Opinion

Abuse by nurses is a universal problem

January 19, 2018
Abuse by nurses is a universal problem

Sarah Matar



Makkah newspaper

Incidents of physical abuse in the healthcare sector occur everywhere in the world. Some nurses even abuse elderly patients and children. The incidents do not only occur in the Arab world but also take place in advanced countries where the highest standards of healthcare are maintained.

We have to remember that in Third World countries religion plays a major role in the daily lives of almost all members of society, including female nurses. That is why the parents of sick children feel confident when leaving their children in the hospital. They know that nurses will take care of their relatives.

In fact, most people in the Arab world worry about medical negligence because doctors have a huge workload. Doctors can be extremely busy. As a result of this pressure, they may commit medical errors that can cost some patients their lives.

A video of a newborn baby being abused by nurses recently went viral on social media. One of the nurses was squeezing the sick baby’s face at a hospital in Taif while another captured the episode on camera. They were both laughing aloud and seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. Members of the public were furious, leading to Health Affairs in Taif launching an investigation, revoking the nurses’ medical licenses and dismissing them.

The tough action taken against the nurses is not enough. The Ministry of Health should require all private and public hospitals, polyclinics and primary healthcare centers to hold courses for their staff to explain to them what happens when patients are abused.

There are nurses around the world who have committed crimes. Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood were both nurses at a nursing home for the elderly in Michigan in 1980. They killed five elderly women and were sent to jail. One was sentenced to life and the other to 20 years in prison.

Genene Jones, a licensed vocational nurse at a San Antonio hospital, killed up to 60 infants and children who were in her care. She used Heparin injections, causing the death of the children between 1980 and 1982. She was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

English nurse Mary Ann Cotton was sentenced to death for murdering 21 people and using arsenic poisoning, which caused gastric pain and a rapid decline of the health of the people she was looking after. Kristen Gilbert, a former nurse, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering numerous patients by injecting patients with massive doses of epinephrine, inducing them to suffer cardiac arrest.


January 19, 2018
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