With Centre directing 2 lakh final-year students to assist at Covid-19 centres, association says qualified nurses awaiting appointment should be hired at proper pay instead
As per United Nurses Association, about 1,500 posts are still vacant in the state. File/Ashish Raje
This week’s central government notification asking nursing students to assist health workers in the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has worried the nursing association, which said a large number of experienced nurses still await their selection letters after having applied for regular vacancies at various civic- and state-run hospitals.
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Nurses on COVID duty at Sion hospital. File/Ashish Raje
The May 3 notification said besides M.Sc. nursing students, post-basic B.Sc. (N) and post-basic diploma nursing students, who are registered nursing officers, final year GNM or B.Sc. (Nursing) students awaiting final exam may also be given full-time Covid-19 duties at various government/private facilities under the supervision of senior faculty. “The services of allied health care professionals may be utilised for assistance in Covid-19 management, based on their training and certification. The additional human resource thus mobilized will be used only in facilities managing Covid-19,” the notification said.
It added that incentives will be given by way of priority in upcoming regular government recruitments after they complete a minimum of 100 days of Covid-19 duty. “The National Health Mission (NHM) norm for contractual human resource engagement by States/UTs may be considered for implementation of the above proposed initiative,” the notification said, adding, “A suitable honorarium for distinguished Covid Service may also be considered and medical students/professionals sought to be engaged in Covid-19 related work will be suitably vaccinated. All health professionals thus engaged will be covered under the insurance scheme of government for health workers engaged in fighting Covid-19. All such professionals who sign up for minimum 100 days of Covid-19 duty and complete it successfully will also be given the Prime Minister’s Distinguished Covid-19 National Service Samman.”
Jibin TC, working secretary and state president of UNA
Jibin TC, working secretary and state president of the United Nurses Association (UNA) said, “A progressive state like Maharashtra is waiting to fill nearly 1,500 posts of staff nurses and the situation is almost similar in other states, where trained hands are awaiting job opportunities. But the country is crying about shortage of nursing staff and opting to hire services of final year nursing students instead. The UNA has around 25,000 registered nurses within Maharashtra and around 5.50 lakh across the country.”
Jibin cited a 2019 advertisement by Maharashtra’s health department for filling 1,500 nursing posts, for which he said 33,000 applicants had responded. A written exam was conducted on February 28, 2021, but results are still not out.
“And the central government has now come up with a notification stating that final-year medical students and nursing students can be used for assistance in Covid-19 duty,” he said. “We are concerned about the Centre’s ambiguous request. The notification does not mention anything about these students’ actual role in the pandemic, nor does it mention anything about their monthly emoluments or social security if they get infected during the course of duty. Hiring students on contract is much cheaper than hiring experienced nurses for the state exchequer. This is exploitation of labour.”
Jibin said if the proposal is to go through, there should be proper guidelines for hospitals across the nation, equal pay scales, appropriate patient-staff ratio, and social security to nurses and their families. “The government should allocate a budget to recruit new nurses by filling vacant posts in all state and central hospitals. We will meet the state government and approach the central ministry with our concerns.”
Dr TP Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research, who is also the Covid-19 care Nodal Officer for Maharashtra, was not available for comment till press time despite repeated attempts, as he was in a high-level meeting.
John Mukkathu Behanan, Vice President of United Nurses Association (UNA) for Kerala said it was ironic that many qualified and experienced nurses are without a job in Kerala, and the government is looking for final year students to work for Rs 565 a day. “And private hospitals in Kerala are hiring nurses for Covid-19 care at Rs 50000 monthly!”
A staff nurse at a Covid-19 ICU ward of a South Mumbai hospital said: “I am against the idea of hiring final-year nursing students to assist medical staff on Covid-19 duties. For over a year, these students have taken online classes, and do not have practical exposure. With the second wave setting in, patient inflow is on the rise. With hardly two to three nurses in Covid-19 wards and ICUs, every second is important. The need of the hour is to appreciate and acknowledge the hard work done by the nursing staff. Freshers are still paid peanuts (Rs 27,000/month, which after deductions come to around Rs 20,000) Hiring their services on a monthly stipend of Rs 2,000 or Rs 565/day is demeaning the community.”
Dr Santosh Kumar, deputy medical superintendent at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, who headed a team of doctors and nurses from Kerala to Mumbai last year to work at Seven Hills Hospital, said there was a shortage of staff nurses. “In our medical college, just last week, we had a walk-in interview to fill 150 posts of temporary nursing staff to handle Covid-19 cases. The contract was to be for two months and to our surprise more than 460 applicants including that of experienced nurses who had returned from foreign countries after they lost their job. In metros, the staff nurses hired for Covid-19 duties were paid anywhere between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000, but today the fresh hiring of nurses is happening at a salary below last year’s benchmark. The situation is the same in Kerala, where nurses were last year paid in the same range, but a recent circular from the state has stated that nurses to be hired on temporary Covid-19 duties will be paid only R565 per day for a 27-day period. This is why many staff nurses, looking for work after graduation seek overseas opportunities.”
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