On International Nurses Day yesterday, nurses rights groups appealed for improvements in working conditions.
Among the practices they are unhappy about include being expected to take care of more than ten patients at a time and working over the regulation eight hours per day.
On a day intended to honor nurses around the world, held to coincide with the birthday of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, Son Yu-lian (
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Jane Lu (
There is no law that stipulates the maximum number of patients a nurse can take care of during one shift, Lu said.
According to Lu, in California, the law stipulates that a nurse should look after no more than five patients. In Taiwan however, a nurse may be responsible for 10 patients in one shift and up to 14 during a night shift, she added.
A nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that she felt stressed when having to take care of so many patients and that just taking the blood pressure of 10 patients can take up to two hours.
"I really am worried about the patients," the nurse said. "I cannot take good care of all of them because there are too many and I work ten to twelve hour days. When nurses are too tired, it is dangerous for the patients, because we may be prone to making mistakes," she said.
Lu also said that nurses were never paid for working overtime and 545 of the nurses polled responded that they had no time to take advanced nursing courses because of their long working hours.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (
To prevent hospitals from hiring nurses just for yearly evaluations, the department should make unannounced inspections, Huang said.
Huang added that since most nurses were women, hospitals may expect them to make more sacrifices such as working overtime.
Lu said the health department established the Bureau of Nursing and Health Services Development last year after complaints from nurses. However, the bureau handles affairs other than nursing so not many changes have been implemented, Lu said.
An unnamed bureau official said surveys regarding nurse-patient ratios have recently been conducted, but since the bureau is new and handles other health affairs, there is still room for improvement.
"All the nurses want is a better, safer working environment," Lu said. "After all, those who take care of us need to be taken care of as well."
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