International Nurses Day: Number of nurses in country only 24% of demand

Nurses are responsible for the overall care of patients in hospitals – from giving them medicine to providing them with the different services they require during treatment. But, the country's health sector is running with 76% fewer nurses than what is needed.

Besides, many complain about the quality of nursing services. Health experts have therefore recommended recruiting nurses as per demand, and improving the quality of their services.

As per World Health Organisation guidelines, three nurses have to be recruited against one doctor.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services' Health Bulletin 2020, there are 108,000 registered physicians in Bangladesh, meaning the country needs 3.24 lakh nurses. However, the number of the registered nurses in the country was 77,838 as of February this year, according to the Bangladesh Nursing and Midwifery Council (BNMC).

The number of nurses working in government hospitals is only 42,330, which is quite insufficient compared to the requirement, according to data from the Society for Nurses' Safety and Rights.

Experts said healthcare is team work because after doctors diagnose a patient and determine the required treatment, nurses have to take care of him according to instructions. Therefore, recruiting an adequate number of nurses and creating a proper work environment for them is essential.

Anisur Rahman, principal of International Nursing College, Tongi, told The Business Standard, "In order to improve the quality of nursing services, the attitude of patients and hospital authorities towards nurses needs to change. Nurses should not be treated like house help or cleaners."

The authorities should also not give them low salaries for long working hours. Besides, the nursing curriculum should be developed further, he added.

Apart from the problem of scarcity, there is a problem regarding the skills and behaviour of nurses. Health service seekers often complain that nurses do not respond to patients' demands, and often encourage public hospital patients to shift to private ones.

Fahmida Akhter, mother of one-year-old Sumon, who was receiving treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, yesterday told TBS that nurses there often ignored her calls and refused to help her administer medicines for the child as per the doctor's instructions.

Asked about such unprofessional behaviour, senior staff nurse of Dhaka Medical College Krishna Biswas told TBS that work pressure and poor work environment were largely responsible for this.

She said, "Due to a shortage of manpower, one nurse has to handle many patients. Apart from that, the biggest problems are those who stay with the patients or are visitors. We have to talk more with them than with the patients.

"Due to these reasons, we are not able to fulfil the patients' needs properly. If a nurse could handle two or three patients, the work environment would be better and people would not complain against us."

Sabbir Mahmud Tihan, secretary general of the Society for Nurses' Safety and Rights, said, "The government should employ more nurses to ensure uninterrupted health care. The nursing curriculum and the health sector need to be modernised too."

Maqsura Noor, director general of the Directorate General of Nursing and Midwifery, said the government recruited 5,054 nurses at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic to ease the crisis, and 10,000 more in 2021. The process for recruiting another 10,000 is underway.

Moreover, the government has recently approved a number of nursing colleges and institutes to ensure better training for nurses to improve the quality of their services.

Currently, there are 67 public and 372 private nursing institutions in the country.

International Nurses Day, observed on May 12, marks the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. The theme of International Nurses Day 2023 is "Our Nurses. Our Future".