Reflections on the Nursing Work Environment in Light of the Experience With COVID-19

Labor issues related to the nursing profession have been gaining prominence in Taiwan as well as overseas. In 2016, the United Nations highlighted the importance of societies investing sufficient funds in their professional nurses to support and promote public health, gender equality, and economic growth. Good-quality care requires that nurses have good physical and mental health, while creating and maintaining a friendly nursing work environment rely on cooperation among the government, labor unions, and hospitals. Over the past decade, the Taiwan government has increasingly promoted relevant regulations and established a friendly platform to allow nursing staffs to identify problems and report labor rights violations. In addition, nurses have formed unions to defend and advocate for their professional rights. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019, the Department of Nursing and Health Care of the Ministry of Health and Welfare actively proposed policies related to creating and maintaining good nursing work environments. The Taiwan Nursing and Medical Industries Union took a supervisory role in this process, providing feedback on policies from the perspective of Taiwan's professional nurses and arguing for the reasonable and fair subsidization of epidemic prevention facilities, implementation of mask and protective equipment, nursing labor rights, and social respect for the nursing profession. Much work still needs to be done to improve the domestic working environment for nursing staffs, including improving and expanding education, normalizing and effectively utilizing nursing staff feedback and whistleblowing information, promoting information transparency, and implementing better policies. We hope that a friendlier nursing work environment will attract many more outstanding young persons to pursue a career in nursing.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:67

Enthalten in:

Hu li za zhi The journal of nursing - 67(2020), 6 vom: 03. Dez., Seite 12-17

Sprache:

Chinesisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Chen, Yu-Feng [VerfasserIn]
Yang, Wan-Ping [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

COVID-19
Journal Article
Labor rights
Nurses
Nursing work environment
Pandemic prevention

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 08.12.2020

Date Revised 14.12.2020

published: Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.6224/JN.202012_67(6).03

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM318404435