Being a nurse in Pakistan
Nurses work shifts that last 12 to 24 hours. They perform numerous unpleasant procedures and even put their own lives at risk for the sake of their patients. Many nurses say they are harassed by young men who come in as either patients or relatives of the patient. They are asked personal questions and are, often unable to perform their duties due to harassment. Asking a nurse for her phone number is a regular occurrence in the hospitals of Pakistan. Patients even ask them if they can photograph them, and sometimes take pictures while the nurse is not looking. Under these conditions, ...
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Are babies worth much in Pakistan?
The news of Pakistan topping the world league of still births creates a sense of indignation. It is yet another sad testament of the country’s health sector. Here in the UK, stillbirths are the highest amongst most developed countries. Although one can apportion some of these causes to placental problems, infections or congenital abnormalities, but there is still a significant number which cannot be explained. Sadly, the UK and Pakistan will address this problem quite differently – perhaps somewhat predictably. In the UK, major investment in research will often follow to investigate the causes of such high mortality rates. This follows its ...
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Making the right call
While Sunday may be synonymous with snooze-fest among most work-goers, yesterday was a particularly restless day for nurses from a nursing institute in Punjab. The nurses took to the streets along with members of civil society to protest against the expulsion of a number of their brethren from the institute for using mobile phones during work – a decision taken by EDO Health, Doctor Mukhtar. Leaving aside the claims and counter claims to police mistreatment during the expulsion, I stand by Dr Mukhtar’s decision to penalise this misdemeanor. Nurses should not be allowed to use their mobile phones during work hours ...
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Comfortably inhuman
If you are a regular follower of the Pakistani blogosphere and mainstream media, chances are that you have come across these three stories – the fake degree scandal, Fox News declaring the countryPornistan and a heartbreaking rape incident of a nursing student. It is amazing how the stories that appear completely different are in one way correlated. Starting off with the Fox News story, which claims that Pakistan tops Google’s chart when it comes to ‘Sexy Searches’ (Though personally, I find nothing sexy about horse sex). Frankly, Fox News is infamous for its special love for Pakistan and the Muslim world ...
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Is Magdalene the child of a lesser God?
Let me confess that I have been jolted into writing this painful blog on Magdalene by a committed social activist’s answer to my query about why his organisation has not protested about her ordeal. He replied, “We can’t speak up for everyone…” What was Magdalene’s crime? All she tried to do was better her life by enrolling in a nursing school in Karachi. She may not have become Florence Nightingale, but she sure had stars in her eyes and the prayers of her poverty stricken family in Punjab. But it was not to be. The petite young woman caught the ...
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