The European Public Health Week (EUPHW), an initiative organized and coordinated by the European Public Health Association (EUPHA), is taking place for the 6^th time May 13-17. It aims to raise awareness about public health and promote collaboration among the public health community in Europe. Its motto this time is Health is a political choice! The focus is on how to integrate health into the political agenda effectively because political decisions can have a durable effect on the health of the population, education, the environment and social services.

In this country besides politics in healthcare, we need to take a look at a series of problems, one of the biggest of them being nurse understaffing at medical establishments. Mina Ivanova, who has been practicing the profession since 1965, is still working as a nurse at a kindergarten in Alfatar.

“Because of understaffing, I was asked to take the job at a kindergarten for one year, but I have now been working seven. Two years in a row I’ve submitted my resignation after the end of the school year, but I have always been asked to stay on.”

• Bulgarian healthcare faced with shortage of 17,000 nurses

Staff shortages have led to a constant rise in the average age of medical staff. Mina Ivanova says that since her very first day at the Regional Hospital in Silistra, her paycheck has not been enough. That is why she retired on a very small pension. “Staff shortages are entirely due to low pay,” she says.

“All co-workers I have kept in touch with hold several jobs. Ours is a difficult profession and when you hold several jobs you just can’t put your heart in it.”

Young nurses have very good training, says Prof. Galina Chaneva, deputy dean of the Faculty of Public Health at the Medical University in Sofia, and she is not at all surprised that Mrs Ivanova is still working even though she is almost 80 – “she regards the profession as a personal responsibility because she knows there is a staff shortage and she wants to help.” However, medical institutions should adopt a policy of attracting and keeping staff.

Around 150 nurses are admitted to the Medical University in Sofia but the applicants usually number around 200, and some years even more, so we can always admit 150 people every year, Prof. Chaneva explains.  

“By way of comparison let me say that in Lyon, our colleagues say they select 100 out of 10,000 people. But in France the profession of nurse has very high social standing.”

Besides at the Medical University, nursing has been studied at the Vasil Levski National Sports Academy for a second year.

“Last year we applied to the Accreditation Agency and admitted the first nurses. Our motive was most of all the huge nursing staff shortage in Bulgaria, in the EU, and the world,” National Sports Academy chief secretary Prof. Ivan Maznev Ph.D. told the BNR. “Our second motive is that for 75 years we have had training in the field of kinesitherapy and physiotherapy. We have the necessary resource of lecturers, and the conditions to launch such training.”

The problem of low pay does exist though not everywhere, says Prof. Maznev. “The big hospitals with a sufficient financial resource provide nurses with a decent income but for smaller hospital it is very difficult to find medical specialists.”

A solution to this problem that will change the negative tendency of staff shortages is still waiting to be found:

“When teachers’ salaries were raised interest in pedagogical studies went up considerably. The pay is extremely important but salaries are not subject to state regulation, as the medical establishments in this country are commercial companies even if they are owned by the state or by municipalities,” Prof. Maznev says.

It is the ambition of the National Sports Academy to provide jobs for their students at leading medical establishments in the country, and until that time – to offer them good conditions for their education – accommodation and scholarships to cover the cost of their education.

Interviews by Tanya Milusheva, Silvia Velikova, Horizont channel, Lili Goleminova, Radio Sofia, BNR

Compiled by Yoan Kolev

Translated and posted by Milena Daynova

Photos: Рixabay, Rawpixel, BNR-Vidin