Pakistan needs quality paramedics for healthcare system

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]




KARACHI: Pakistan urgently needs more than 3000 nurses and paramedics and at least 1000 competent midwives to improve the country's healthcare system.

According to an article published in the latest edition of Pakistan Journal of Medical Education, owing to lack of understanding among the policy makers as well as even among the doctors' community little attention has been paid towards the quality of education and training of these allied professionals.

Although there are 119 schools of nursing and 144 schools of midwifery the standard of education in these institutions are depressingly low.

A few years ago a survey conducted by UNICEF on midwifery training showed that 90% of the nurses pass their examination without performing even a single delivery in a labour room environment.

During their training they are poorly paid and are not allowed any exposure to antenatal clinics.

The scene is not much different in nursing schools where life is marked by a chronic shortage of tutors, text books, teaching aids and resource material etc.

As a result at the time of passing out from the public sector entities the nurses are neither well trained nor do they have sound theoretical knowledge.

They are also not well versed in basic professional ethics and this explains the alarming number of medical accidents in the hospital, said the author of the article.

Contrary to general perception, he writes the lack of financial resources is`also not the main issue as funds have been there but not properly channeled.

It was claimed that countries that have realised the centrality of the paramedics have focussed on their professional training and grooming ultimately giving their healthcare delivery system an efficient edge over others.