International Nurses’ Day is celebrated around the world on May 12 each year. The date coincides with the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale – one of the most famous and internationally recognised pioneers of modern day nursing.
I’ve been privileged to travel to many developing countries in my role as VSO’s global adviser for health, HIV and AIDS and lucky enough to observe at first hand the essential role that nurses play in delivering basic healthcare services. In many remote rural settings, from Nepal to Lesotho, from Tajikistan to Sierra Leone, I’ve witnessed nurses living and working in isolated communities where often there are no doctors or more specialised health care providers regularly available.
Nurses often take on a huge burden of care, called upon to undertake more and more responsibilities – a reflection of the increase of so-called ‘task shifting’.
They are expected to work in healthcare facilities with limited financial resources, a lack of basic equipment and drugs and poor infrastructure. Many are faced with high rates of maternal, neo natal and child mortality on a daily basis and this can be compounded by specific national or regional health disease burden challenges – from HIV, to malaria, to Ebola.
Underpaid, under-resourced and unsupported
Their working hours are often long, their financial rewards meagre, the professional support they receive minimal and their physical working conditions at best challenging and at worse intolerable, something which would be unrecognisable – and certainly unacceptable – to those of us living in countries with well developed healthcare systems.
So when I hear nurses criticised for showing a lack of compassion or for poor performance in these situations I always ask myself the question – could anyone really be expected to ‘perform’ in such extreme circumstances?
This is why I am proud to work for an organisation like VSO that aims to improve the training and working conditions of nurse cadres, recognising the essential role they play, and the fact that without them, many health systems would be in danger of total collapse.
It is inspiring to learn about VSO health programmes like the one in Papua New Guineawhere we recently secured significant funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The project will see VSO volunteers placed in seven nursing schools to build the capacity of nursing lecturers and selected clinical staff to effectively deliver nursing curriculum and facilitate clinical placements for the general nursing diploma.
Whilst global health challenges of magnitude continue to exist, nurses deserve nothing less than our admiration and support. Long may VSO continue to give it to them in recognition of all that they do.
