BENGALURU: Will you trust your loved one’s life in the hands of a first or second-year nursing student? There are 112 permanent nurses in Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology who are being ‘assisted’ by students who are of not much help as they are not taught to do routine nursing duties like drawing blood or injecting IV in the initial years of their courses. The hospital has 680 beds and nursing services include administering cancer drugs, blood/blood component transfusion, inpatient, outpatient emergency, administering oral morphine solution in palliative care, steroids etc. Nurses man operation theatres, blood banks, help in CT scans, MRI’s and diagnostic centres.
Kidwai’s 112 permanent nurses are being stretched beyond their capacity even as the hospital is in denial of the fact that it is affecting patient care. As many as 27 Post Basic BSc nursing students from Victoria Hospital, 25 from Global College of Nursing and 40 from Kidwai College of Nursing have been roped in but to no avail. Dr KB Lingegowda, director, Kidwai hospital, said, “There is absolutely no problem. Patient care has not been affected in any way. The striking nurses think we cannot run the show without them but we are.”
Take for example, a step one ICU of 18 beds in the hospital. Patients post surgery are housed here on day 1 if there are no complications. Critical patients are also kept here. It is being manned by a single permanent nurse with assistance from two nursing students from Victoria and five from Kidwai College of Nursing. It usually has eight nurses as against one. “We are two permanent nurses. I have worked two back-to-back shifts during the strike till 9:30 pm. We can only give the patient emergency injection. Care is not possible. The doctor can only give instructions on post surgical care or critical care to me, not these students. They can monitor IV levels and those of other medicines. They cannot be entrusted with any other treatment responsibilities,” a nurse requesting anonymity said for the fear of being targeted. She has been on the rolls for 18 years.
At least 80 patients are treated per day in the day care chemotherapy ward. Some chemotherapy drugs take up to three hours to be injected. “It is very difficult to run the show. I cannot leave for lunch as I cannot leave patients in the care of these students. They won’t know patient files,” said a permanent nurse.Room 109 is one of the treatment rooms which is a scene of chaos. With one nurse and nursing students crawling all over the place, security was roped in to rein in patients’ attenders. As the clock strikes four in the evening, buses from Chinai College of Nursing leave the hospital campus while the permanent nurses do the harder 8 pm to 8 am shifts nursing patients.