Nurses in the olive green: What next?

Abstract

Dear Editor, Military Nursing Service (MNS) officers form one of the important components of paramedical staff in the Army Medical set up. Recently changes have been made in the routine working dress of the Nursing Officers from traditional white to olive green shirt and pant. The exact cause of this change is not known, but the new pattern of dress seems to lack elegance and working comfort compared to traditional white. Most of the young nursing officers do not appear to be satisfied with the change. The olive green shirt and pant is not able to hide the disproportionate bulges in the obese persons and looks ugly on some of them. This has a detrimental effect on the typical charm of the Army uniform. Moreover, due to lack of adequate Army training their pattern of wearing the head gear is below the desired standards and their reluctance to salute senior officers, adversely affects the decorum of service. The previous pattern of olive green one piece skirt was still better compared to the shirt and pant, as it could maintain their identity without affecting the rank. Moreover, it looked more sober in obese persons. With the present uniform, most of the patients find it difficult to differentiate between the lady medical officer and a nursing officer which may at times lead to embarrassing situations. Though MNS offers best career opportunity for nurses in India, unfortunately, over the years, ‘nursing’ component of their nomenclature seems to be taking a back seat and more stress is being laid on the ‘officer’ component. They have started equating themselves with the medical officers and tend to exercise authority over the medical officers, especially the junior ones. Though status of the nursing officers has been clarified time and again, but an ambiguity remains. With the gradual change in attitudinal profile, a junior AMC officer may find it difficult to extract work out of a senior ranking MNS officer. There is a tendency to palm off routine nursing procedures like sponging, catheterisation etc and get it done through the less trained para medical staff. In a survey of attitudinal profile of MNS officers, Goel et al also found more authoritarian attitude and a greater negative attitude towards authority [1]. This seems to be an alarming trend. Disciplinary cases pertaining to the nursing officers (both reported and unreported) are on the rise and their immunity from most of the Army Acts/Rules adds to the problem. All these factors may have a deteriorating effect on the image of the MNS. The role of Principal Matron and senior nursing officers in bigger hospitals also needs to be redefined. There is reluctance to do the basic job and thus causing a loss of technical manpower. The aim of this article should not be construed in a negative way. The idea is to enrich the discussion on this important subject. Solicited response/comments from the editorial board/appropriate authorities will be appreciated.