CAIRO: A fresh university graduate, Ahlam secured a job as a nurse at a public hospital. At the time, business was booming and she loved her job. Fast-forward twenty years, the hospital has 10 patients, four nurses, four doctors (only one of which is on duty at a time) and three other employees.
"We are financially independent [of the government]; our salaries depend on the income of the hospital and there have been no improvements in the hospital for a long time. With the competition from private hospitals, we have reached a dire state and barely receive [our] monthly salaries [of LE 200]," she said.
Many nurses, she said, choose not to complete their mandatory government internships at public hospitals in favor of better paying jobs at private hospitals.
"If time goes back, I wouldn’t choose nursing as a career," she added.
Speaking at a press conference at the Journalists’ Syndicate on Monday, Ahlam refused to give her last name for fear of reprisal, saying that nurses were warned against speaking out.
In addition to her LE 200 salary, Ahlam is supposed to receive a 25 percent bonus, a LE 15-30 infection allowance, a LE 6 work nature allowance and a special 125 percent bonus, according to a recent ministerial decree.
However, she doesn’t receive any of these and even spends more than LE 10 daily on transportation alone.
More than 125,000 nurses in Egypt are confronted with the same problems, suffering from both "tough work conditions and social stigma."
According to current regulations, nurses are only granted two free medical examinations a month and if more is required, they are deprived of the privilege of free treatment. In cases of chronic diseases, namely cancer, AIDS and renal failure, nurses receive LE 2,700 in compensation paid over three years in installments every four months.
A morning shift pays LE 1.5 while a night shift is worth LE 2 and a meal which they describe as "inappropriate."
"A nurse is always giving and caring; without her, hospitals will close down which happened already in Gamal Abdel Nasser Hospital in Alexandria," Samia Gaber, head of Alexandria’s Nurses’ Syndicate, told Daily News Egypt.
"Unfortunately, the media created a stereotype of nurses being prostitutes or abused women who [choose] the profession as an escape.
“And the salaries are very low compared to private hospitals or in neighboring countries [which range from LE 1,500–LE 3,000]," she said.
The growing wave of protests by nurses — increasing from eight protests in 2008 to 12 in 2009 — is driven by the demand to increase wages and incentives, according to a recent report.
The report, put together by four human and civil rights groups — the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, the Earth Center, Medical and Environmental Development Association and New Woman Foundation — discusses the history of the profession in Egypt, increasing protests and the recent elections at the Nurses Syndicate.
"We demand a 125 percent incentive … as pledged by the minister as well as providing daycare facilities for our children while on duty and appropriate dormitories inside hospitals," Gaber said.
"A nurse is supposed to provide physical and psychological comfort to patients; how can she do so if she isn’t comfortable at her work," she added.
For Mahmoud Salem, a nurse at Abo El-Reesh hospital and one of the very few male nurses working in Egypt, these problems have further repercussions.
"As a father who has a family, I am forced to work three shifts to make ends meet," he said.
Salem joined the Nursing Institute, the second class to accept male students, after failing to join the Faculty of Medicine and has been working as a nurse for 10 years.
"Working extra shifts takes time from my family and leaves me with barely enough energy for the next day," Salem said.
Nurses also want to decrease the retirement age, now at 65, saying that they are too old by that time to perform their duties; and are demanding to be provided constant training and development programs.
The newly elected syndicate board, headed by Fathy Al Bana, the first male head of the syndicate, says they are responding to these demands but it is too early to judge their efforts.
"We are putting a plan by which we can protect nurses’ rights and we respond to complaints by visiting nurses in their workplace and trying to solve their problems," said Nabiha Mahmoud, member of the syndicate board.
However Mahmoud criticized protests organized by nurses that obstruct work in hospitals.
"In case of a problem, they should head to us, not sit in front of hospitals and leave patients to suffer," she said.
Mahmoud’s words were met with severe anger from nurses who accused the syndicate of not doing enough to help them.
"Although on pension, I will continue to serve nurses because I love this profession; all we are asking for is financial help from the government," Gaber said.
