Growing support for the nursing profession

The Daily Star, a major English-language newspaper in Bangladesh, reports: “Nurses should be entitled to a comparatively standard pay structure and status with respect to other professionals in society, if Bangladesh is to lift its nursing services to international standards, [according to local experts speaking at a conference]. They also stressed upholding nurses’ image in the country and improving their services through creating avenues of training abroad and giving promotions as per their skills. Prof Dr A K Azan Khan said, like many other countries in the world, Bangladesh is facing the crisis of skilled nurses: ‘It is frustrating that the doctor-nurse ratio in our country is 5:1 while the standard ratio should be 1:5.’ Poor financial support, lack of appreciation, vague status of nurses and negative social attitude towards them – are some of the factors that discourage the youths from joining this profession, he explained.” Daily Star October 20, 2010.