PESHAWAR:The Young Nurses Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (YNAKP) on Tuesday urged the provincial government to pay attention to the problems of nurses and to take pragmatic steps to improve the healthcare system.
In a statement issued here, the spokesman of YNAKP said that due to the lack of interest of the policymakers and the non-inclusion of nurses’ stakeholders in the policies, the nursing profession is heading towards destruction, which is affecting the health system in a big way.
He said that the Pakistan Nursing Council has sent clear instructions to the government while referring to the SDGs 2030, to include nurses in primary care, but it could not be implemented so far, he lamented.
He said that due to the acute shortage of nurses, the existing nursing staff, and the patients in the hospitals are suffering and the same is conveyed to the government time and again the department also has its own detailed report on the issue but to no avail.
The spokesman said that unfortunately, this international nurses day was never celebrated at the government level nor the services of nurses were appreciated.
He said nurses have obtained bachelor, master and now Ph.D. degrees, but the nursing cadre is being completely ignored, and they are not being given a place in the system.
He said that the future of thousands of nurses is at stake in MTIs, who have been working on fixed pay and on a daily basis for seven years.
YNAKP requested the present government to immediately decide on a plan for this, he said, adding that thousands of qualified professionals are forced to leave the country because their future here is bleak.
YNAKP demanded immediate provision of internship slots for students of government nursing colleges and an increase in internship salary as per employee.
The association further also demanded the provision of qualified teachers and paid internships for the students of their respective colleges, so that quality nurses can be produced.
They also urged the government to regularize the services of hundreds of nurses currently working under the AIP project.