With the slogan ´Nurses for change, a vital resource for health´, 12th nursing national conference has kicked off in the capital on Monday.

The conference, organized to mark the International Nurse Day, aims at addressing the agendas of nurses and making nursing sector more dignified.

Pramila Dewan, president of Nursing Association of Nepal (NAN), stated there several issues that the government should address in a bid to make nursing sector more professional.

“We will discuss various issues extensively in a bid to resolve the challenges we are currently facing. We also want the nursing sector to be more dignified in coming days,” Dewan told Republica.

She also stressed, during the conference, on the need of providing quality nursing education amidst mushrooming health colleges.

Setting up a separate nursing division and appointing nursing representatives in the research council are some of the major demands raised by the NAN.

Likewise, speaking at the conference, central committee member of NAN, Roshani Shrestha said that nurses in Nepal are compelled to take care of more than 40 patients at a time.

She opined that a nurse should take care of only six patients if we are to follow the international values.

Her statement comes amidst allegations on nurses for behaving rudely with patients.

The conference is said to address the issues of more than 40 thousand nurses and auxiliary nurse midwives working in the country.

More than 1200 representatives from all over the nation have participated in the two-day long conference. The Nepal Nursing Association will hand over the recommendations to the Health Ministry.

source: republica,13 may 2014