The Control Yuan on Monday censured the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) after an investigation found that registered nurses were being overworked.
Registered nurses were also not given hazard pay, despite their work being laborious and dangerous, Control Yuan members Teresa Yin (尹祚芊), Peter Chang (張武修) and Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲) told a news conference.
There are 370 clinics nationwide, and as the only convenient healthcare option for many rural communities, registered nurses at these clinics are required to perform a variety of tasks — meaning their work is never done, the members said.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Registered nurses prevent and treat infectious diseases, treat women and children, administer vaccinations, conduct cancer screenings, and perform on-site mental health visits, among other daily tasks, they said.
Standards set by the ministry in 2000 stipulate that clinics in most areas should have one registered nurse on staff and five regular nurses. Areas with larger populations should have more nurses.
However, an investigation found that many clinics had not hired additional nursing staff, the members said.
They said that 68 percent of clinics had insufficient staffing, and 25 percent had nursing staff scheduling problems.
At 92 of the clinics that the Control Yuan investigated in 2018, each registered nurse was responsible for helping an average of 10,000 patients on an ongoing basis, while at another 12 clinics each registered nurse was helping 20,000 patients, they said.
At one urban clinic each registered nurse was responsible for 48,702 patients, they added.
The American Nurses Association recommends one nurse for every 5,000 patients.
Registered nurses are being overworked because regional health departments have continuously dumped their responsibilities on clinics, including the implementation of weight loss campaigns and programs for quitting smoking, as well as the sale of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, they said.
The investigation also found that registered nurses had to work late hours and on weekends and holidays, which is when many people visit clinics, they said.
The members said they also found that some clinics illegally required registered nurses to perform duties outside of their responsibilities, such as accounting, human resources and equipment purchases.
Registered nurses are evaluated on more than 100 work items, and are burdened with responsibility for local healthcare and disease prevention, the members said, adding that this was an unreasonable burden and hindered their ability to perform.
Registered nurses’ work could also be dangerous, the members said, citing an incident of a person having a mental health episode who stabbed a registered nurse to death.
Registered nurses are also often subjected to verbal and physical sexual harassment while conducting home visitations, they said, adding that the government should recognize nursing as a high-risk occupation.