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Nurses Day observance sees rare gesture from Dean

May 13, 2021 06:13 am | Updated 06:13 am IST - COIMBATORE

He knelt and bowed before the nurses who are at the forefront of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

M. Raveendran, Dean of the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore, kneeling before nurses on Wednesday.

Senior nurses, who had gathered around the portrait of Florence Nightingale at the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore, on Wednesday were witness to a rare gesture by the head of the institution on International Nurses Day.

The hospital’s Dean M. Raveendran knelt and bowed before the nurses who are at the forefront of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“You [nurses] are inspiring this institution [in COVID-19 treatment]. We [doctors] prescribe the treatment. But you remain with patients and console them. Nobody else can do the work you do. You are doing a real divine service,” he said.

Hardly 20 senior nurses and officials from the hospital attended the nursing day observance as other nurses and doctors continued their duty in COVID-19 wards.

At the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, senior nurses observed the day in the presence of Dean A. Nirmala.

Meanwhile, sources said that both the medical college hospitals were functioning without adequate numbers of nurses to handle COVID-19 patients.

Manpower shortage

According to senior nurses, 150 to 200 nurses were handling COVID-19 cases at the ESI Hospital. CMCH has 314 nurses of which 98 are from the ESI Hospital on deputation. Recently nurses at the CMCH had urged authorities to appoint more nurses to tide over the manpower crisis.

As of Tuesday, CMCH and ESI Hospital had 866 and 680 COVID-19 patients under treatment. The hospitals are also having non-COVID inpatients.

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