Nurses leading the battle against Covid-19
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 14, 2021 -

UNSURPRISINGLY, various organisations and individuals led by chief minister N Biren wholeheartedly hailed the role of nurses on the occasion of International Nurses Day celebrated on Thursday and paid touching tributes to the relentless services being rendered by the nurses in these critical hours of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Regardless of stray incidents of patients' parties accusing nurses and doctors of lacking compassion in providing treatment and holding them accountable for loss of lives, it's an undeniable fact that had the healthcare service providers, the nurses to be specific, not tended to the ailing persons the casualty figures from Covid-19 would have been much higher than it is today.

Working for long hours wearing protective kits would indeed be an energy-sapping experience and as such it is understandable that the patients would suspect professionalism among the medical personnel assigned duty in the Covid wards as and when they feel that the nurses aren't paying them adequate attention.

However, as stated by CM Biren and civil societies in their messages, the nursing fraternity has been rendering untiring service amid the depressing situation arising out of the virulent pandemic and rightly acknowledged that nurses have been at the forefront of battling the deadly disease.

From the initial stages of the pandemic's first wave, during which nurses had to tend to the patients clad in quality compromised personal protective equipment to the present situation where hospitals are on the verge of exhausting the stock of medical oxygen not to mention about shortage of Covid beds, the nurses have been working under challenging condition.

In-spite of the pandemic exposing the state's frail healthcare system, Covid as well as general patients continuing to avail treatment in the various healthcare facilities testifies services being rendered by the medical personnel.

Moreover, in-spite of inadequacies, substantial numbers of Covid-19 infected patients getting reunited with their loved ones sums up the role and contribution of the nurses, though doctors often hog the limelight for speedy recovery of the patients.

Even if their commendable services remain mostly subdued, the fact is nurses are the ones who remain closest to the patients and face the risk of getting infected themselves.

Owing to the mild or even undetectable nature of symptoms of Covid-19 in some infected patients, nurses are most vulnerable to contract the respiratory disease but they continue to serve in the frontline.

Unarguably, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore importance of doctors, nurses and their support staff in successful tackling of the infectious disease, irrespective of the fact that there were irrepressible incidents in the past that cast aspersions on the professionalism of some healthcare service providers.

Through their untiring efforts, the nurses are proving their detractors wrong by leading from the front in battling the virus.

While it is the bounden duty of the government to ensure that healthcare facilities have adequate stock of medical oxygen and enough beds in view of the increasing number of people contracting the infectious disease, nurses often face criticism when patients die gasping for oxygen.

With experts predicting that the north-eastern states, including Manipur will see spike in Covid-19 cases till June, it is nurses who shall continue to be at the forefront of battling the worst ever health crisis humanity has ever experienced.

Thus, it is important that the government ensure adequate availability of oxygen and vital medicines to help the nurses save as many lives as possible.