Nurses lift spirits and touching lives

Yulia Wardhani, Jakarta

"Lifting Spirits, Touching Lives" is the theme of National Nurses Week this year, celebrated from May 6 to May 12.

A nurse, in the eyes of most people in our community, is little more than a doctor's assistant. With the government still slow to upgrade the nursing education system, we can expect people to continue to underestimate the nursing profession.

People assume a nurse's job is just to follow the doctor's order; no more than an instrument to deliver the medicine and treatment prescribed by the doctor.

However, some patients see nurses as angels. Some patients describe nurses as helpers, people who use their knowledge and caring to help patients recover. In this view, nurses are people who neglect their own needs to serve humanity, as if nurses had nothing in this world, but many things in heaven.

When asked, most doctors appreciate the work of nurses. Twenty-four hours a day, nurses are at hand, doing their job for the sake of their patients.

Nurses must know about the disease process, the psychosocial aspects of illness, the effects of medicine, the process by which families cope with illness, all the aspects of human beings. Nurses also need a deep knowledge of how to provide care and tenderness.

But nurses have limitations and their own burdens and personal problems. Nurses, as first-line health providers, play a key role in the health care delivery system. Just imagine if our health care system did not employ nurses in hospitals, health care center or clinics. What would happen to the health of our people if the number of nurses decrease year by year because of the government's failure to give nurses the attention they deserve?

The important role nurses play in the delivery of health care cannot be underestimated. Our health care system relies on their training, experience and caring nature. At the same time, nurses are taking up new positions, moving away from perceived role of doctors' assistants and becoming nurse practitioners and specialist nurses.

The world of nursing has begun to change in Indonesia. Nurses are improving themselves to achieve the highest levels of professionalism. More and more nurses are continuing their education to earn master's and doctorates in nursing. They are empowering themselves and demanding to be recognized by the public for their work and their achievements.

Research indicates that advanced practice nurses can provide 60 percent to 80 percent of primary care services as well as or better than physicians, and at a lesser cost. A study by the Nursing Credentialing Research Coalition found that certification has a dramatic impact on the personal, professional and practical lives of nurses. Overall, nurses in the study stated that increasing their academic qualifications and certification enabled them to experience fewer adverse events and errors in patient care than before they were certified.

The study also found that having advanced degrees made nurses more confident and capable of detecting early signs of complications, helped them provide better nursing care, improved their patient satisfaction ratings, and helped them more effectively communicate and collaborate with other health care providers.

The government plans to end the three-year diploma (D3) program in nursing education in 2015. Now nurses who only have a D3 degree are being encouraged to continue their studies to earn a bachelor of science in nursing. Many universities are now offering postgraduate nursing programs and producing more professional nurses for the country.

Strangely, at the same time the government has introduced a four-year nursing diploma. What kind of academic degree will this program bestow? A D3 diploma or a bachelor of science? It seems like political interests could interfere with the country's nursing education system.

Meanwhile, neighbor countries has been moving toward a new nursing education framework since the 1970s. In the Philippines, the minimum academic requirement for a nurse has since 1974 been a bachelor of science in nursing.

Nurses in Indonesia are moving forward but are still surrounded by questions. Does the government realize this, and is it helping improve the nursing profession in the country? This is the big question.

The writer is a Lecturer on Psychiatric Nursing Sint Carolus Nursing School, Jakarta.