As nurses leave in droves, Indian hospitals get a backache
₹20,000 a month, more than half of which goes into repaying the loan she took to study nursing in a private college. Jose’s day starts with checking the inventory and the handover of patient data from nurses in the previous shift. Then she proceeds to accompany the doctors on their rounds.
Every day, the hospital handles about 10 deliveries and discharges, for which she must prepare the documentation. By then, it’ll be lunchtime, but sometimes she skips lunch to indent medicines for patients so she can leave soon after her shift. But often, there are emergencies.
Like a mother seeing blood in her breast milk, or a baby in the neonatal ICU developing a fever, or a child running around the corridor getting burned by hot water. And despite all that the nurses do to keep the hospital running smoothly, she said she has never received a word of thanks from the hospital staff or patients. Worse, she’s dismayed by the indignity meted out at times.
She was threatened with physical assault just recently, by the father of a patient. When she finally makes it to her hot and uncomfortable hostel room, she can’t afford to rest. Night hours are the only time she gets to study for the Occupational English Test, which healthcare professionals need to clear to land a job abroad—which she believes is the only way to escape her reality.
She is inspired by her seniors in college who have moved abroad, who earn, she claims, about ₹30 lakh per annum. “I come from a poor family, my father is an auto-rickshaw driver. I took up nursing because everybody said it’ll be easier to get a job after graduation.
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