It is no secret that nursing is the frontline in health care, and is of particular significance in rural areas which lack proper health services. The inferior standard of nursing and the large shortage of qualified nurses are widely considered to be the reasons behind many cases of infant mortality in Egypt.
Among the major problems facing the nursing sector in Egypt is the immigration of qualified nurses to the oil countries Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates; some even settle down in Europe and the United States where good nurses command a degree of respect they are never accorded in Egypt, and where salaries they are not to be compared to the penury ones they are paid at home.
Sorry state
The 2005-2006 statistics reveal that, on the average, there are 28.2 nurses in Egypt for every 10,000 of the population. Obviously, this is severely insufficient.
Any observer of the health scene in Egypt is bound to see that the country lacks a national strategy for the nursing sector. Watani talked to Hoda Zaki, deputy to the Health Minister for nursing, and professor at cairo University’s nursing college. Dr Zaki was absolutely candid when she began by stressing that there was no denying that nursing in Egypt was in a sorry state. To improve, she suggested, “We direly need to reform nursing education, and to find a solution to the ever increasing number of nurses who either immigrate or leave work in State hospitals to the more lucrative salaries of private hospitals.
“Since I took the charge of the nursing sector in February 2007, we embarked on an ambitious programme to reform nursing education both on the intermediate and higher nursing school levels as well as the health technicians’ institutes. To become qualified nurses or health technicians, students now study for four years and spend one year training. There are now 20 nursing institutes in Egypt,” she said, “and the plan is to increase them to 60 to cover all of Egypt. We use curricula and clinical training recommended by the World Health Organisation.” And to encourage further education, she said, an Egyptian Fellowship for Nursing is being established, requiring a two-year study that focuses on professional and technical skills, especially for those working in the intensive care and emergency units in hospitals.
“We are also creating the post of nursing administrative assistant to help alleviate the administrative tasks of nurses and allow them to dedicate their full time to nursing the patients,” Dr Zaki explained.
Stay home
“There are 204,000 nurses in Egypt,” Dr Zahi said, “164,000 of whom work at State hospitals and health centres, while the others work in the private health sector. The actual number of working nurses in Egypt’s State sector is only 90,000, however, since the remaining numbers are on leave without pay to immigrate or work in the private sector.”
To overcome this problem, Dr Zaki said, “We are trying to improve the salaries of nurses, and at the same time offer them incentives and services such as nurseries for their children or comfortable buses to carry them to and from their work.”
An article has been added to the new nursing bill soon to be discussed in Parliament, she said, stipulating that every member should serve for at least five years in a State health facility in Egypt. Otherwise, the member will be dismissed from the syndicate.
Watani asked whether it was admissible for private hospitals in Egypt implement their own training programmes for nurses, to alleviate the pressure on State institutes and encourage more young people to take up nursing as a profession. Dr Zaki said the health ministry welcomed any private effort at enhancing the nursing profession or swelling its ranks, provided such efforts complied with the ministry’s standards in the field.