Editor,
Through the column of your esteemed daily, we would like to draw the attention of the citizens of Meghalaya as well as that of the other states and also our respected Chief Minister Sir and the Members of Parliament who are representing the state of Meghalaya at the Central forum, to kindly look into the article written by an anonymous writer with the headline ‘Nasty behaviour by NEIGRIHMS nurses and ward boy/ward girls’ that was published in the ‘Highland Post’ newspaper and in its Facebook pagedated 12th May 2022.
It looks like the ‘concerned citizen’ is well aware of the significance of 12th May, which is the day where nurses around the world celebrate the “International Nurses’ Day” and therefore had published the above mentioned article on the very same day which represents his/her resentment towards the nursing community and in particular the nurses of NEIGRIHMS. After having read the article, the nurses who were supposed to feel the joy of this day after two years of pandemic, had experienced the bitterness of getting a backlash of such kind in return which is quite ungrateful.
The ‘concerned citizen’ had shared his/her experience whereby the person had applauded the Security Department, Medical Record Department and the doctors of NEIGRIHMS for which the authority of NEIGRIHMS is grateful.
In the next section of the article, the ‘concerned citizen’ had mentioned about his/her experiences of the nasty behaviour of the nursing staff, the ward boys and ward girls. With empathy we express our concern for him/her who had encountered a list of unfortunate experiences while undergoing treatment in the hospital.
Having experienced the dis-satisfaction of patient care services, he/she could have gone forth with addressing the unfortunate incidents to the authorities concerned, who could have rectified the error there and then. Instead he/ she had displayed the grievances publicly in the article which has created a villainous image of
NEIGRIHMS’ nursing personnel as a whole. This act under the anonymous name of a ‘concerned citizen’ is an act to tarnish the image and reputation of NEIGRIHMS’ nurses which is unacceptable.
We all work together as a team to facilitate the early recovery of patients, educating the patients’ care taker on rehabilitation and homecare techniques to improve their health even when at home. Moreover we demonstrate all the techniques so as to make the patients/caretakers capable of implementing the techniques at home where health care professionals may not be available. This is a care transition from hospital to home.
In the article, it was mentioned that the nursing personnel are getting a Central government pay scale, which is much higher salaries than their counterparts in private hospitals whereby the services and behaviours are incomparable with them. Undoubtedly, we cannot deny that we are being paid salaries which are higher than our private counterparts and they can get the same when they clear the Central government exams like we did.
Moreover we would like to bring to your notice an important point that half of the nursing personnel serving the Institute are under contractual basis/ outsourcing who are also getting the similar pay as in private set up.
In the article, the anonymous citizen seems to have learnt a lot about nurses and their job description as he/she had stated that in NEIGRIHMS, the attendants have to do everything by themselves.
This statement is very much fabricated and fictitious as every cadre in the nursing hierarchy is performing their designated duties accordingly and sometimes more than their assigned duties and responsibilities.
The writer may also be unaware about the shortage of permanent nursing staff in NEIGRIHMS as the recruitment process could not be conducted due to the ongoing pandemic despite having several vacancies of Nursing Officer post, whereby the current permanent nursing staff along with the outsourcing nursing staff have been trying ways beyond their capacity to cover-up everything in their level.
We would like to request the ‘concerned citizen’ to kindly come forward and identify the staff who had misbehaved so that needed action can be taken against them by the higher authority as there is no specific detail of any staff/employee in the said article.
We would also like to request the public in general to kindly refrain from calumniating about professionals working in a healthcare system as it will have a great impact on their lives which in turn would affect the services they need to provide.
To the writer, we would like to say that the article you had published has demoralised and tarnished our image which will not fade away so easily from our mind and heart as we do what is best for the patients under our care.
Moreover, nursing is a profession that has suffered from public stereotyping for a very long time and such attitude is a demotivation for the youths who plan to pursue nursing as their career.
Hoping that such an act of baseless assumption is avoided in the future. Trained Nurses’ Association of India (TNAI)
