THE lack of hazard pay, long working hours, low salaries and restrictions on compassionate leave top the list of complaints from Saudi nurses interviewed by Arab News.

For Um Sari, the main challenge is the lack of danger allowance. She wants to know if anyone is going to look after her interests if she becomes infected while treating a patient. “Today I was treating an AIDS patient. What happens if I get infected? This is something that they (the health authorities) do not pay attention to,” she says.

“We have been calling for a danger allowance for years and we have sent a request to authorities. It is my job at the end of the day and I have to do it, but what if a patient with AIDS or hepatitis comes to us. What would we do?”

The idea of “hazard pay” for nurses might be laughed at in other countries, but in such countries, if a serious work-related accident occurs, there is a well-structured compensation system. “A colleague of mine got infected with tuberculosis,” Salwa recounts. “They (her employer)s didn’t give her an allowance. What they did was to retire her.” She says that nurses like herself work “so close to patients” it puts them at risk of contracting an infection. If that happens, “there is nothing that preserves our rights,” she complains.

For her, if salaries were increased to take this into account and working hours shortened, nurses like herself “would have no problems at all” with the job.

Her colleague Abeer agrees, adding (somewhat tongue in cheek) that she is “OK with the salary, if our working hours are compatible to the low salaries we get.”

What the Saudi nurses call “long working hours” pose undoubted problems, especially for nurses who are married with children to look after. “I’m not like a nurse who comes from abroad, living in a dormitory, and has her food and clothes provided. We have to take care of our homes, our husbands and our social life,” says one Saudi nurse.

“We work night shifts, plus an average of nine-and-a-half hours every day. It is a real problem we face. How can I work so long and get only SR6,000 (a month) while teachers work far less hours and earn SR11,000,” she asks. “My family has nothing against the job itself but they do not agree with the long working hours.”

When asked if her colleagues have made any formal complaints about long working hours, Um Sari says the hospital where she works is well aware of them “but there has been no regulation issued to resolve the problem.”

For another nurse, the maximum of five days compassionate leave is a major problem. “We have a one month vacation but five emergency days. What if one of my children gets sick? Who is to look after him?” she asks.

“It is a good job, a humanitarian one, you feel close to people and their pains, you receive praise from patients. But we still face challenges. If they were solved, everything would be fair,” she adds but also says she does not want to be named for fear of retribution. There are also complaints about the way society views nurses. There is a strong sense they are held in low regard by the general public that only changes when people go to hospital and need a nurse. “Some people do not even change their views about us then,” comments another nurse. “They still believe we’re maids,” she says.

Such complaints do not, however, strike a chord with those in charge. According to officials, the problem is that nurses compare themselves to teachers who work far less hours and earn higher salaries.

Mohamad Al-Ahmari, general manager of the nursing department in the southern region, says that the system at the Ministry of Health as well as the Civil Service System ensures rights for nurses if they become infected as a result of work. “This is an issue that is present in the whole world and not only in the Kingdom,” he says, explaining that nurses receive treatment if they are infected just like any other employee. He also points out that, for years, the ministry has had regulations and procedures to prevent disease transfer at hospitals and health centers. “If procedures are followed there is no risk.” Asked if the health authorities are now looking into the nurses’ calls for “hazard pay,” he says that while it is there for other employees, such as lab workers, the amount paid is so low, just SR270, that it would be of no use if a nurse actually became infected.

Regarding long working hours, he feels that comparing nurses with teachers is misleading. It might be understandable but the valid comparison is between Saudi and non-Saudi nurses. The authorities have to treat Saudi women the same as non-Saudi nurses who, he points out, work without demands for hazard pay or any of the other complaints.