NURSES A VOICE TO LEAD !!!!

NURSES A VOICE TO LEAD

International nurses day is celebrated every year on the birthday of Florence nightingale by the International council of nurses which will put forward a theme every year. This year theme is Nurses – a voice to lead achieving the SDG. ICN calls for nurses around the globe to become the advocates of health care. This calls for so many questions especially on the image of nursing in a country like India which produces largest number of nurses every year.

WHY INDIAN NURSES ARE INTERNATIONALLY ACCEPETED?

Whether it be in the arid zones of gulf regions or it be in cold frozen zones of Alaska or be it in a warzone Indian nurses were there exhibiting the commitment towards their patients and with extended and flexible work timings. This made India the favorite hub of International recruiters around the globe and we have lived and worked up to their expectations. That’s one of the major reasons when many countries in western world denied work visa for people from other profession Indian nurses were always welcomed. It is not because there is no nursing colleges and nursing students. Thanks to our sisters and brothers who laid a path for us..who were committed to work at any given situation which encourages them to appoint nurses with a highly paid job and good status in the society .

NURSES AND KERALA….

There is a huge association between nurses and Kerala. Nursing is one of the most selected careers by an average malayalee family. Whether the student who choose the career like or not is secondary when it comes for nursing. The primodial reason behind this blind choice of career is the ocean of opportunity this career provides to nurses once they fly abroad.  I repeat…once she/ he goes abroad. Parents force the children to choose nursing because they have seen families raised from poverty…families stabilized if one child from the family had become a nurse and went abroad. So an average malayalee who dreams of a stable life will send their child to nursing...never in the life they would have imagined to achieve the dream of this financial security their ward has to swim seven oceans of obstacles.

Nurses in Kerala are going through a revolutionary stage under the able leadership of UNA. All these years’ managements were exploiting us. One was the absence of a stable leadership which is now solved after UNA came into existence. Managements had a thought in mind that nurses all are working for experience which is essential for their abroad dreams. So keeping it as the Q card they were playing the game. If you strike your certificate will be denied. The poor girl or boy who hails from middle class family thinks about the future. I guess they also have in mind even the leaders keep on changing because when they will go to abroad at a point of time and gradually the organization will become weak. But UNA proved that it were the day dreams of someone. We will fight for our rights.

I would like to quote my experience here. After my post graduation I was working in a private hospital. I agree that I was a fresher. But I never did any less job... I did the same job which was done by all. I was paid INR 1000, 0 in my hand. I was paid 333.33 rs per day. Every other unskilled or semiskilled person earns a salary more than that.  A person who spends 7 whole years of studying...Who have worked for sleepless nights to clear the exams was well paid off. I was shattered, undignified and was depressed. But by commitment and sincerity was never compromised. That was something what my teachers taught me. Never work for salary...work for your happiness. I didn’t have any loan to pay back. I waited for a chance patiently and moved to another city where things were better. Where I was given self respect. I am happy. But it is not the situation with all…  I have a friend who worked for eight years in an ICU who was paid only 6500 per months. She was suffering never compromised on her job but lived with a hope that one day I will migrate to a foreign country where nurses will have a dignity and a value.

I would like to quote that it’s not only in foreign countries nurses should be respected or dignified. We deserve it in our home country also. We are not a supplier of foreign income to country but we are also a part of this society. I saw managements asking the media “have you ever heard anyone increasing the salary of any cadre at stretch anywhere else in the world?” MY QUESTION BACK TO THEM IS “have you ever heard anywhere else in the world educated professional nurses are paid less”? So managements enough are enough. We are not asking for anybodys mercy we are asking for our rights.

LET THE NURSES IN KERALA BE THE VOICE OF CHANGE …LEAD US THE WAY UNA….. FIRST WE SHOULD BE ADVOCATES OF OUR RIGHTS….THEN ONLY WE HAVE THE RIGHTS TO BE THE ADVOCATES OF OUR PATIENTS AND SOCIETY…..

TOGETHER WE WILL LEAD AND BE THE CHANGE……..

PARVATHY

I AM A NURSE AND I AM PROUD OF IT J