Long hours and low pay are fueling surging turnover among nurses, a report released by the Taiwan Nurse’s Union found.
The report found that about one-in-seven nurses left their jobs over the past year, with the number among first-year graduates significantly higher, at one out of five, while more than 70 percent of hospitals face difficulties in recruiting new nurses.
Union president Jane Lu (盧孳艷) said that a recent NT$2.5 billion (US$81.2 million) government project led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare has failed to improve working conditions for nurses as a result of lax oversight, while claims that the wages of nurses have improved were mostly false.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Lu said that average wages for nurses have fallen from NT$41,878 two years ago to NT$40,306, adding that base pay on average accounted for just 63 percent of wages among most nurses, with the remaining 37 percent coming from various unstable sources, including bonuses, stipends for working at night or overtime pay.
She said that unreliable stipends and bonuses were used as methods of control to keep nurses silent about unreasonable working conditions, while sky-high penalty fees for breaches of contract also aimed to keep nurses from leaving their posts.
Taiwan Labour Front secretary-general Son Yu-liam (孫友聯) said government agencies should clamp down on instances of hospitals providing false information about employee wages.
Department of Labor Relations deputy director Hsieh Chien-chien (謝倩蒨) at the Ministry of Labor said that 30 percent of hospitals and clinics were fined for failing to pay employees overtime during a large labor inspection last year.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
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US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
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