The compliance rate with the nurse-to-patient ratio for the late-night shift in medical centers has gradually increased to 63 percent after one year, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) said yesterday, adding that the ministry would continue its efforts to retain nurses in hospitals.
Chiu made the remark at a meeting of the Taiwan Union of Nurses Associations (TUNA), where he discussed the government’s policies aimed at addressing the long-standing nursing shortage.
The Executive Yuan in July last year approved the ministry’s 12-point strategic plan to boost the nation’s nursing workforce, allocating NT$27.5 billion (US$834.50 million) over four years to implement the plan, he said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
The ministry in March last year set a standard for the nurse-to-patient ratios for the three shifts in medical centers, regional hospitals and district hospitals. As part of its 12-point plan, the ministry also offered bonus rewards for hospitals that comply with the standard, and bonuses for nurses working the night and late-night shifts.
The bonuses given to nurses in certain shifts and hospitals that reached the ratio totaled NT$3.8 billion as of last month, Chiu said, adding that the compliance rates have been increasing.
Compliance rates during the late-night shifts in medical centers have been the lowest, but the average rate still rose from 30 to 40 percent to 63 percent in January, he said.
The number of registered nurses reached 193,503, an increase of 3,531 people compared with the same time last year, Chiu said, adding that the number of nurses in hospitals also increased by 1,433 compared with last year.
Although the number of nurses increased, there is still a shortage in hospitals, and the ministry would continue to carry out strategies to improve nurses’ working conditions and encourage them to stay in hospitals, Chiu said.
He also addressed the issue of emergency room overcrowding during the Lunar New Year holiday, encouraging hospitals to flexibly deploy their nurses among departments.
The ministry last week also proposed draft “nursing staff trans-departmental reinforcement guidelines,” he added.
However, nurse associations, including TUNA, have protested the guidelines, saying that trans-departmental deployment would become an extra burden to nurses, and it neglects the safety of nurses and patients.
Chiu said the ministry plans to establish two versions of guidelines, and that they would discuss them with nurse associations to reach a consensus before implementation.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS