Local nurses called on to increase level of care

JAKARTA (JP): Nurses should improve the quality of their care and become more professional in their daily service, a senior nurse said yesterday.

Ratna Sitorus Sudarsono, a teacher at the University of Indonesia's school of nursing, said that there were far too many instances of patients becoming victims from the carelessness of nurses.

"Our nurses are not properly trained in their education to render professional care," she lamented.

"Current nursing schools only teach concepts (of professional nursing) to nurses, but the application is hardly seen in practice," she told The Jakarta Post after speaking at a seminar on medical care management here yesterday.

She said proper training could help improve nurses' professional attitudes and help them to discern their patients' basic needs.

Ratna explained that if nurses wished to establish a high standard of professionalism in their work, they needed to become more active in determining the type of care that patients require.

She said nurses now are far too passive, acting only when ordered by senior medical personnel.

Ratna noted that nurses were not expected to render major medical treatment to patients but they should be able to make simple diagnoses.

Simple diagnoses by nurses, she said, must fulfill the often neglected basic needs of patients which includes the need to communicate with other people and even the need for a change of clothing.

Ratna, who also chairs the management board at The Indonesian Florence Nightingale Foundation, underlined that nurses should be more caring when providing service.

The Indonesian Florence Nightingale Foundation was created to establish cooperation between Indonesian and English healthcare professionals.

It was founded on Sept. 9 this year to promote the training and education of nurses. (09)