Recovering from the fatigue of two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the embattled nurses observed International Nurses Day on Thursday. The occasion, which celebrates their contribution to society, is also a time to understand the challenges they have faced since the pandemic began in Turkey.
They are still among few people required to wear protective masks after Turkey recently scrapped the mask mandate except at hospitals and in mass transit. But better days are ahead for them as the burden the pandemic inflicted upon health care workers significantly dropped. Hospitals are nowadays largely free of COVID-19 patients, with some entirely shutting down wards dedicated to the infected in the absence of patients.
At Health Sciences University Dr. Suat Seren Hospital in the western province of Izmir, some 500 nurses who toiled for two years at the facility converted into a pandemic hospital finally came together without bulky protective suits and masks, but in the courtyard of the hospital, for celebration. They were finally able to hug each other and eat cake together to mark their day.
"What you’ve watched on TV, people going around in masks and cumbersome protective suits, was a daily reality for us," Zeynep Gür, an emergency room nurse at the hospital, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday. "We thought it would never end but you see we are here now, in the open air, without masks," she said. Oktay Kılıç, another nurse, said he hoped the pandemic would never make a comeback. "We lost many colleagues but today, we are happy to mark our day," he said.
Halime Çiğdem Doğu, a nurse with 23 years of experience, said past Nurses’ Day events were routine for her but this year’s celebration had a special meaning for her. "We worked hard during the pandemic. We had to limit our movement and focus on our job but in the end, we did our job well," she said.
Handan Çetiner, a nurse at Eyüpsultan Public Hospital in Istanbul, applauded the fight against the pandemic. "It has been tough but I am proud and honored to join this fight," Çetiner, who was infected twice with coronavirus and also infected her family members. "We had to shun hugging our children and parents so others can hug their loved ones," she said. What upset her most, though, was her encounter with a grocer. "I was at a grocery store one day for shopping and he told me that it was nurses and doctors spreading the virus. He wanted me to leave," she told Ihlas News Agency (IHA) on Thursday.
Hümeyra Seferi, a nurse for 22 years, said that although she was experienced, the pandemic was "a new battle." She managed to protect herself, only to be infected last March. After a self-isolation process, she returned to her job only two days later to suffer from an allergic reaction. "I've seen what the virus can do to a person. It affected our lives. We lived in fear and had to stay away from socializing with others. But I love my job and did not complain," she said.
According to a health care workers' union, despite leaving behind the worst in the pandemic, nurses still face "chronic" problems. Semih Durmuş, chair of the Union of Health Care and Social Service Workers (Sağlık-Sen), said in a written statement on the occasion of International Nurses Day that the profession was at "future risk," particularly stemming from a lack of clear definition of tasks nurses are assigned to and a clear definition in regulations regarding the rights of nurses under laws, as well as lower pay.
He said that nurses were also under a heavy workload, citing a drop in their numbers, from 156,972 in 2020 to 154,680 in 2021. "Each nurse does the tasks which four nurses should normally do," he complained. Durmuş also called upon more measures to protect nurses against "health care violence," referring to attacks on health care workers by patients or relatives or friends of patients, an issue plaguing the sector. "Nurses are exposed to more acts of violence than other health care workers," he highlighted.