Nurses working in the public hospitals receive only 90 per cent of their basic salary and in the public health centres are paid a 65 per cent allowance on top of their basic monthly salary. Pay allowances in the public sector are understandable since health professionals in this sector surely work for wages far less competitive than those on offer in the private sector. And if doctors, dentists and pharmacists must be paid more to keep them working for the public, so be it. But the exclusion of nurses is baffling. In fact in some cases is more so.
Nursing is one of the noblest professions in the world.
They can give followup care behind doctors who are overtaxed. Generally, nurses are required to go above and beyond the call of duty not only to give physical care, but mental and emotional care and support to patients, families and significant others. Around the world they are taken advantage of by the systems that employ them, and almost everywhere they are expected to handle more and more tasks for less and less pay within those same systems. In their relationship with patients, they are often less respected and berated next to their venerable doctor colleagues. They are called on to fetch water, drain bedpans, mop floors and wipe tears.