It has often been said that we appreciate the value of something only when we lose it. Taking people for granted is another endemic weakness of many western societies that seem to be inordinately focused on maximising income and profits while not giving much importance to those whose mission in life is to keep us healthy and safe.
The World Health Organisation declared 2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. This was hardly a coincidence – more than ever before, our well-being has depended on healthcare workers as they became our first line of defence against the devastating effects of the pandemic.
There has been no shortage of rhetorical praise for these frontliners. They have been hailed as selfless heroes and so they are. But, like any other workers, nurses and other healthcare professionals have economic priorities that they need to address.
The Sunday Times of Malta has reported that Malta is bracing for an exodus of foreign nurses poached by the UK as part of its efforts to control the spiralling COVID-19 crisis. This news does not come as a surprise to any unbiased analyst of Malta’s flawed human resources strategy of the last few years.
We have too often been fed the fallacy that Malta’s economy could not grow and social services would not be sustainable unless we imported large numbers of skilled and unskilled labour. Treating workers as a commodity carries risks that can damage our community’s social and economic fabric, even if it may produce some short-term gains.
International studies have also shown how an increase in nurses’ workload is associated with a decrease in patient satisfaction. Overworked nurses and midwives have less time to communicate with the patient and with colleagues.
Of course, the shortage of nurses is a worldwide challenge that both poor and rich nations face. The direct effects of this shortage is the so-called ‘brain drain’.
Usually, this takes the form of richer countries recruiting qualified nurses from developing countries like India, the Philippines and some sub–Saharan African countries.
The ‘push factors’ in nurses’ migration include lack of professional opportunities, low income and the presence of political unrest in poor, developing countries.
The ‘pull factors’ are a large offer for jobs with favourable economic benefits in the richer countries.
But the migration of healthcare workers is also increasingly common between rich countries that compete for recruitment by offering nurses attractive financial and working conditions.
Like many other western countries, Malta fails to acknowledge the importance of having a core team of motivated local healthcare workers who feel respected and adequately paid for their crucial contribution to keeping the nation healthy.
A successful human resources strategy for healthcare workers must be based on making work in the medical sector attractive to our young people, who see the potential of successful careers in the healthcare professions. High-quality training, attractive financial remuneration and good working conditions – just rewards for the innate disposition to care for others – are indispensable elements to stop the exodus of nurses and other healthcare workers.
In the last few years, we have often been shocked by the disregard of taxpayers’ interests in the award of public contracts, including the privatisation of the operation of three public hospitals. The public declarations at the time about the need to improve the quality of public health were eventually exposed as a charade.
However, no one would feel short-changed by the government now if it were to start treating healthcare workers with the respect and dignity they deserve. They are, after all, the guardians of our health.