A nurse tends to a premature infant at the Quảng Ngãi Province's Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam is one of the countries with the lowest ratio of nurses per thousand people, only equal to one eighth of developed countries, said Phạm Đức Mục, chairman of the Việt Nam Nurses Association.

By 2025, the nation wants to have 25 nurses for every 1,000 people, but just 60 per cent of that goal has been met thus far, he said.

He warned that when there is a scarcity of nurses, patients will be the ones who suffer the most with a global nursing shortage affecting all nations.

Having worked for more than ten years at the Central Military Hospital 108, nurse Nguyễn Thị Ngần, at the Department of Neurosurgery, Institute of Neurology, has many times been asked why she chose nursing as a profession.

"I nurtured the dream of following the path of a physician, doing my best for everyone's health, and I truly did," she said, recalling her early years of seeing pictures of physicians and nurses dressed in white shirts.

“Every time I've heard that question, all I can do is smile. My passion for the field and my desire to support patients and colleagues are the driving forces for this decision.

"With enthusiasm and love for the profession, we learn to listen so that we can not only be caregivers but also become understanding people, helping patients overcome difficulties during treatment,” she told Đại Đoàn Kết (Great National Unity) newspaper.

"I can still clearly recall caring for an elderly patient who needed brain surgery. The patient said to me, ‘Thank you for taking care of me like a daughter taking care of her elderly parent’ after he healed and was allowed to leave the hospital. That message struck a deep chord with me. We need to regard those who are ill like our own relatives, the suffering appears to have ended at this point and the only thing left is happiness upon seeing patients get better and resume normal life.”

In a report on the global nursing status of the World Health Organization (WHO), nursing is a vital part of the healthcare system.

According to Mục of the Nurses Association, nurses make up the majority of medical personnel in all worldwide health systems, accouting for up to 59 per cent of the workforce. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health's 2020 Health Statistics Yearbook states that nurses make up 39 per cent of all workers in the health industry.

Approximately 60 per cent of medical personnel who interact directly with patients are nurses, with, according to Mục, nurses and midwives offering the most frequent and consistent services.

The WHO study also announced that for 88 per cent of the time patients are in the intensive care unit (ICU) their primary contact will be with nurses, only 12 per cent of the time spent in ICU will they have contact with doctors and other medical professionals.

Mục said: "Without doctors, there are no patients - without nurses, there is no hospital. Nursing services are offered 24/24 hours and 7/7 days a week. Usually a nurse is the first person to receive a patient, sometimes the nurse is the only person to give first aid to the patient in the hospital and at medical stations.

“The professional capacity of nurses directly affects the health and lives of patients.”

Assist patients both physically and mentally

He said the professional duty of nurses is to help patients both physically and mentally but they will also need to cooperate with treatments between related professions.

“We hope to receive support from doctors and recognise nurses as special collaborators of doctors because the work of doctors and nurses is always closely linked, complementing each other and helping each other practise safely, reducing stress in a high-pressure health care environment,” he said.

At work each nurse takes care of tens of thousands of patients (estimated at 80,000), stays up late on duty for thousands of nights (estimated 2,800 nights) and according to Korean research every day on shift will have to perform up to 49 different tasks.

Nurses assist patients at an intensive care unit at the K Hospital in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

Vietnamese research shows that nurses here have an even bigger work load, more than 100 tasks a day, because they are assigned many administrative tasks. Their professional activities have a very wide scope, not limited to carrying out doctors' orders.

Nurse Vũ Thị Thành Tâm who has been working at the Department of Chemical Treatment, Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion for 12 years, has witnessed many cruel fates of leukemia.

She said: “A nurse must not only love her job but also be compassionate, patient and listen to and understand patients.

“A nurse is like a mother having a baby. Sometimes in the middle of a meal during a shift, there is an emergency and you have to put down your bowl and run away immediately. Staying up all night to monitor the progress of seriously ill patients is normal.

"It's so hard, but it's so happy to regain a patient's life from death and see the patient's happy smile when they leave the hospital."

According to Associate Professor Nguyễn Hà Thanh, director of the Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, the institute has over 1,000 officers and employees, of which nursing and medical technicians account for about 60 per cent.

Nurses working at the ICU have a tough job because they have to take comprehensive care of patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to carrying out doctors' orders, nurses also take personal care of patients which is everything from helping them eat to personal hygiene.

Mục has proposed that nurses be more focused on patient care and have their professional capacity improved: "The Ministry of Health has issued a scope of professional nursing activities including 1,251 techniques, including 26 emergency techniques that nurses must be proficient in, 94 techniques that nurses have the right to designate, and 317 frequent techniques that nurses must be proficient in. To carry out this many professional activities following regulations of the Ministry of Health, hospitals need to improve the capacity for nurses.”

Over the past 30 years, Việt Nam has upgraded nursing training to four levels: college, university, master/specialty and doctoral. The functions and scope of professional activities of nurses have been expanded and a nursing management system has been delivered from the Ministry of Health to local health departments and hospitals.

He suggested that in order to close the quality gap with other nations, nursing in Việt Nam has to continue receiving greater attention and funding.

Dr Lương Ngọc Khuê, director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, Ministry of Health, said the present number of nurses trained in Việt Nam can match the numbers needed and every year, Việt Nam also provides a source of nursing graduates to work in some developed countries such as Japan and Germany.

However following the pandemic, several provinces in Việt Nam had trouble finding enough nursing staff.

It is now working conditions that have a major role in the current nursing shortage. Tough working conditions is the main reason why nurses leave the field, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many nursing graduates go on to other careers instead of practising nursing and some go to industrialised nations to work as healthcare providers, he said.

To improve the quantity and quality of nursing care and meet the increasing demand, Khuê said it is necessary to focus on continuous training for nurses so they are able to update with new knowledge and skills.

In addition, it's critical to provide a supportive and encouraging work atmosphere that fosters nurses' professional growth and offers them appealing career promotions, he said. — VNS