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Prayer 6
Nurses in the Fiji Islands and Pakistan
Thumb Nail sketch of the Plight of Nurses in Fiji |
Fiji Nurses Association – 1200 Nurses in this tiny island strike for 15 days. Concern at the increasing mortality rate of Nurses over the past ten years. Five per cent pay cut causes Nurses not to want to work double shifts. Many Nurses suffering burnout, are admitted in general or psychiatric hospitals. Many Nurses looking overseas for work for better pay and work conditions, or joining private practice even though being alerted to the exploitation of their colleagues e.g. in Kuwait. Nurses deliver 60-70% of all babies round the country referring to a doctor for only very complicated cases, i.e. except in rural areas, where Nurse practitioners who are qualified to deliver the most complicated deliveries are posted. Nurses enjoy their work but not the discrimination and lack of benefits received by Doctors who do the same work in well appointed hospitals in contrast to the difficult rural remote areas in which Nurses practice. The New Zealand Nurses Organization felt constrained to reach out to Nurses in Fiji who were genuinely in financial straights. In what ways can you and I help and to encourage and strengthen our colleagues in the Fiji Islands? |
Thumb Nail sketch of Nurses plight in Pakistan |
Pakistan's health-care system is hamstrung by an acute shortage of Nurses significantly caused by poor training facilities and an extremely difficult work environment. Parents send daughters Nursing because they can’t afford the approximate US$100 per month fee for graduate classes. Student Nurses receive a stipend of about 50 dollars per month. More than 100 Schools of Nursing in Pakistan have neither syllabus nor proper teaching staff. Senior Nurses act as tutors. For some subjects teachers are hired on a daily salary which is deducted from the students’ stipend. Many Doctors and the majority of patients and their relatives regard Nurses as sex symbols. Non -compliance by the Nurse results in physical abuse with no recourse, offenders, including Doctors are not convicted. |
While these thumb-nail sketches reveal a fraction of the plight of Nurses in the Fiji Islands and in Pakistan they can do much more by challenging Nurses in every Nation to think, pray and act.
Strike action brings powerful political rhetoric that effectively removes any understanding or sympathy for Nurses. Appeals to higher authorities by Nurses goes unheard, while the pathetic plea of Doctors who hold the real power in the Health Services does little more than bring sympathy at their plight and helplessness because of no qualified Nurses. Both receive world-wide publicity bringing sympathy to the Doctors and added denigration to Nurses.
For a prayer focus to be effective it must be based on the reality of the situation and on the Word of God. Let every Nurse therefore take heed to this Word and use it as a sure foundation for prayer and in addressing each issue, those noted and the many more known by Nurses in each Nation.
THE WORD OF GOD
Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.
Illumination of God’s Word: Will you pray with us that every Nurse in the Fiji Islands and in Pakistan will ask and receive this gift of illumination which will help transform his/her own life and influence in Nursing and the Health Services |
It is known and appreciated that Nurses in Fiji generally start their meetings and deliberations with prayer. Yet unfortunately the events of these past few months indicate that something is not right.
Jesus says ‘You have not because you ask amiss’, and to ‘Ask in faith believing’. Our assurance is in “Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within in us”. Ephesians 3::20.
Thus each Nurse needs to reflect before God what has been prayed for and what ought to be prayed for.
Reading God’s Word is essential if Nurses are to gain fresh insight and understanding of how better to overcome the many very real and distressing problems in Nursing and to learn to pray aright..
READ THE BIBLE |
The thumb-nail sketches of Nursing dilemmas in the Fiji Islands and in Pakistan are salutary reminders of much that is happening world-wide in Nursing and to Nurses.
No Nurse can expect to get a just victory over the many injustices to which he/she is subjected if that Nurse consciously or unconsciously lives outside of God’s Laws and Commandments. The Nursing Profession is made up of individual Nurses who form and contribute to the whole body of Nursing,
God’s Word Convicts and Cleanses
The convicting, cleansing power of the Bible is key evidence that it is the inspired Word of God
This power has not been found in any other of the fine scholarly writings found in the many languages of the world. Therefore if Nurses are to overcome effectively, each Nurse is duty bound to read and find this for her/himself.
Without this convicting power working to show each the specific error of one’s own way there can be no cleansing, no healing and no reconciliation with God or man. No person has the freedom or authority to condemn the evils of this world when walking in disobedience to God’s law themselves
God’s Word Cleanses each one from: Wrong thoughts – when tempted to think unkindly – God’s Word will prevent this Cleansing brings purity and purity brings power |
Napoleon stated: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I myself have founded empires; but upon what do these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His Empire upon love; and to this very day millions would gladly die for Him.”
If we in other nations joined the Nurses of the Fiji Islands and Pakistan and asked Jesus Christ the King of Kings and LORD of Lords to help us make the whole Nursing Profession an integral part of His Kingdom, it would indeed be a force to reckon with.
Delay Not! The salvation of Nursing depends on the ready response of every Nurse in every Nation.
A sanctified service for His people, those within His kingdom and those without.
This is prayer in action
Copyright © Nursing With a Differnce Trust 2006 |