Sat, May 16, 2026 page8

• Have we forgotten to take care of our carers?

  • By Liu Che-ting 劉哲廷
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  President William Lai (賴清德) on Tuesday announced that amendments to the Medical Care Act (醫療法) stipulating nurse-to-patient ratios would be implemented in phases ahead of schedule, starting on May 20 next year.

  The amendments are not merely a revision of healthcare policy, nor simply a technical achievement after years of struggle by the nursing community; they show that the nation is finally acknowledging that caregivers themselves need care.

  In the past, Taiwanese society often used gentle and noble terms such as “angels in white” when describing nurses. Yet hidden beneath such language is a danger. When a profession is excessively sanctified, people easily overlook that those in that profession are also workers — they, too, become exhausted and have physical limits. The lack of awareness leads to overtime being expected, staff shortages becoming routine and emotional strain being treated as simply part of the job.

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media were flooded with posts thanking healthcare workers, but as the pandemic faded, many left the clinical frontline, and the collapse of the nursing system continued unabated.

  The issue has never been that nurses lack a sense of duty, but that the system has long relied on their sense of duty to make up for its institutional shortcomings.

  The importance of enacting nurse-to-patient ratios lies in the fact that, for the first time, it elevates the principle that nurses can no longer be expected to burn themselves out indefinitely from a moral appeal to a legal standard.

  Nurse-to-patient ratios have never been solely an issue of labor rights, but also a matter of patient safety. When a single nurse is responsible for too many patients at once, what is ultimately sacrificed is the nurse’s sleep and emotional well-being, as well as the patient’s opportunity to be properly monitored, responded to and treated in time.

  Many Taiwanese still view the healthcare system through a convenience store mentality — late-night emergency-room visits, quick access to hospital beds, high-density medical services and low costs. However, the myth of high efficiency hides the long-term overwork of healthcare staff. As society has become accustomed to cheap and fast healthcare, the youth, families and health of some workers is being silently sacrificed.

  Codifying a nurse-to-patient ratio is not the end of Taiwan’s healthcare challenges. The nation still faces problems such as regional disparities in healthcare, an overconcentration of talent and resources in major hospitals, and a disconnect between nursing education and clinical practice. Staffing shortages in rural areas and critical care departments would not disappear overnight simply because of a new law. It is even possible that some hospitals would face mounting costs and reduced bed capacity, and wait times might grow longer.

  A truly civilized nation is not one that pushes healthcare workers until they collapse, but one that enables them to remain in the profession long-term.

  Lai said that “investing in nursing is investing in life.” The importance of the remark lies in how it redefines the essence of public healthcare. It is not merely market competition, nor is it a matter of cost calculation — it is an ethical reflection of how society treats its most vulnerable people.

  Anyone could one day end up in a hospital bed. If that time comes, more than just medicine and machines, people would hope to be treated by a nurse who has not been destroyed by overwork and who still has the strength to recognize suffering.

  Liu Che-ting is a writer.

  Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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