The Health Department’s negligence has made Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the capital city major hospital, fall prey to a serious shortage of nursing staff. Currently there is only one nurse available for every 50 patients.
A total of 162 nursing schools and colleges are registered with the Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC), which also acts as an advisory body on issues pertaining to the curriculum in various nursing programmes. However, the colleges are unable to fulfill the demand of nurses within the country as currently only around 49,000 registered nurses are working against a requirement of 70,000. A health professional in the PIMS on condition of anonymity told Pakistan Today that the situation could be improved slightly if the government at the least provided accommodation to nurses within the hospital premises. An extra allowance to nurses on night-shift might also work as an incentive, she added. “All departments of the PIMS are facing extreme shortage of nursing staff. The limited number of available nurses is burdened with all the workload eventually affecting the quality of service provided,” she said.
It was decided last year that 400 new posts for nurses would be created to meet the requirement and provide employment to nursing students passing examinations but the plan could not be materialised in face of the carefree attitude of policy makers. A health expert working in the nursing sector, seeking anonymity, said with the limited number of nursing schools and colleges, the gap could not be filled. He deplored the fact that the nursing profession had been labeled as a women’s field in Pakistan. He also discussed the plight of nursing schools saying the lack of funds, laboratories and clinical equipment had made imparting nursing education extremely difficult. “More disturbing is the fact that faculty members in these schools lack adequate qualifications,” he added. PIMS Joint Executive Director Dr Altaf Hussain told Pakistan Today that Pakistan was facing a severe shortage of nurses because of the absence of a well-planned training programme. Talking about PIMS, he said, “Because of the quota system, almost all seats reserved for Balochistan remain vacant hence PIMS faces a shortage of nurses.” He requested the Health Department to grant a special permission to fill the vacant seats reserved for nurses from Baluchistan to end the shortage.
50 to one – patient to nurse ratio at PIMS
