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Local nurses changing jobs
10/3/2004 16:21

A growing number of nurses in local hospitals are switching to other jobs, causing a great shortage of nurses here, the Shanghai Morning Post reported today.
Last year, 20 nurses from Ruijin Hospital moved to other jobs, and every year more than ten nurses from some district-level central hospitals are transferred to other places.
In order to ease the shortage, some local hospitals are considering recruiting nurses in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui Province, with some district-level central hospitals seeking nurses through talent exchanges, and grade-two hospitals planning to recruit nurses via the Internet.
Nurses with two years of work experience are most likely to change jobs, said a director with the nursing department of a local grade-three hospital. "Most of them resign to study abroad or have a rest, but actually, many nurses go to Sino-foreign joint-venture hospitals or act as sales representatives in medical firms," the director pointed out.
It is not unexpected that young nurses will change jobs, as nurses must work hard and have high level of responsibilities, said a teacher with a local nursing school. She added that local young nurses are pampered from childhood and cannot adapt to the job.
However, nurses have their own complaints. "What I have given is far more than what I get," said Zhang Yuqiong, a nurse in an emergency treatment department with a local grade-three hospital. "Although I have been a nurse for only two years, I feel great pressure every day, and I have to be on night-shift for more than 100 days every year," she said, adding that working in a grade-three hospital requires high treatment capabilities and is too risky.
Moreover, it is hard for a nurse to get a promotion due to the lack of an evaluation system for nurses, and those over 40 have to be transferred to other jobs, said an industry analyst.




 Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news