When describing the year 2020, any analysis goes through the effects of the health and social crisis caused by the coronavirus. Faced with this pandemic, and when it comes to making an annual balance, the president of the Official College of Nursing of Córdoba, Florentino Pérez Raya, points out that “there is no doubt that 2020 has been strongly marked by the coronavirus pandemic, against which the Nursing profession has been placed from the first moment in the front line of battle, highlighting one more year our commitment and vocation of service to the care of the whole society ”.
And all this, he remembers, not always with the necessary means and in the best conditions, in a year in which “unfortunately, the coronavirus has prevented the development of all the initiatives that were planned on the occasion of the declaration of 2020 as the International Year of Nurses and Midwives ”.
-What have been the main problems that nurses in Córdoba have had to face during 2020?
-Unfortunately, at this point we have to remember the sad death as a result of the coronavirus of several professionals in Andalusia. In addition to these deaths, there have also been many professionals infected. On a professional level, among the main problems has been the evident lack of means with which the nurses had to face the onset of this pandemic, the shortage of means of protection and the use, in many cases, of faulty safety materials, together with at their own personal risk they still face. For this reason, from the Official College of Nursing of Córdoba we have not stopped denouncing and vindicating to all provincial, regional and national authorities, the need to provide more resources to our professionals. Likewise, and in the case of future nurses, we are also concerned about how the pandemic is affecting the training of Cordoba nursing students.
-What is your assessment of the work carried out by the Cordoba College of Nursing during the year that has just ended?
-In the framework of our functions and competences, we have continued to represent and be the voice of the more than 4,500 existing nursing professionals in Córdoba, as well as attending to their needs, requests and claims. On the other hand, the pandemic has prevented us from developing the usual training courses and workshops at our headquarters, which has forced us to offer this training virtually. And we have not been able to celebrate the usual tribute to retired members, which we will carry out as soon as possible. With regard to society, we have developed campaigns encouraging vaccination against the flu or offering advice and recommendations against covid-19, among other initiatives.
-The College continues to demand better working conditions and more resources and personnel for Nursing.
-In addition to a system that guarantees better professional and working conditions and fights against precariousness, at this point an important issue is the need to adapt the nurse-patient ratios, where Andalusia and Córdoba continue to be at the bottom of Spain. In Córdoba there are only 494 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants, just over half of the European average for neighboring countries and 46% lower than the ideal ratio of 917 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants considered by the WorldHealth Organization ( WHO). All this within the framework of an Andalusia that is the second Autonomous Community in the country with the lowest ratio. The Administration must understand that the quality of care that must be provided to citizens is at odds with the number of patients to be attended by each professional. Already at the private sector level, another of the problems that the covid has evidenced is the under-staffing in many nursing homes, along with clearly improved working conditions.
“The establishment of School Nursing must be a public health priority”
-Among other claims, also the implementation of the school nurse.
-Regarding the school nurse, from the Colegio de Córdoba we continue to urge the Ministry of Health and Families to the necessary implementation of this figure. A professional who must be integrated into the educational community and who would be in charge of assuming the care of children with chronic pathologies, education and health promotion activities, assistance to eventualities such as accidents or injuries to students and teachers, and who In these times of pandemic, they would also give a faster response to possible positive covid-19 cases. A School Nursing that would assume leadership in the prevention and health care of the school population. The establishment of School Nursing should be a public health priority.
-And with a view to 2021, what projects does the College have on the table?
-During 2021 we will continue to promote the profession in every way, giving a voice to nurses and making visible, among other issues, the need for better professional conditions and the increasing research work of professionals from Cordoba. We will continue working to guarantee the maximum protection of nurses against covid-19. Likewise, we will continue to advance in the project of the Cordovan Delegation of the NGO Solidaridad Enfermera, and we will always collaborate with the rest of the administrations that request it, such as, for example, the Córdoba City Council. All this without forgetting the training. And for both professionals and citizens, we will continue to demand improvements in some health infrastructures and the implementation of the promised third point of out-of-hospital emergencies in Córdoba capital. And we also want to open the School to society, for which we have various initiatives planned, such as a series of talks in high schools to raise awareness among young people about covid-19.
