Health minister promises to reduce job related difficulties of nurses

Health Minister Mohammed Nasim has asked nurses to serve patients at hospitals and he will look after their grievances.

"I am beside you. But I want you to work with dedication," he said on Wednesday.
 
The minister was launching the web-based human resource management system for the whole nursing sector.
 
Health Ministry’s Joint Secretary (nursing) Goutam Aich Sarker said the system would give them real time human resource information for policy decision.
 
“This will improve transparent and efficient management,” he said, presenting the details of the data-base. The system was built with help from the Canadian government.
 
Canadian High Commissioner Benoit-Pierre Laramee said his country would support Bangladesh to achieve “quality and efficient” healthcare.
 
Bangladesh lacks nurses. Statistics show one nurse against two doctors, contrary to the World Health Organisation’s recommendation that there should be three nurses against one doctor.
 
Social stigma was once heavily attached to this profession dominated by women.
 
“But things are changing. More and more students are coming to study nursing,” Md Mizanur Rahman, a senior staff nurse at Dhaka Dental College told bdnews24.com on the sidelines of the event.
 
He, however, lamented that opportunities have not been created for nurses.
 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has upgraded the nursing profession to class II and some senior posts as class I. 
 
The government is also working on upgrading their appointment rules.
 
But Rahman said tardy bureaucracy was holding back the progress of implementation of political decisions.
 
For example, he said, the director of the nursing service that regulates nurses was serving on her “own pay”. “She is a senior staff nurse, but serving without extra pay or promotions.” "You'll find in-charge officials in most of our top posts," he said.
 
The health minister also assured the nurses of expediting the process of recruiting 10,000 nurses.