This Thursday, May 12th, is International Nursing Day. On that occasion, Multinews spoke with the President of Ordem dos Enfermeiros (OE), Ana Rita Cavaco, about the main problems in the sector.
The first thing the official mentioned was the salary she considered “unacceptable” given the work done and the number of hours worked. He asserts that “the number of nurses’ work hours per week is close to 70.”
Most nurses earn €1,200, that is, they take home less than €1,000 per month. He advocates an unacceptable wage, not to mention a high-tech profession,” adding that “most nurses are licensed and 34% are specialists.”
Additionally, issues such as returning points, or lowering the retirement age, are seen by the chairman as “urgent” and “priority,” similar to a person’s view of the profession.
He points out that “it is necessary to return the points to nurses, and it is a priority to move towards lowering the retirement age,” wondering that “it is definitively assumed that we are facing a profession that must be taken into account.” Risky and cumbersome “.fast”.
Because of these problems that do not make the profession “attractive” for Portuguese nurses, thousands of people have decided to leave the country since the epidemic began in Portugal.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, more than 2,000 nurses have requested a declaration for immigration purposes,” says Anna Rita Cavaco, stressing that “in total, the Evaluation Office has received 2,143 applications for advertisements: 1,230 in 2020 and 913 in 2021. “. He pointed out that the data for 2022 will not be known until “at the end of the first semester.”
When asked about the government’s position regarding the problems and demands of dismissal, the President expressed his “satisfaction” with the commitment made by the Assistant Secretary of State and Health, Antonio Lacerda Sales.
the ruler, “Leaving the promise on the last day of the Nurses Conference, last weekend, to assess the nurses’ jobs, by redeeming the missing points,” he revealed. “We are pleased to see and look forward to this promise,” Concludes.
These statements confirm a recent study on the living and working conditions of nurses in Portugal, which was conducted in the past two years, and concluded that Almost two-thirds I have already considered changing professions due to working conditions, and six out of 10 have to work overtime due to low wages.
The investigation also revealed that 67% of nurses do not like their son or daughter to pursue their profession, half of them do not recommend their friend the life of a nurse, and 66% do not consider their wages acceptable, said Anna Rita Cavaco.
In addition, the study also found that 55% of nurses Admitting that he actually acted against the code of ethics and code of conduct due to the physical limitations or guidelines of the institution, a conclusion the president did not want to comment on. “This question should be put to the executive branch, because what is at stake is the shortage of materials and the shortage of nurses,” he only emphasized.
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