The shortage of nurses from hospitals in China has affected the quality of medical service in the country.

The deficiency of nurses is in the millions

Zhang Weichi, a nurse from the Neurology Department of Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing, was offended by the rudeness of a neurologically disabled patient who spit on her face when she attempted to collect sputum from her.

On that particular night, Zhang started to question her choice of becoming a nurse, a profession that is overwhelmed by samples of blood, urine and sputum.

Her negative feelings are not groundless; the severe shortage of nurses in China has imposed great challenges on an occupation that involves a heavy workload, frequent night shifts and low pay.

According to the World Health Organization, the average proportion of nurses to a country's total population is around 0.5 percent, while in China it's only 0.1 percent. In Norway the country with the highest proportion of nurses in its population, there are 17.27 nurses for every 1,000 people.

Based on criteria decided upon more than 30 years ago, hospitals are required to secure a supply of nurses whose number is equal to that of doctors.

But the figures are so outdated that they can poorly reflect to the demand of today's medical landscape, said Shang Shaomei, the dean of the School of Nursing at Peking University.

The dean also pointed out the disparity of the number of nurses between big cities and other regions. In Beijing, the rate was 5.3 per 1,000 in 2015, but in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, the rates were only 1.4 and 1.3 per 1000 respectively.

The meager incomes cause the huge loss of nurses

Recently a young drug addict who had been in coma was admitted to the respiratory intensive care unit (ICU) at Chaoyang Hospital. When he regained consciousness several days after his arrival, the man relapsed into drug addiction, verbally and even physically abusing any nurse who approached his bed. No female nurse would enter the room, so the hospital asked a male nurse -- Gu Wenjie -- to take care of him until he left.

"Actually, I was scared too," Gu said, "but the man is critically ill, there must be a nurse to take charge of the ICU."

The patient attacked Gu whenever he approached. When the patient left the hospital he did not show a slight sign of remorse for his brutal and violent manners towards the nurses.

The shortage of nurses has resulted in a heavy workload, and frequent night shifts and high-risk-and-low-return working conditions have led many nurses to quit.

In April this year, more than 40 nurses from The Second Hospital Affiliated to Suzhou University announced their departures all at the same time in response to their small salaries, which were 2,000 yuan (US$305) a month each. Their exodus caused dysfunction in the operation rooms. Moreover, the Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University on the east side of Shanghai has met with difficulties in recruiting nurses without whom the wards cannot open.

The contributions by nurses at hospitals have always been neglected and the low salary may be the major reason they leave their posts, Shang said.

To maintain a stable distribution of nursing services, hospitals should improve human resources management, making reasonable returns to the nurses who deserve them, subsidizing junior nurses and broadening career prospect for senior ones, Shang said.

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