Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight program. I’m Joshua Leo.
Voice 2
And I’m Rebekah Schipper. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 3
“I am excited about coming back, seeing my family and friends, eating Malawian food and seeing what has changed in the two years since I left. But I am worried about visiting the hospital.”
Voice 1
Today’s Spotlight is on a serious problem that faces our world today—the lack of health care workers.
Voice 2
Mary Ntata is from the country of Malawi, in Africa. She is a nurse. She trained to be a health care worker in the United Kingdom. After finishing her education Mary stayed in the UK to work. She travelled back to Malawi to see what the conditions are like for Malawian nurses.
Voice 1
Poor wages has resulted in shortages of nurses in Malawi. Many health care conditions are very poor. Here are some of Mary’s thoughts during her visit back to Malawi.
Voice 3
“We went to the main hospital in Lilongwe today. I followed a nurse named Khetase past a long line of women and children. We went to the children’s ward, the children’s part of the hospital. I was shocked by what I saw. The ward was dirty. The ward was so full with child patients and their guardians.
Many of the children shared a bed with another patient. This is on a ward where the children are seriously sick! One boy, Godfrey, lay very still on the floor with his head on his grandmother’s knee. He had acute diarrhoea. In the UK he would probably be on a drip. The drip would put fluids back into his body. But here there was not even a bed for him.
Another nurse, named Christine, took me to the women’s medical ward. All the beds were full. Women filled every area both inside and outside of the rooms. The women outside had to struggle against sickness and the weather, especially in the rainy season.
Nurse Christine was giving injections of medicine without wearing protective hand coverings. This was on a ward where at least thirty [30] percent of the patients have HIV. Christine only uses hand coverings with patients who have a highly infectious disease. She understands the risks to her own health. But she tries not to think about that. She feels it is her job to ease the suffering of the patients.
I visited a nursing college to meet people training to be nurses. Most of the students told me that they planned to work in the government hospitals when they finished school. But the students knew that the pay might not meet all of their needs.
The leader of the college told me that they only produce sixty [60] nurses each year. With more money they could produce more. But there is no money.
Nurse shortages are even worse than I expected. I saw how hard the nurses must work. They lack many medical resources. It is hard to understand how they can continue working. But they show a lot of spirit and commitment in almost impossible work situations.
Coming back to Malawi has made me understand how much this country needs my skills. It has made me firmly feel like I need to come back to help my people.”
Voice 2
The world is facing a serious lack of health care workers. This is not just a problem in Malawi. It is a problem that affects many parts of the world. However, the problem is greatest in countries with extreme poverty. These areas struggle the most against disease.
Voice 1
The World Health Organization, or the WHO, has a new report about the lack of health workers. According to the WHO, the world lacks four million [4,000,000] health workers. There are fifty–seven [57] countries that have a serious lack of health workers. Thirty–six [36] of those countries are in sub–Saharan Africa.
Voice 2
The WHO believes that the lack of health workers affects many areas of health care. Children are not receiving important vaccinations. They are not protected from disease. Women are not receiving good pregnancy care. Many women and children die during child birth. Diseases like HIV cannot be treated. And many people do not receive any health care at all. The WHO reports that over one billion [1,000,000,000] people worldwide lack even the simplest health care because there is no health worker present.
Voice 1
Developing countries face an even greater challenge. They lack good health care and health care workers. And, they also lose many of their trained health workers to other, more developed countries. These countries can offer the workers better pay. Often, the workers feel that moving to another country will give them a better life. Developed countries lack health workers too. They readily accept workers from other countries. However, this leaves developing countries facing a serious health crisis.
Voice 2
The WHO has developed a plan to aid this crisis. First, the organization believes that each country needs to improve health care. All countries need to educate and employ more health care workers. The WHO believes that there must be a greater number of health workers balancing the number of patients. Evidence shows that having more health workers helps in the survival of babies, children, and mothers.
Voice 1
Health care workers must have support from the government to succeed. So, the WHO urges national leaders to create plans to help their health systems. And developing countries need to receive support for their plans from international aid groups.
Voice 2
The WHO hopes that countries will invest more into their own health care systems. This is especially important for the fifty–seven [57] countries with the biggest shortage of workers. Countries should increase the amount of money for their health care systems.
Voice 1
Second, the WHO wants developed countries to create new policies. The policies would not let developed countries seek health workers from developing countries. The WHO’s report asks that Western countries stop taking health care workers away from developing countries.
Voice 2
The WHO believes that their plan could work. Following this plan, the crisis could be over within twenty [20] years.
Voice 1
At the beginning of this program we talked about Mary’s visit to Malawi. She now understands that Malawi needs her skills. She can help the health care crisis there. Your country needs you too. Support your health care system. Ask your leaders to make health care a main concern.
Voice 2
Health care is a human right. Help make it a right for everyone.
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