Want to Trade Places With a Nurse in Baghdad?

I recently read an account of an American RN who accompanied her freelance writer husband on his one-year assignment in Baghdad and her attempt to find work there as a nurse. Her aim was to help, by the presence of an extra pair of trained hands, an understaffed medical facility and perhaps impart more advanced techniques to the existing staff.

She hit dead-ends at every hospital at which she inquired. What it seemed to come down to was that hospital directors feared having an American on staff would bring about hostility and make their hospital a target for retaliatory bombings.

In the course of her job search, the nurse observed conditions within the hospitals. Because there is a war being fought there, none of her observations come as much of a surprise. But, how much thought have any of us in this country, so fortunate to have the most cutting-edge of everything, given to what working in those conditions might actually be like? It’s easier to just not think of it.

The war has affected health care in Baghdad on every level. Hospitals, because of war-related injuries to civilians, are terribly overcrowded and having to treat horrific injuries without proper supplies and equipment. There is a shortage of everything. Most equipment was significantly outdated to begin with and, now, when equipment breaks down, it is virtually impossible to find anyone who can repair it, let alone replacement parts.

The hospitals are short-staffed, complicated by so many things going on in the city. Nurses often can’t get to work because of roadblocks that pop up as a reaction to terrorist acts and curfews that don’t exempt health workers.

The nurses who do manage to get to the hospital are assigned total care for 10 or more patients, a task made more daunting by entire large families crowding around the patient and impeding the nurses’ ability to do their jobs.

I know the US is not Iraq. We want, expect and deserve the best working conditions. We are spoiled. That’s not a criticism, just a fact. A fact I never even consider until I hear of the hardships under which nurses in other parts of the world must work. I’m not saying that forced overtime, understaffing and numbers of other issues aren’t important. They are. But, Iraqi nurses, no doubt, would gladly trade their problems for ours. The comparison certainly brings about a different perspective for me and I need that thump on the head from time to time.