Dear Editor,
The vox pop in your Sunday Observer (April 7, 2013) which asked 'Should nurses be paid more than doctors" has left us flabbergasted and dumbfounded at the ignorance of the Jamaican society about the nursing profession.
What we would like the citizens to understand is that nursing is a profession, separate and apart from medicine (doctors). We display our own autonomy as it relates to patient care. We have advanced from the days when nurses would take all instructions from doctors, and are now active participants in making decisions regarding the welfare of patients.
There are different levels and types of nurses:
Registered nursess (RNs) are the bedside nurses with whom you come in contact on the wards.
Specialist nurses, such as anaesthetic nurses, have distinct functions alongside doctors.
RN midwives deliver babies.
The public health nurse's main responsibility is for childcare services.
Nurse practitioners assist in all areas of the health facilities.
The profession starts at level 1 (recent graduate from university with a bachelor's degree) and goes up to level 5 (many years of experience and continued education up to master's degree or PhD); with as much as 16 specialties.
It does not boil down to who has the most important job in the health-care sector or which profession should be paid more. The point is that persons should be justly compensated based on their workload, qualification and job description. Upon graduation from university, both nurses and doctors obtain bachelor's degrees. It is only fair that we are both compensated for our qualification.
In the health sector, nurses and doctors are interdependent, where the success of one is intertwined with the other.
The root of this matter is that the doctors have been protesting as they do not believe that a nurse, at any level, should be getting paid more than their interns.
An intern doctor is a recent university graduate who has not yet obtained a licence to practise medicine. Implying that an intern doctor should be making more than every level of nurse and nursing specialties is preposterous.
Clearly, some specialist nurses will possess more qualifications and experience than an intern.
In light of the recent events, it is clear that our nation does not value nurses. If nursing was such an unimportant profession, why is our Government spending so much to import RNs? Why is the health sector under such strain due to shortage of RNs? Well, if RNs are unimportant let the doctors run the wards.
Dissatisfied Nursing Students
St Andrew
Let the doctors run the wards
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The vox pop in your Sunday Observer (April 7, 2013) which asked 'Should nurses be paid more than doctors" has left us flabbergasted and dumbfounded at the ignorance of the Jamaican society about the nursing profession.
What we would like the citizens to understand is that nursing is a profession, separate and apart from medicine (doctors). We display our own autonomy as it relates to patient care. We have advanced from the days when nurses would take all instructions from doctors, and are now active participants in making decisions regarding the welfare of patients.
There are different levels and types of nurses:
Registered nursess (RNs) are the bedside nurses with whom you come in contact on the wards.
Specialist nurses, such as anaesthetic nurses, have distinct functions alongside doctors.
RN midwives deliver babies.
The public health nurse's main responsibility is for childcare services.
Nurse practitioners assist in all areas of the health facilities.
The profession starts at level 1 (recent graduate from university with a bachelor's degree) and goes up to level 5 (many years of experience and continued education up to master's degree or PhD); with as much as 16 specialties.
It does not boil down to who has the most important job in the health-care sector or which profession should be paid more. The point is that persons should be justly compensated based on their workload, qualification and job description. Upon graduation from university, both nurses and doctors obtain bachelor's degrees. It is only fair that we are both compensated for our qualification.
In the health sector, nurses and doctors are interdependent, where the success of one is intertwined with the other.
The root of this matter is that the doctors have been protesting as they do not believe that a nurse, at any level, should be getting paid more than their interns.
An intern doctor is a recent university graduate who has not yet obtained a licence to practise medicine. Implying that an intern doctor should be making more than every level of nurse and nursing specialties is preposterous.
Clearly, some specialist nurses will possess more qualifications and experience than an intern.
In light of the recent events, it is clear that our nation does not value nurses. If nursing was such an unimportant profession, why is our Government spending so much to import RNs? Why is the health sector under such strain due to shortage of RNs? Well, if RNs are unimportant let the doctors run the wards.
Dissatisfied Nursing Students
St Andrew
Let the doctors run the wards
-->