It's just the third day in the MINE programme but it feels like we've already done a lot.
We were taken on a hospital tour at the Central Hospital of Satakunta (Satakunnan Keskussairaala) where we visited four different wards: two medical wards, Intensive Care Unit and the Accidents and Emergency Department. The hospital itself didn't really strike me in that, I thought it's... normal. It's very interesting to see though, because I immediately take in all the differences I see and compare it to Mater Dei Hospital (the hospital I work my placements in). The one difference that stood out to me is that things here seem to be very well organised. And with further explanation from the nurses giving the tour, I realised why; they have sufficient number of staff working in a ward. The nurse - patient ratio is more or less 1:2 or 1:3 which is a surprise to me and truthfully, I envy. In Malta, one of the main problems in the health care system is the lack of human resources. We are (severely) understaffed that the intended 1:4 nurse - patient ratio becomes 1:6 (and I've worked in a setting where some days the ratio was 1:48 which is just staggering). However, I was told that in London, nurses often take care of up to 8 patients at a time so I guess that in normal circumstances, ours isn't that bad.
I think that sticking to our 1:4 ratio is very important so that proper nursing care could be given. We work 12-hour shifts and taking care of a lot of patients gets really tiring especially later in the day. Mistakes can easily be made by tired nurses and ever the attitude towards the patients can change. Mater Dei is a state of the art hospital with very good equipments and whatnot but what are equipments and machines without people (who have the correct knowledge and qualifications) to operate them? This isn't just about us, the nurses, and our rest. As I've said, mistakes are more likely to be made and quality of care can go down. Who wants that?
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