Nurses' Day 2015

Fading human touch

I asked an old retired nursing matron about what she thinks of nursing today. Without hesitation she said, “It is not as good as it used to be before. I miss the days when nursing used to a real vocation, not just an employment as it is now”. This sentiment is not an isolated one but shared by most senior and retired nursing staff. 

These comments may come from senior nurses who are ill prepared for the present-day sophisticated system of operations in the medical field. Nevertheless in the name of progress and modernization we must admit that we have lost some of the cherished values of the nursing profession of the past - the personal human touch, which is so important in the care of the sick. In fact the virtues of empathy and human touch are the basic qualities that makes the nursing profession exceptionally unique and noble.

Nursing the sick is no ordinary task especially when those nursed are total strangers and there is no love attached to them whatsoever. It used to be a vocation where a nurse has to have some feelings for suffering fellow men who are sick and dying, otherwise it will be extremely difficult to be a good nurse. But today with the advances in medicine this human touch is slowly but surely being replaced by high-tech mechanization. 

Moreover with commercialization, privatization and lately corporatization of the medical services, not only are our nurses losing the human touch but are being subjected to numerous clerical and accounting jobs, leaving little or no time for true nursing duties for which they are trained. The corporations they work for are driven solely by monetary profits and in this system there little or no appreciation for loyalty and dedication of the poor nurses who are often abused not only by the authorities but even by patients and their relatives when things go wrong.

Not only are the hospitals are run like big corporations, even the training of nurses are corporatized where nurses are churned in large numbers with no proper clinical training like before. Therefore we have a situation where the hospitals are flooded with poorly trained nurses junior who have to cope with the management of patients with the meager skill they have. The sad thing is there are hardly any seniors to guide them as the majority of them have all migrated to greener pastures.

Nurses today work under great difficulties and are under tremendous pressure from within and without. The demands on them are tremendous, at times very unreasonable. Amidst these limitations we salute those who still hold on the age old tradition - smile and personal touch in their service to the sick and dying. 

The nursing profession is in for major changes to meet the present day needs of the people. We may not have the Nightingale model of Nursing Education anymore of course we can adopt a system to produce our own Nightingales to care for our sick with a heart of passion and human touch.

Happy Nurses Day