Stop trying to compel nurses to work the hardest, longest shifts by making it impossible to bring a decent salary home without accumulating so many of them per month. The long night shifts should be distributed among more people, which again requires expanding the pool of available nurses. This needs to be done immediately, and it would be worthwhile to bring it up in negotiations with the committees, which as usual will want to impose a wage tie-in.
The government should regard nursing as a vital profession that deserves to be given priority, and should regard the current situation as an emergency.
Granted, the emergency has been ongoing for some time. But the wrongs of the past don’t justify misdeeds in the future.
Originally published in Makor Rishon, December 14th 2012. Translated from Hebrew by David B. Greenberg.
