IRISH NURSES AND MIDWIVES ORGANISATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE:MORE THAN half of migrant nurses working in Ireland say they have experienced bullying or discrimination in the workplace, according to a new study.
The study, carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, found 34 per cent reported being bullied by Irish nursing colleagues and 25 per cent reported bullying by nurse management. A further 5 per cent said they had been bullied by junior doctors or hospital consultants.
More than 300 non-EU nurses – mainly from the Philippines and India – were surveyed for the research, the findings of which were presented to the annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation in Trim yesterday.
The research also found only 19 per cent of migrant nurses surveyed were planning to remain in Ireland with uncertainty over citizenship one of the main reasons why they would leave.
Furthermore, 74 per cent of the nurses agreed the recession had had an impact on their satisfaction with life in Ireland.
The study was conducted between February and July last year. It states managers need to carefully consider the implications of the potential loss of significant numbers of migrant nurses from the health system. It is unclear how many migrant nurses work in Ireland, but almost 11,000 non-EU nurses registered to work here between 2000 and 2008.
Delegates attending the conference yesterday unanimously supported a motion rejecting the Croke Park pay deal on the basis that it did not rule out further pay cuts, and on the grounds that it would lead to a loss of thousands of hospital beds and frontline health service staff over the next few years. The organisation’s 40,000-plus members will begin balloting on the pay deal next week. Delegates laughed when told by the organisation’s deputy general secretary Dave Hughes that implementation of the Croke Park deal was subject to no unforeseen budgetary deterioration in the State. But since the deal was negotiated, the Government had decided to provide more money to banks and to Greece, he said.
Student nurse Tanya O’Connor from Cork became emotional as she called on colleagues to vote No to the pay deal, saying it would only lead to young people having to emigrate or go on the dole.
Delegates also voted to support 900 nursing colleagues at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital who are being balloted on industrial action over a decision by management to put extra beds on wards to alleviate overcrowding in the hospital’s emergency department.
The result of the ballot will be known on May 20th.
Moire Wynne, a nurse at the hospital, told the conference the hospital was closing beds while placing extra patients behind doors in wards to alleviate overcrowding in AE.
This was unsafe for patients who would have no dignity or privacy in these extra beds.
A spokesman for Beaumont, which revealed earlier this week it would close 52 beds in the next two weeks in a bid to cut costs, said the new policy being implemented since last month facilitated the provision of 10 extra beds on wards once there were more than 10 people waiting for admission in the emergency department.
Nora Cunningham, a nurse from Limerick Regional Hospital, said when management tried to do the same in her hospital beds were so close together, without any curtain separating them, that one patient vomited on top of the patient next to him.
The conference, which is being attended by over 300 delegates, will be addressed by Minister for Health Mary Harney today.