
Regional Emergency and Critical Care Systems Strengthening Initiative/ Facebook]
Women are leaving emergency medicine due to a lack of support at work.
This, according to Aspen Medical Assistant Director of Nursing Praneel Shankar.
Speaking at the Pacific Island Society for Emergency Care’s first meeting, Shankar recalled a female nurse who quit after giving birth because there were no breastfeeding facilities.
Praneel Shankar [Source: Regional Emergency and Critical Care Systems Strengthening Initiative/ Facebook]
He said cultural norms expect women to handle childcare, but the system must step up and help.
“Our culture is such in the Pacific that the females, the women, are entrusted to look after the children. That’s the culture. I know it’s biased. I know it’s unfair, but that is the culture. But we cannot change the culture. However, we can support it.”
[Source: Regional Emergency and Critical Care Systems Strengthening Initiative/ Facebook]
Shankar said, we can’t change Pacific culture, but we can support it.
He called for simple fixes like daycare or child-minding spaces in hospitals.
[Source: Regional Emergency and Critical Care Systems Strengthening Initiative/ Facebook]
Without these, he warned, more women will continue to leave the profession. He noted that more women are now enrolling in medical schools like the Fiji National University.
In time, the field may need to focus on retaining men.
Shankar said a stronger, fairer workplace will lift the whole health system.
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