Neglected Concerns of Nurses and Their Unheard Voices; A Blind Spot in our Health System

Abstract

The current scenario of nursing in India forces us to introspect if the nurses are equipped enough to bring out their best contribution towards the health of our country and if their voices are well heard in the healthcare system. Despite being highly skilled professionals, nurses are neither facilitated nor rewarded enough to sustain their motivation and inputs. To understand the struggles faced by nurses in India, we reviewed literature that addresses Indian nurses’ concerns and brainstormed about the major challenges that nurses encounter with key nursing personnel from nursing education, clinical services and administration from selected hospitals of India. The major challenges that negatively affect the contribution of nurses are shortage of nurses, poor working conditions and career opportunity, ineffective leadership roles, poor educational quality, low salary and state neglect. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven the vast contribution and sacrifice of nurses. The competency of nurses has gone up with specialization, and advanced nursing degrees. Enhancing nurses’ involvement in collaborative healthcare research would be a hallmark in improving the quality patient care. To efficiently utilize the contribution of the nurses in healthcare system, the society and state have to recognize the potentials and vulnerabilities of nurses, appreciate their strengths and reciprocate responsibilities to their neglected concerns.