Elly taking nursing off the sidelines<\/p>\n
Ratih Sayidun and Santi W.E. Soekanto, Contributors\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Countless parents want their children to become doctors, but they
\nwould be less than enthusiastic -- probably downright angry -- if
\nthe latter wished to become a nurse.<\/p>\n
Maybe they should meet Elly Nurachmah, the first Indonesian
\nnurse to become professor of medical surgery nursing at the
\nSchool of Nursing, University of Indonesia, of which she is now
\nthe dean.<\/p>\n
She acknowledged recently that people often look down on the
\nnursing profession, believing that it is of lesser status than
\ndoctors. Her speech when she was made professor last May clearly
\ndefined the problem of nursing in Indonesia, in that the
\nprofession has yet to develop the way its \"colleague\" (the
\nmedical profession) has developed.<\/p>\n
\"Nurses are so often sidelined among health professionals ...
\nthe government has yet to allow nursing professionals to
\nsignificantly contribute to health development of the nation,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
\"The prevailing image of the nurse in the public is that of an
\nassistant or merely the servant of doctors. Evidence of this can
\nbe found in the kind of appreciation and financial compensation
\nfor nurses, the poor esteem that the public holds for them.\"<\/p>\n
Part of the problem carries over into training of nurses,
\nwhich remains focused on having them do the bidding of others.<\/p>\n
\"Many nurses have not been given adequate training and
\nunderstanding about patients as human beings,\" she explained.
\n\"Nurses are often trained to just carry out tasks given by
\ndoctors, (and this is one of the reasons why) they tend to
\ndisregard patients' feelings.\"<\/p>\n
Historically, nursing in this country was a profession that
\ndeveloped from a low level of education. Nursing training here
\nwas first initiated in the 1890s by nuns, so the discipline was
\nat first not as scientifically rigorous in nature and mostly took
\nless than a year to complete.<\/p>\n
In 1962, Indonesia established the first nursing academy,
\noffering a three-year training course for high school graduates,
\nand the profession began to have regulations and organizations.
\nThe development of the profession was strengthened in 1983 during
\na national nursing seminar that declared nurses to be health
\nprofessionals, just as doctors are.<\/p>\n
Higher studies in nursing began when the University of
\nIndonesia set up a five-year nursing studies program, and then
\nthe D3, or three years of training, for high school graduates.
\nElly was the first D3 graduate who went on to further her
\nstudies.<\/p>\n
The higher level of education is therefore expected to polish
\nthe nurses' bedside manner, she said, so they would be more
\nsensitive to patients' feelings.<\/p>\n
\"It's very often the case that patients who are already
\nanxious about their ill health become even more anxious because
\nof the nurses' unfriendly manner,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"What we need now are nurses who are critical and rational
\nabout their profession. Nurses used to work only by instinct,
\nintuition, but now they really know what they are doing.\"<\/p>\n
Even today, more than 60 percent of the approximately 250,000
\nnurses and midwives in Indonesia are graduates of the nursing
\nacademy. Less than 2 percent are graduates of university schools
\nof nursing; many of the latter choose to work as academics rather
\nin hospitals, where they would be able to give the best quality
\nnursing to patients.<\/p>\n
\"This is a fact because health care facilities such as
\nhospitals do not appreciate the graduates enough, while other
\nnurses with lower education in the hospitals often feel
\nthreatened by them,\" Elly said.<\/p>\n
\"It's regrettable but if more nursing graduates go to work in
\nthe universities and education centers, rather than go to work in
\nhospitals, they will end up as poor educators with no experience
\nin the field.\"<\/p>\n
One of the ways to overcome the various obstacles facing the
\nnursing profession is to develop criteria of nursing education.
\nState-run Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta and other
\nhospitals have developed programs where graduates of university-
\nlevel nursing schools can apply their knowledge in facilities
\nwhile undergoing training.<\/p>\n
Born in Bogor, West Java, on Aug. 17, 1948, Elly is the
\ndaughter of a housewife who did not believe in education for
\ngirls, because they would have to spend their life in the kitchen
\nanyway.<\/p>\n
Upon graduating from high school, Elly pleaded with her father
\nto allow her to continue to university. He relented, and she
\napplied to the University of Indonesia's School of Medicine.<\/p>\n
On the day that she learned she did not pass the medical
\nschool entrance test, she wandered sadly around the Cipto
\nMangunkusumo Hospital and chanced upon its nurses' dormitory.<\/p>\n
\"I thought, this is it, the right school for me so I could be
\nindependent from my parents,\" she told d'Maestro magazine. \"So I
\ntook its entrance examination, with confidence.\"<\/p>\n
Elly found independence and her true calling.<\/p>\n
\"Many people do look down upon us nurses, but personally I am
\nhappy to be a nurse because it makes me feel I can do something
\ngood for other people,\" she said. \"I am happy every time I see a
\npatient leave the hospital in good health.\"<\/p>\n
Elly began her career as a nurse in the Intensive Coronary
\nCare Unit (ICCU) of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in 1971. Four
\nyears later, she won a Colombo Plan scholarship to a coronary
\ncare course at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia.<\/p>\n
In 1988, when she was working and studying for her master's
\ndegree in Sydney, Australia, she had her first experience in
\ncaring for AIDS patients.<\/p>\n
\"The disease had been first revealed in 1983, but not many
\nIndonesian nurses knew about it or how to care for the patients,
\nbecause the government was not forthcoming on the subject.\"<\/p>\n
None of her colleagues in Sydney were willing to care for the
\nAIDS patients then, but Elly came forward.<\/p>\n
\"I took double precautions, including putting on two sets of
\ngloves and put one gown over the other, but that was all right. I
\nwas sure that God wouldn't allow bad things to happen to me
\nbecause I had only good intentions,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She took part in the Leadership Training for HIV\/AIDS in
\nChicago last year. Upon her return, Elly established the AIDS
\nTeam of University of Indonesia's School of Medicine, which, in
\ncooperation with the College of Nursing of the University of
\nIllinois in Chicago, regularly disseminates information on
\nHIV\/AIDS.<\/p>",
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