MUMN gives government week's deadline to act on nurses shortage
The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) said today that it would order industrial action next Thursday unless the government took serious action to address an acute shortage of nurses.
Union President Paul Pace said the situation was such that there were 187 nursing vacancies at Mater Dei Hospital alone, and some nurses were even working for between 60 and 80 hours per week.
He said that measures agreed between the union and the government a year ago to encourage former nurses to go back to work had still not been adopted by the government, because of bureaucratic reasons.
The union, he said, was calling for the immediate employment of nurses on temporary or part-time basis to ease the immediate problem, but it was also urging the authorities to reduce the duration of the nursing course and for new courses to be opened more frequently.
The government, Mr Pace said, needed to come up with a five-year manpower plan so that the nursing shortage could be resolved and it would not recur.
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L.Mizzi
Oct 27th 2008, 07:58
As far as I know THERE IS a numerous clauses for diploma in nursing but not for degree courses. I think the ATTITUDE of some of the staff at IHC has A LOT to do with students failing their exams. All you have to do is listen to the students themselves and hear the ABSURD reasons why some of them fail.
Of course one cannot use the same measure for all lecturers. There are some brilliant lecturers working there, but with some lecturers... Well you wonder how they got in there in the first place!
A. Mizzi
Oct 24th 2008, 19:14
@ M C Ciantar
What I said did not mean that i am in favour of letting them continue after failing. That is not what i intended to say. However you have to understand the curcumstances and the stress that the lectureres put the students into. Once I went to see a friend of mine who is at this moment studying to become a nurse. I actually caught my friend being scolded harshly from a lecturer telling her that she is one of the worst students there was. Now infact this student is officialy marked as one of the top students there are. They are failing students simply for fun......Now tell me who can you blame for the shortness of staff the government or the institute????
Carmel Saliba
Oct 24th 2008, 17:39
I am fully against the MUMN's' report stating ‘but it was also urging the authorities to reduce the duration of the nursing course’
The nursing course should be equal to all nurses. A real action by the health authorities should be implemented so that the nursing full compliment be reached and kept. I had already an experience when I followed the Conversion Course from Enrolled nurse to Staff Nurse. Our course ended after two years and included and In-depth study (5000 to 10000 words dissertation) while the present one is of one and a half years and without the In-depth study.
This is not fair.
I ask: Who is responsible for this shortage? Why nurses are leaving the Public Sector? Why the number of new student is not increased? Or if already increased by few.
M C Ciantar
Oct 23rd 2008, 22:40
@ A Mizzi
Suppose a final nursing student is presented with 10 questions to choose 6 in her exam, and she cannot even answer half of these (i.e. 3 out of 10!), would you like to be her patient? And would you be more confident with her looking after you if her course is also shortened? I don’t know about you, but I sure would not be!
@ D Galea
Don’t you know there is no Numerus Clauses for nursing courses? So how can anyone imply that "those assigned as full-time nursing lecturers" may have something to do with the shortage? This is simply absurd! And do you think that if full complement was reached, there would no longer be the need for nursing courses? Don't nurses retire? Don't nurses get promoted (leaving vacancies at the lower ranks)? Don't nurses resign, emigrate etc. to seek greener pastures? Don't nurses need further training (specialisation, refresher courses, professional development etc?). Think, man, think!
D.Galea
Oct 23rd 2008, 17:43
@A. Mizzi
The answer to your question could be very simple actually, What could we suppose would happen to the post of those assigned as full-time nursing lecturers if the profession here reached full complement? Well, I don't think they would ever let that happen now, don't you think?
A. Mizzi
Oct 23rd 2008, 13:42
Apart from reducing the duration course there is also one important action to be taken into consideration. Why are there a lot of students who fail the exams for just a mere mark or 2??