is the doctors who do all the handy work. As for the first study to become a nurse then become a doctor system, its one of the most ludicrous proposals ever, there is a WORLD of a difference between what doctors and nurses study.

Even in private sector GP's are getting low salaries in comparison to other professions which take hardly 3 years of university education. This is a global problem which is starting to get rectified.

Here when you use the word ludicrous about the said possibility, you involuntarily are accepting the taboo which I was talking about .. Everybody is proud to be a MBBS doctor but when it comes to Nursing .. it is a profession which is not taken very respectfully.

However, my proposal was just an idea which ought to be talked & proposed not implemented as I had already mentioned our own medical syllabus is at par with international standards i.e; no need to experiment on it .. but mere talk & discussion will start to make people realize that Nursing is and should be a respected profession and more females should enroll in this profession and at the same time we are able to send our nurses to UK, EUROPE, USA & Canada : & no I have not seen many Pakistani nurses going to these countries .. what I see is loads & loads of Filipina nurses and at times some Indian ladies.

oh please..stop bashing the army...the money saved by cutting the army budget will be wasted by these civilian admins ne way..
as 4 the money spent on luxuries,well,the misuse of govt cars and facilities is much more in govt sector...i know and have seen govt officers and their kidz esp from income tax,customs etc driving and even dougnating( a 360 degree spin) in their prados and corollas..my dads an army brigadier and we have a staff car too..do the above mentioned stuff and they'll kick ur ass..if an MP(military police) sees u driving ur own staff car,they have complete authority to report above..even ur designated drivers have orders to report if the kidz etc drive themselves..
as 4 the clubs,they are run on NO PROFIT NO LOSS(services club in lhr,artillery mess in pindi)...and wats wrong in having a decent mess where the officers eat????