'We are not barbers'

Say nurses in city's hospitals, assigned the chore of shaving female patients prior to surgery

As nurses across the globe celebrated international nurses day yesterday, those in the city spent the day clarifying an obvious point about their designation: that it does not say 'barber'. Nurses in the city's civic- and state-run hospitals are entrusted with the job of shaving female patients prior to any surgery. But they say that hair removal is neither part of their job description nor training. Moreover, it keeps them from attending to patients properly. Piqued with the pursuit of hirsute patients, on Thursday, a delegation of 50-odd nurses met Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar to press for the provision for female barbers, among a host of other demands. They returned with a long face from the BMC headquarters because only nine of the representative were allowed to meet the commissioner. But he did promise to consider their demands.


Hair'um-scarum:u00a0 Nurses from civic-run hospitals wait outside the
BMC headquarters to meet the municipal commissioner. Pic/Shadab Khan

'Spare us the hair'
Peeved with playing barber to patients, they cite various reasons why they should be excused from the depilatory duty. A salient one is that they are not qualified to shave. "Shaving is not part of our course curriculum or educational training. If the hospitals can have barbers for male patients, they should get them for females as well," said a sister tutor at KEM hospital, Kalapana Gajula, adding, "In civic hospitals, nurses are overworked. On top of that, they are expected to shave female patients before surgery."

According to the Indian Nursing Council, a statutory body, rules, the nurse patient ratio should be 1:3, but none of the public hospitals has been able to achieve that. A senior nurse from Nair hospital said, "Nurses are doing this job forcefully. Since we are not trained, it is a risky task." She added, "We have to shave hair from the whole body in case of cardiac surgeries. It takes over two hours. If we have female barbers, we can devote more time to caring for patients." Pramila Thule, senior nurse at JJ hospital and secretary of Pragati Nurses Sangathna, a state-wide association of nurses, said, "We have submitted a proposal for having female barbers in the hospital but the hospital authorities are sitting on it." Apart from setting the skewed ratio right, the nurses are demanding for the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission.

Deanspeak
The hospital authorities are on the same page as the nurses regarding employing female barbers, but it is up to the civic authorities to set the wheels rolling. Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of KEM and director of major civic hospitals, said, "I agree that female barbers are necessary. With the increase in the number of patients, it will be helpful. It is up to the BMC to implement it." Dr T P Lahane, dean of JJ group of hospitals, said, "The post for barber is already there and we can employ both males and females for the job. It is not a problem." Dr Ravi Rananavre, dean of Nair Hospital, said, "The civic body has a provision for the post for of the male barber but not for female barbers. The nurses demand is under consideration."

Nurse Day
Marking the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on May 12. The theme for 2011 is 'Closing The Gap: Increasing Access and Equity'.