Today is World Nursing Day, and I think we could all get behind a hashtag like #ThankYouNurses. But India's nursing staff need more than that, to keep fighting the second wave.
Few of us have any idea how much physical and psychological strain nurses have been enduring. A thread.
Few of us have any idea how much physical and psychological strain nurses have been enduring. A thread.
1. Before the pandemic, nursing as a profession was given little respect, *severely* underpaid, and thus understaffed across the country.
I spoke to Usha Krishna Kumar, of the Nurses' Welfare Association, on how we can support nurses better:
@thewire_in
I spoke to Usha Krishna Kumar, of the Nurses' Welfare Association, on how we can support nurses better:
@thewire_in
2. The daily demands in Covid wards, ICUs, but also home-care, are shattering - tending to routine care, medical crises and deaths, every day, all in full PPE in the summer heat.
What reward do many nurses receive for risking their lives to save ours? Rs 15,000-20,000 per month.
What reward do many nurses receive for risking their lives to save ours? Rs 15,000-20,000 per month.
3. Struggling through extended shifts in full PPE means no way to eat or drink tea, no toilet breaks, no changing a sanitary pad if you need to.
-- In my video intro, I quoted a nurse at Delhi's LNJP, who has to go home to a pregnant partner. Source: manoramaonline.com/news/latest-ne…
-- In my video intro, I quoted a nurse at Delhi's LNJP, who has to go home to a pregnant partner. Source: manoramaonline.com/news/latest-ne…
4. More than doctors, nurses have the most exposure to Covid patients, and face the most risk of infection. That's true even if they've been vaccinated.
The Trained Nurses' Association of India remembers each month's known 'Covid martyrs'. Please RT them:
The Trained Nurses' Association of India remembers each month's known 'Covid martyrs'. Please RT them:
https://twitter.com/TNAINationalHq/status/1388193166377963523
5. What shocked me - but shouldn't have - is that becoming India's pandemic heroes hasn't meant any improvement in nurses' salaries, terms, or working conditions.
Some nurses still don't have insurance; in government hospitals, many are still retained as contract workers.
Some nurses still don't have insurance; in government hospitals, many are still retained as contract workers.
6. In many countries, the 2020 lockdowns prompted people to notice how the most ill-paid and denigrated jobs (bus drivers, cleaners, garbage removal) turned out to be society's 'essential workers' -- and deserved corresponding pay and dignity...
7. We need to notice the same in India, and in the middle of this second wave, nurses deserve it most of all. #ThankYouNurses
8. “Every time I came back home from quarantine, I saw people pouring turmeric and neem water on the path I walked...
The stigma is tougher to handle than the virus.”
Nisha, after working as a nurse for 10 years takes home Rs 15,000 p.m. @PARInetwork:
ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/fo…
The stigma is tougher to handle than the virus.”
Nisha, after working as a nurse for 10 years takes home Rs 15,000 p.m. @PARInetwork:
ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/fo…
Dr Devi Shetty's viral (in a good way) lecture remains worth watching, from 05:30, he makes the crucial point that our shortage of medical resources – oxygen, drugs, ventilators – is the smaller challenge, compared to our critical shortage of nursing staff
10. Many nurses are men, but it's inescapable that nursing has been so underpaid and undervalued because it's mostly women.
It's similar with anganwadi and waste workers: all doing essential work through the pandemic, even as they're pushed into ad hoc, informal employment.
It's similar with anganwadi and waste workers: all doing essential work through the pandemic, even as they're pushed into ad hoc, informal employment.
11. The comparison to defence services should be more than just metaphorical. As one sanitation worker told Dr. Barbara Harriss White, they deserve to literally be employed and organised along those lines – as #armies for health, social and waste services.
https://twitter.com/thewire_in/status/1392412373995032576
12. With that should come compensation, not just for training and labour, but for the traumatising effects of serving in Covid wards and ICUs in the second wave.
The emergency induction of young nurses, still finishing the GNM, could push that psychological exposure much higher.
The emergency induction of young nurses, still finishing the GNM, could push that psychological exposure much higher.
13. Instead, as our country drowns in the second wave, the people pulling us back to dry land may not even receive a living wage. Or decent quarters, or a pension to live on when they retire.
(And some empty statements like this)
#InternationalNursesDay
(And some empty statements like this)
#InternationalNursesDay
https://twitter.com/AmitShah/status/1392395580446371845?s=19
14. Two nurses, photographed by @rohini_mohan, speaking from a Covid ICU to a non-Covid area in the pediatric ward of a Bangalore hospital: where they are caring for two Covid +ve children, aged 5 and 7, who are in critical condition. 
[Quite fittingly, I was struggling through vaccine side-effects and sweating out my fever while we shot this video. I relied on @vandana_menon and others to gather this material & other research]
15. If you want to read one deeply knowledgeable article on Indian nurses and why they get such a bad deal, I strongly recommend this in @thecaravanindia - published between the first and second waves.
caravanmagazine.in/health/how-ind…
caravanmagazine.in/health/how-ind…
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