‘Cure for Hong Kong’s understaffed public hospitals is more cash to train student nurses’
Professor seeks funding to double the number of degree courses within five years
The head of a nursing school has called for more government funding to allow an extra 50 students a year to study for a degree and ease a manpower shortage in public hospitals.
Chinese University’s Nethersole School of Nursing says recruiting more students would raise the quality of health care services and improve the ratio of nurses to patients, which in public hospitals now stands at one nurse to 12 patients, well below the international standard of 1:6.
If the government gave the green light, the school in Sha Tin, which currently admits 260 students a year, would double admissions in five years’ time.
Professor Chair Sek-ying, the school’s director, said the government should act quickly to solve the manpower shortage.
“We hope to get more students of good quality to study nursing. The quality of the health care system in Hong Kong would be directly affected if nurses perform well,” Chair said on Thursday.
“The most simple way should be direct special funding from the government. The University Grants Committee only approves funding once every three years.
“If we have to maintain teaching quality and recruit sufficient manpower within a short period of time, I would suggest adding 50 places.”
While around 90 per cent of the school’s nursing graduates ended up at public hospitals, there was still a shortage of about 100 nurses in the public sector this year, the Hospital Authority said.
Chair said extra funding should also be given to Polytechnic University and the University of Hong Kong, the other two universities that run degree courses for nurses.
The professionalism of nurses has become an issue of public concern recently after reports of several medical blunders. In one high-profile case three nurses were removed from the nursing register for a month after they were found guilty of professional misconduct over the death of a 73-year-old cancer patient whose breathing hole in his throat was taped over with gauze.
While guidelines on tracheostomy care – an opening at the throat for breathing – were not provided in public hospitals, Chair said such skills were taught in the third year of the nursing programme. It is also required in the nursing training syllabus suggested by the Nursing Council.
Professor Carmen Chan Yip Wing-han, the school’s vice-director of education, said classes discussed reasons for medical blunders and preventive measures when they were reported. Students also had to pass an assessment before starting internships in hospitals.
A spokesperson for the Education Bureau said the number of degree places subsidised by the University Grants Committee would remain the same from 2016/2017 to 2018/2019, in view of “the short training cycle of nurses” and “a significant boost” in the number of subsidised training places at private hospitals and other institutions under a government supported subsidy scheme.
A spokeswoman for the Food and Health Bureau said a review of health care manpower planning, which covers nurses, would be completed in the second half of the year.
